Department of Technical Support of Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection: History and Modernity

Abstract

The Department of technical support of radiation, chemical and biological protection was formed in 1972. Its first name was the Department of operation and repair of means and armament of Chemical troops and means of protection. The work on the creation of the Department was headed by candidate of military sciences, Colonel Lev Nikolaevich Ilyin, currently doctor of military sciences, Professor, full member of the Academy of Military Sciences, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, Major General (ret). L.N. Ilyin headed the Department until 1991. The Department conducts classes in 8 academic disciplines, and also carries out exploratory and applied research in several areas of military sciences. In addition, the teaching staff of the Department participates in conducting classes on their topics at other Departments. Since 2020, the Department has been preparing drivers of category «C» for the NBC Protection troops. The scientific school of L.N. Ilyin is successfully developing at the Department. Certain areas of fundamental and applied research of the Department, p.ex. the theory and practice of organizing the technical support of NBC protection in operations, as well as determining and creating stocks of means and armament of NBC protection at the tactical, operational and strategic levels, are of particular relevance to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. For all the years of the existence of the scientific school of L.N. Ilyin five doctors and eighty-two candidates of sciences were trained. Representatives of the Department were directly involved in the aftermath of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in the fighting in the Republic of Afghanistan, the Chechen Republic and the Syrian Arab Republic. Many of them have received government awards. From 2012 to the present, Igor Dmitrievich Blokhnin, candidate of military sciences, Associate Professor, Professor of the Academy of Military Sciences, has been the head of the Department of technical support of radiation, chemical and biological protection. Based on historical facts, the article analyzes the main stages of the formation and the development of the Department of technical support of radiation, chemical and biological protection as one of the main structural units of the Military Academy of Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection named after Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. Timoshenko