The brigade was formed on 31 December 2014, and its battle flag presented on 17 January 2015 by the commander of the Northern Fleet, Admiral Vladimir Korolev. The brigade was formed to be the second specialized arctic brigade in the Arctic, along with its sister unit the 200th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade.[2][3][4][5]
It was reported by the newspaper Izvestia on July 4, 2023, that the 200th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade and the 80th Arctic Motor Rifle Brigade would merge to form a new motor rifle division, the first component of the 14th Army Corps' elevation into a combined arms army.[9]
In September 2024, Newsweek reported that the 80th Arctic Motor Rifle Brigade suffered 80 percent casualties around the Dnieper–Bug estuary the previous April.[10]
Composition
Many recruits tend to want to join these new "specialist units." The arctic brigades are significantly smaller than the Table of Organization and Equipment of other motor rifle brigades. These brigades also have new arctic equipment.[3][5][11][12][13][14]
Two sources in 2017 and 2020 give some of the following units as part of an Arctic motor rifle brigade:[6][12][13][15][16]
Brigade Headquarters
Commandant's Company (HQ Company)
Communications Battalion
Electronic Warfare Company
Reconnaissance Battalion
1st Arctic Motor Rifle Battalion
2nd Arctic Motor Rifle Battalion
Snipers Company
Self-Propelled Artillery Battalion
Anti-Aircraft Missile Battalion (other Motor Rifle Brigades (MRBs) can have a battalion)
Engineer Company (other MRBs can have a battalion)
Logistics Company (see above note)
Maintenance Battalion
Medical Company
CBRN Protection Company
UAV Company
Equipment
The brigade's transport equipment consists mainly of MT-LBVMK AFVs, articulated tracked vehicles like DT-10, DT-30 and TTM-4902,[17] snowmobiles A-1 and TTM-1901 "Berkut" with a heated cabin[18] and all-wheel drive Ural and KAMAZ trucks, adapted to extremely low temperatures.[19]
The brigade is also armed with 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzers.[20]
^Stepanenko, Kateryna; Bailey, Riley; Wolkov, Nicole; Barros, George; Evans, Angelica; Kagan, Frederick (1 July 2023). "Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, July 1, 2023". Institute for the Study of War. Retrieved 2 July 2023. The Russian MoD also demonstratively awarded servicemen of the 80th Arctic Motorized Rifle Brigade (14th Army Corps, Northern Fleet) - a unit within the Russian 'Dnepr' Group of Forces - for destroying Ukrainian military equipment in Kherson Oblast.
