As much as I hate to say it, I don't buy the whole "they were super experienced" line. Troops sent to a penal detachment strike me as looters and 'cowards', not sane individuals who tried to improvise. I would say just make them into cheap (200 or less MP) 'suicide' troops with team weapon Mosins (less DPS iirc) and the satchel ability, and make them fit only for "I want THAT unit dead" duty.
Do you want your pios dead? Do you want any of your squad dead? I don't. Maybe I would consider it if they were able to take a gun and immobilize panthers/elephants with that suicide of yours, other then that you need to play less spamcraft, baneling idea will not translate into CoH2.
Give me one reason why would I want a squad that performs worse then conscripts, arrives later, scales worse and is suppose to die.
One sane, logical reason.
Then we can move the SVTs to Guards as an upgrade and undo their silly "huehuehue PTRS team" getup.
Add a cheap (240 MP) four-man PTRS team with a pair of PTRS' to T2 as an anti LV option (note, this is still T2, so it's no worse than facing an ATG in terms of teching) to finally give the Soviets some reliable non-doctrinal HHAT. Guards become ranged AI elites, while shock troops are your CQB go-tos.
You're drifting into the realm of dream wishes. Nothing like that will ever happen.