http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblog...matio.asp#more
This squares with what little I know about the Red Army (primarily from Andrew Cockburn's The Threat) but I'd love to hear what more knowledgeable SWJ members (Stan?) think.
Ivan Embraces Transformation
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblog...matio.asp#more
This squares with what little I know about the Red Army (primarily from Andrew Cockburn's The Threat) but I'd love to hear what more knowledgeable SWJ members (Stan?) think.
Excellent link, Granite State.Yes, the Russians are not about low-level leadership, unit cohesion, training, tactics, or anything else along those lines in particular. Never have been, and I doubt ever will be in anything like the foreseeable future.
The Russians are above all about the operational level of war. There are few Armies that have ever matched, let alone surpassed the Russians' record of operational successes. The Russians were the first true masters of the Operational Art as they first developed it between the two World Wars. Even the Germans as a whole never really quite mastered Operational Art (although von Manstein himself was perhaps the ablest practitioner of the Operational Art of WWII).
I very much doubt that any attempt by the Russian Army as a whole to "Transform" along more Western-lines (with vaster greater focus upon the tactical-level) would be likely to succeed. Russian society and culture strongly militate against it.
...and they lost vast numbers of men doing it. The Russians may understand the Operational level, but they can only apply it at great cost. - millions of lives to defeat the Nazis.Originally Posted by Norfolk
Unless they have numbers the Russians are, like the Chinese, and North Koreans, mostly sub-capable. Numbers is the only think on their side.
"Talks Star Wars, Act Cave man"
Infinity Journal "I don't care if this works in practice. I want to see it work in theory!"
- The job of the British Army out here is to kill or capture Communist Terrorists in Malaya.
- If we can double the ratio of kills per contact, we will soon put an end to the shooting in Malaya.
Sir Gerald Templer, foreword to the "Conduct of Anti-Terrorist Operations in Malaya," 1958 Edition
And nuclear weapons.
So? Not that big a deal...
They just make a bigger bang, no more. Yes, there is radiation -- but there is also high cholestrerol; everybody's gonna die from something...
http://www.foi.se/upload/rapporter/f...capability.pdfWith its conventional forces Russia will be able to keep and increase its capability to
operate on parts of the Eurasian land mass. It will thus develop a considerable regional
power projection capability.
Eurasia Daily Monitor, 17 Jan 08: Moscow Resumes May Parades to Demonstrate Military Strength
Full-scale, Soviet-style military parades – with displays of tanks and other military hardware – will return to Red Square beginning May 9. The decision to resume this public display of military might was reportedly taken at a January 12 meeting of top Russian military leaders. The new Topol-M (SS-27) mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles will also roll past the reviewing stands near the Kremlin wall. The parade is timed to celebrate VE-Day, the end of the European portion of World War II.
The planned high-profile parade will apparently coincide with the inauguration of the next Russian president, presumably Dmitry Medvedev, whom Vladimir Putin has designated as his successor. Medvedev’s election on March 2 is a near certainty, since elections are a mere formality in the framework of Russia's imitation democracy, and the new president must be inaugurated during the first half of May. A public display of Russian armor and nuclear might is clearly a grand way to welcome Medvedev and to commend Putin, who has agreed to serve alongside Medvedev as prime minister. Its easy to imagine them both – Putin and Medvedev – standing side-by-side atop the reviewing stand in front of Vladimir Lenin's tomb, as the tanks and ICBMs roll by and jet fighters scream overhead – symbolizing the restoration of mighty Russia.....
http://freebeacon.com/silent-running/A Russian nuclear-powered attack submarine armed with long-range cruise missiles operated undetected in the Gulf of Mexico for several weeks and its travel in strategic U.S. waters was only confirmed after it left the region, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
It is only the second time since 2009 that a Russian attack submarine has patrolled so close to U.S. shores.
A scrimmage in a Border Station
A canter down some dark defile
Two thousand pounds of education
Drops to a ten-rupee jezail
http://i.imgur.com/IPT1uLH.jpg
Stay calm, spend wisely
Even if Bill Gertz is the author of the cited article (having left The Washington Times), the language is colourful, almost as if the Akula was at Kings Bay, not in the Gulf of Mexico:Plus a lot of jigsaw pieces all being added together - to support more defence spending. Such as the P-8, which has struggled to be sold:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_P-8_PoseidonThe latest submarine incursion in the Gulf...
Elsewhere on SWC and an ocean away in the South China Sea freedom of navigation for all is cited as under threat by China. The Russian Akula was just doing that, exercising in international waters; something of course the USN SSK never do of course.
Then Gertz adds:Similar flights by Bear bombers have been reported in the UK, but when examined closely the 'airspace' was not territorial airspace, but the UK air defence and civil aviation area - a very different legal concept, which has no standing in international law.A second, alarming air incursion took place July 4 on the West Coast when a Bear H strategic bomber flew into U.S. airspace near California and was met by U.S. interceptor jets.
Given Gertz's record for obtaining help from within officialdom, one can happily speculate whose best interests are served by this unconfirmed report.
davidbfpo
Yeah, and?
Gertz paints a pretty plain picture.
Perhaps Gertz is stumping for the ASW funding proponents, but it's not mutually exclusive to point out 1) that the Russians are getting back into the habit of flexing their muscles, and 2) a Russian sub sat on our doorstep twiddling it's thumbs for a month while 3) the USN leadership is engaged in sexual pattycakes and generally poor seamanship.The submarine patrol also exposed what U.S. officials said were deficiencies in U.S. anti-submarine warfare capabilities—forces that are facing cuts under the Obama administration’s plan to reduce defense spending by $487 billion over the next 10 years.
A scrimmage in a Border Station
A canter down some dark defile
Two thousand pounds of education
Drops to a ten-rupee jezail
http://i.imgur.com/IPT1uLH.jpg
Too true Wilf, and your ending quote pretty much sums up the essence of Russian Military Theory and Practice.
Here's what little I know !
Hey Granite State !
I missed my calling, but was otherwise engaged with 'honey do's'
Indeed corrupt and distrust just sort of comes with the territory. Even now, there’s little sign of formal discipline in any training, and no sense of responsibility among the officers and NCOs (more like no-fault insurance). Combine an all-conscript army with barely sub-standard living conditions and low wages; no wonder there’s an overall lack of will or incentive.
As the Estonian soldiers say, distrust is ‘that’ thin line drawn between Russian officers and enlisted…who gets the booty first, wins! The other favorite saying includes “eternally expendable Russian soldier“. Some of the ‘special’ troops are either loaned or assigned to assist and/or manipulate organized crime and sovereign countries. Typically an NCO can achieve our equivalent of E-9 in 5 years. During those arduous years, one has barely commanded a wheeled vehicle, yet alone troops.
IMO, Russia’s current political masters lack both the cultural understanding and political will to seek victory at home or abroad. They are rather content with increasing enemy body counts and civilian casualties (as in Chechnya). If I recall correctly, in early 2005 the Russian Defense Minister declared Russia having it’s first ‘all professional motor company’ (division) stationed in the Chechen Theater.
One would hope there’s more than just one
There are literally thousands of post-Soviet military here ‘turned entrepreneurs’ with no desire in returning ‘home’.
But for all their faults, they still manage (out of perhaps fear) to go where the Kremlin dictates.
This November article leads me to conclude that even Russia’s Flag Officers need a dictator and not a leader.
Just a smigin from the article, but indeed my favorite
Baluevsky was getting a little nervous waiting for the supreme commander. The tasks he had to fulfill were about to be given to him.
Putin did what Baluevsky needed. He set tasks.And finally, the Pres slams one homeThe usually tight-lipped Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov read a lengthy report. Rumor has it that Serdyukov is popular in his ministry, and I understood why as I listened to his nicely delivered half-hour report devoted to the new structure of Army financing and the problems of clothing and housing its soldiers and providing them with medical treatment. Only of the main tasks for 2008, he said, is “introducing a new standard of rations. And then every soldier will see the steps forward that have been taken in feeding them.” How could they not like him?
Serdyukov said nothing about military tasks ahead and mentioned only a few exercises as the accomplishments of 2007. In last year's report, defense minister at the time Sergey Ivanov was much more ambitious and spent a large part of his address on the challenges and successes of opposing the United States. Sources tell me that, in the text of his speech, there was written that “at present, the U.S. Army is undertaking a reconfiguration of its forced,” which cannot but cause the Russian military command serious concern. But he did not read that passage.
After the minister had taken his seat and Baluevsky looked as though he would announce a break, the president asked about the construction of the military hospital at Vilyuchinsk. No one was expecting the question.
“The hospital was supposed to be partially operational before your visit in September,” Serdyukov began hesitantly.
“And we didn't go there because what was supposed to be ready wasn't ready!” the president said, stumbling a little over his words. “So why?”
There was complete silence, for lack of volunteers for the suicide mission of answering the question. Officers never take those missions.
“Is our so-called chief doctor here?” the president asked.
It took a long time for Vladimir Shappo, the head of the military medicine division to reach the podium. He explained that “The medical service of the armed forces has made every effort to make the hospital operational.”
“If every effort had been made, Bykov wouldn't have been fired,” Putin replied, referring to the last chief doctor. “Since he was fired, it must not have been every effort. When will it be operational?”
“The hospital is practically ready now and will begin operating on November 30.”
“Why wasn't it done on time?” the president asked implacably. “You're new. Maybe you have a fresh view on things. I just want to know what prevented it from being done on schedule.”
Putin asked another general about the “stinking huts” he was building to house his soldiers and demanded that building standards be raised.
Disquiet in the Ranks
A True Father to His Troops, By Alexander Golts, Moscow Times Opinion Columnist
At first glance, it would seem that the Nov. 20 gathering of the military's top brass was filled with positive news only.
Putin emphasized the growing threat that the country is facing: "In violation of previous agreements, military resources of NATO members are being built up next to our borders. Of course, we cannot allow ourselves to remain indifferent to this obvious muscle-flexing."
We can only guess what he meant in referring to NATO's "muscle-flexing" on Russia's borders. Perhaps he meant the four jets that patrol the airspace of the Baltic states?Moreover, Putin decided to play the role of the caring "father to his troops."
According to script, the image of the caring father of the troops should be combined with a certain sternness that is suitable for the commander in chief. In this capacity, Putin fired the military's chief of construction, blaming him for the fact that officers are still living in "stinking slums."
Putin also staged a public dressing-down of a senior general over this same housing issue, despite the fact that the general was responsible for health care in the military and had no connection whatsoever with housing.
This is one example of how the commander in chief is increasingly alienated from the real state of affairs in the military.As we can see, there is nothing heroic here. Serdyukov is trying to put the army in at least some kind of order and to improve the way the armed forces are managed.
...Putin doesn't need the armed forces for the purposes of defending the country. He needs the military for public relations and propaganda purposes.
The Professional Army's Dead Souls
By Alexander Golts, Moscow Times Commentary
More at the linkJan. 1 was supposed to have been a defining moment for the armed forces. By this date, a federal program to switch a portion of the conscripted armed forces to professional contract duty was supposed to have been completed. The plan, which was initiated in 2003, emerged as a compromise between the Kremlin and the military's top brass.
If what the military officials claim is true about the success of the new professional units, it might be possible to congratulate the armed forces on even the most modest steps taken toward building a new and improved army.
Initial plans called for 144,000 sergeants and soldiers to switch to contract duty. Now the top brass are reporting only 100,000 soldiers on contract duty. At the same time, Colonel General Vasily Smirnov has said 20 percent of all sergeant and soldier positions needed for the new professional units remain "vacant."
The larger problem, however, is not so much the inadequate number of professional contract soldiers, but the terribly low quality of their services. ...Colonel General Alexei Maslov, commander of the Ground Forces, acknowledged: "In some aspects, they are no better prepared than corresponding units of conscripts."
...many servicemen were forced into signing contracts through the use of deceit, fraud, psychological pressure and physical violence.
In private conversations, high-ranking military officials admit that during the past year they have managed to recruit only enough new soldiers to replace those who have deserted.
If you want to blend in, take the bus
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