The Russian way of war

[shahadi]

Originally Posted by vyrago

Some interesting observations of how to defeat the Russian BTG. It also seem the overall Russian doctrine still relies upon echelons, only now as opposed to the Soviet style, those echelons are very close together. Using traditional air-land battle strategy of disrupting the 2nd echelon would be difficult to achieve. As pointed out in the article below, the BTG seems to be a smaller more fluid force but one that is designed around 2 basic principes:

1. reliance upon paramilitary forces to act as screening and security elements. example: use of DPR rebels or PMC mercenaries to 'shield' the BTG.


2. the BTG is designed to fight a weaker opponent. Ukraine essentially has a 1980s Soviet army and even still there is evidence of BTG not achieving stellar success against them.

I would not go so far as to assess the BTG as reliant upon paramilitary forces, as the article states up front that the author's conclusions are based upon the Ukrainian experience. Where supporting Russian Ukrainians against the central government plays.

There have been at least two large scale army exercises in the past several years: Vostok 2018 combining Chinese forces in September of 2018, and the Zapad 2017 exercises, on 23 August 2017. It maybe interesting to examine the literature on those exercises to glean how Russia might fight NATO.

Originally Posted by vyrago

As the US army points out, it seems unlikely that Russia would utilize BTGs against a NATO opponent. For time being, it seems likely that Russia would fall back to at least brigade formations, by which point much of the maneuver advantage enjoyed by a BTG would be lost or reduced. Of course all of this is debatable and its clear that Russia is moving away from the old ponderous Soviet juggernaut and into a more capable force. As Aeraaa so cleverly points out, they're trying to get 'inside' the NATO decision making loop. I agree that a BTG could likely do so when facing a NATO brigade, but its tendency to avoid risk and its numeric inferiority might delay that. I'm interested to hear other assessments.

https://www.benning.army.mil/armor/e...g/2Fiore17.pdf

Now, the BTG is a smaller force compared to a the US Brigade Combat Team by about a third. We should not expect a BTG to go toe-to-toe against a BCT, but rather to throw two or three BTGs at the one BCT. In that way, the Russian brigade retains a high degree of maneuver and a very good chance to shape the battle.

This article, presents us with several scenario ideas from the BTG battle summaries. Again, I would be hesitant to translate Fiore's conclusions here to a fight against a BCT.

Finally, the author is a captain preparing to earn his master's in business administration. He is a West Point grad with experience in armored brigade combat teams. He has held battalion S-3 (plans, and operations) responsibilities as well.

[Aeraaa]

Not want to open a new thread, so check this extremely interesting video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DpW9yaSXiI&t=1499s

[Suhiir]

Originally Posted by Aeraaa

Not want to open a new thread, so check this extremely interesting video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DpW9yaSXiI&t=1499s

From this we're told:
Russian Motorized Rifle Brigade =
3x Motorized Rifle Bn
1x Tank Bn
1x Anti-tank Bn
2x Artillery Bn
1x MLRS Bn
1x Engr Bn
Various support Bn's and Co's (Comm, Supply/Support, etc.)

LOTS of artillery (no surprise), the Russian overall tactic is to pound and area into dust with artillery then use their maneuver elements to clean up what's left and seize the terrain. Repeat as needed till you've won the war.

The Soviet Union had the worlds largest Air Force (in terms of numbers), the current Russian AF is the 5th. All "Area" SAMs are now part of the Russian Air Force.

The current Russian army is almost entirely a collection of independent Rifle Brigades, there are only (at the time this vid was released) two divisions in the Russian army, but divisions are currently being re-introduced into the military structure. It's anticipated that once divisions are re-introduced the independent brigades will become exploitation/counter-attack forces.

Russia is currently rebuilding their airborne forces, but it's primarily a tactical asset not a strategic one. I.E. they can grab a key bit of terrain not far behind the lines, but a massive airborne/helicopter of Denmark is out of the question.

Russian naval forces are pitiful, I guess that's what they'll rebuild next.

Logistically the Russians (like the Soviets) are very much tied to Mother Russia, and it's rail network (why railroad troops, i.e. rail repair units, are a major part of the Russian military). Small expeditionary forces (i.e. Syria) they can support, but anything larger is totally outside their capabilities.

The Russians still view ANY conflict with NATO as being a Norway to Turkey war, they don't anticipate anything "localized". And that future warfare WILL NOT be a lengthy conflict, your initial forces and reserves have to carry the day, there will be no time to train and equip new units. Soviet dreams of conquering Europe are not part of current Russian military thought. They still fear NATO invading them, I guess it's just part of the Russian psyche.

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Fun to put my analyst hat back on after so many years!