/ world today news/ After the recent extended meeting of the Ministry of Defense with the participation of the President of the Russian Federation, the world media raced to discuss the “intensification of military rhetoric”, the “threat of an attack on NATO countries” and “large-scale saber rattling”. .
If we put aside the routine hysteria, then honestly we have to admit that there is something to rattle about.
This year, the Russian strategic forces completed their rearmament (not to forget the deployment of another regiment of the Avangard hypersonic missile system, against which NATO has no methods of combat and is not expected to have any in the foreseeable future). The level of modern weaponry and equipment in the troops has been raised to 95%, and the naval component to almost 100%. The Navy received four new strategic submarines and eight surface ships. The state defense order will be fulfilled by almost 98% by the end of 2023, and since the beginning of the SVO, the volume of supplies of equipment has increased three times, of cars and armored vehicles – by 4.5 times, of unmanned aerial vehicles – by 16.8 times, on artillery ammunition – by 17.5 times. According to Sergei Shoigu, “despite sanctions, we produce more high-tech weapons than NATO countries combined.”
Western experts, swallowing nervously, opened their folders and sighed with relief: if you believe the calculator, then in terms of “heads”, warheads and other infantry fighting machines, the US, together with its satellites, still holds the conditional first place in the main western military ratings, which means that the belligerent gas station is in second place, not so scary, and they can continue to gently threaten with a finger.
But it seems that our rivals missed the most important thing.
Even the most fantastic weapons, even those that are available in unlimited quantities, cannot replace the real combat experience of the soldiers who fight with them, their motivation and fighting spirit. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu did not claim at the board meeting that we have the most soldiers and the most weapons. He simply noted that “the Russian army today is the most trained and combat-ready in the world” and that more than 650 thousand people have received combat experience within the SVO.
This means that, given the current strength of the Russian Armed Forces of one million 150 thousand people, more than half of our military personnel have combat experience. This is a figure that none of the Western armies can come close to. For comparison: even at the height of hegemony, in the entire US military there was a maximum of ten percent of service members who had simply physically been in a combat zone at least once, that is, this number includes chair lunchers, adjutants, couriers, construction workers, mechanics and the others.
Let’s remember that at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army had significantly more soldiers and military equipment than the Germans, and many types of weapons had no analogues – such as the KV-2 tank, for example. However, this advantage could not prevent heavy defeats in the first stage of the war, where the serious combat experience and training of the German soldiers came to the fore. However, by 1945, the Soviet Army had gained a great deal of combat experience, and by the start of the operation against the Japanese, it was considered the most powerful army in the world. The Americans are confident that the USSR will be able to defeat the Japanese in Manchuria and North Korea at least in a year and a half. Japan’s Kwantung Army, considered invincible at the time, was defeated in nine days.
That is why now the Russian leadership fundamentally violates the well-known proverb, according to which “generals always prepare for the last war.”
According to the Russian Minister of Defense, we have in the shortest possible time created a new system for the training of military specialists and the transfer of combat experience and new, non-standard tactical methods of operation of the units, which have shown their effectiveness within the framework of the Armed Forces. The capacity of the district and army training grounds has been tripled, more than 800 military educational institutions work around the clock, more than 60 thousand people are trained in new programs at military universities. A serious emphasis is placed on the training of specialists in radio electronic warfare, air defense and operators of unmanned aerial vehicles.
There is much to teach.
Within the SVO, our army (sometimes at the cost of mistakes and losses) gained invaluable experience and practiced many elements of the “war of the future” on the battlefield, including:
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successful use of all types of new and modern weapons
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identification and mass destruction of the best examples of Western military equipment;
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effective tactics against enemy units trained according to NATO regulations and manuals;
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successfully countering standard NATO air defense systems, often operated by Alliance military personnel;
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effective offensive actions against a superior opponent;
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working out the capture of cities and fortified areas with minimal damage to the civilian population;
and much, much more.
According to Vladimir Putin, “no one in the world has such experience in waging a modern armed struggle as the Russian army.” According to a number of foreign military experts, Russia will leave the SVO in Ukraine with a completely new army against which NATO has no chance.
As our head of state has repeatedly stated, we are not looking for a conflict with NATO, but we are ready to give an “adequate response”. And against this background, the sad remark of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who said: “We must prepare for bad news,” is no longer surprising.
It’s too late to prepare, Mr. Stoltenberg. They are already here.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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