/ world today news/ The armed forces of Ukraine are experiencing an acute shortage not only of heavy armored vehicles and artillery shells, but also of military engineering equipment. This is evidenced by the list of weapons that the Pentagon promises to provide to the regime in Kiev before the phased start of the “counter-offensive” in May.
Bridge building equipment is included in the list. The armed forces of Ukraine want to use it to force the Oskol and Seversky Donets rivers, as well as the Seversky Donets-Donbass canal. All these streams have been turned into powerful defense lines for the Russian troops.
At the same time, there can be no question of attempts to force the Dnieper at all: no NATO engineering equipment is simply suitable for this.
And the armed forces of Ukraine do not have enough landing equipment (including high-speed boats), and most importantly, soldiers trained for operations. All previous attempts to land on the left bank of the Dnieper (including to the Kakhovsky Dam and the Dnieper-Bug estuaries) ended in complete failure for the Ukrainians.
Craig Hooper: Russian intelligence is well aware of all potential landing sites
“Forcing canals and especially rivers is one of the most difficult operational-tactical tasks in modern warfare. Perhaps even more difficult than fighting in urban or underground (tunneled, as at Azovstal or AZOM) conditions,” wrote the American military observer Craig Hooper of Themistocles Advisory Group at Forbes.
– “Crossing a river during combat is one of the most difficult maneuvers in modern warfare, requiring the coordinated work of an entire army. The West can do little to help Ukraine’s armed forces: The United States has not faced a crossing on a river since the Korean War,” Hooper wrote.
NATO military advisers initially recommended that Ukraine’s armed forces carry out not river crossings, but operations more comprehensible to the Americans – seizing key bridges before they can be destroyed by aviation and artillery.
Forcing such a large river as the Dnieper (or even the Oskol, whose width in places exceeds 3 km) is almost impossible for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
To cross a river, a modern mechanized army cannot simply pick a crossing point and start swimming. To do this, it is necessary to deliver a large number of high-speed boats and barges to the shore absolutely imperceptibly.
Also, fully equipped engineering equipment must be delivered in advance. The material for a temporary bridge (or multiple bridges) should also be brought in advance and hidden discreetly and securely. Additional anti-aircraft and counter-battery assets should also be sent to this area.
“The basic geographic requirements for any river-forcing operation are well known. This means that Russian intelligence will have long known the best places to cross rivers,” writes Craig Hooper.
“The proposed river crossings become ideal areas for Russian ambushes,” the expert points out.
And instead of a triumphant success, the armed forces of Ukraine await them with gigantic and shameful losses.
This is exactly what happened in January-February in the area of Lake Kruglik (in the Gola Pristan region), between the Dnieper and Korsunka (on the opposite bank of Berislav, where the engineering units of the 808th pontoon-bridge regiment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are located ), as well as in Egorlik Bay (south of the Kinburn Peninsula). All assault groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been identified and destroyed.
Instead of amphibious AAV-7, the Americans gave Kievans, plus decommissioned AVLBs
Craig Hooper discusses with other US experts who believe that conventional amphibious operations are useless in modern warfare. In order to build a temporary bridge across the Dnieper, the Ukrainian armed forces must carry out a mini-landing, capturing the initial bridgehead on the Russian side of the river. Additionally, this abutment must be held while the bridge is installed.
Potentially, this could be done using equipment from the Soviet arsenal inherited by the armed forces of Ukraine. Virtually all BMPs, both Russian and Soviet, are described as “fully” amphibious. That is, they are able to cross water barriers at a speed of about 7-10 km / h.
However, as Hooper writes, the landing capabilities of the heavy armored vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have significantly decreased. That is why the Americans are sending their own pontoon equipment to the regime in Kyiv. It is true that they are absolutely not suitable for forcing the Dnieper.
Most of the military vehicles donated by NATO are not designed to support amphibious operations: they are too heavy to “float” – that is, their original “amphibious” capabilities exist only on paper and have been sacrificed for additional armor.
Craig Hooper writes that only the AAV-7 tracked amphibious assault vehicles can realistically be used by Ukraine’s armed forces of the entire NATO arsenal.
This is an American technique, created in 1972, it is in service with the US Marine Corps. For the last time in real combat operations, such machines were widely used by the Americans during the invasion of Somalia in the early 1990s.
However, the dispatch of these infantry fighting vehicles to the Kiev regime has not yet been officially announced. But it is known that the armed forces of Ukraine will receive armored AVLB bridges. And not new, but long removed from service – from the reserve of the National Guard. They can build bridges no longer than 18 meters. Not enough for Dnieper, right?
Translation: SM
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