Sunday, 10 March 2019

A Long Way: Russian Military Reform – Part 1/3

A soldier of  76th Guards Air Assault Division of Russia’s Airborne Forces (VDV)
by Patrick Truffer (originally published in German). He has been working in the Swiss Armed Forces for more than 15 years, holds a bachelor’s degree in public affairs from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH Zurich), and a master’s degree in international relations from the Free University of Berlin. - From the introduction of the original page @offiziere. Please follow here to access the article in English.

Monday, 4 March 2019

Attack of a battalion sized Task Force

to seize key terrain airfield Langenlebarn and Danube-bridge Tulin South after airborne operation with main focus on the capabilities Deployment and Sustainability” researches the following topic: Which kind of mobility needs a battalion sized airborne unit of the Austrian Armed Forces to seize key terrain with a preliminary attack after airborne operations and to hold the area for more than 48 hours until follow-on troops will relief in place? The author’s (Oberstleutnant Bernhard Schulyok) research interest was based on the challenge to analyse the structure of 25 Infantry Battalion as only airborne unit of the Austrian Armed Forces, concerning the capability to carry out an airborne assault and to describe needed further development. 

Saturday, 23 February 2019

The Gerasimov Doctrine | What is it all about?

Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces - First Deputy Minister of Defense, General of the Army Valery Gerasimov
Lieutenant-Colonel A.J.C. Selhorst, Royal Netherlands Army, in his article describes it as follows: "In recent years Russia has conducted operations in several former Soviet states to establish a sphere of influence in those countries, prevent NATO and the EU from expanding and protect Russian interests and ethnic Russian minorities abroad. Moscow uses the Russian Federation Armed Forces (RFAF), which have developed a way of war that goes way beyond the use of military hardware alone. The Chief of the General Staff of the RFAF, General Valery Gerasimov, was the first to describe a framework for the new operational concept to achieve the objectives of Moscow’s near-abroad policy." Another monograph, The Gerasimov “Doctrine” The day the West started to fight its own shadow, by Colonel Soenke Marahrens,  provides us with an in depth analysis of General Gerasimov’s article “The value of science in prediction” from 2013. And, last but not least, the thoughts of Major Andrew J. Duncan, Canadian Armed Forces on the same subject.