The Russian military leadership prefers protecting main battle tanks over infantry. This conclusion was made by the defenders of Ukraine, who during the hostilities discovered one of the military benefits of the occupiers, which outlines the new tactics of the Russian army.
These materials suggest that the enemy is introducing new offensive tactics to compensate for the current limitations in combat power in response to continued offensive failures.
Earlier, the American Institute for the Study of War ISW noted that Russian troops are introducing new assault tactics.
Assault units may be able to achieve tactical advantages through their simplicity, but are likely to lose ground quickly due to their small size and attrition tactics. Russian troops are unlikely to be able to quickly make operationally significant breakthroughs with the help of this formation, summed up ISW analysts.
At the same time, a reserve officer of the Ukrainian Armed Forces posted a photo of the mentioned manual, which details the tactics of the newly created “assault squad”, which is a battalion-sized unit optimized for a frontal attack on fortified areas. Such an assault squad consists of six T-72 main battle tanks, 12 infantry fighting vehicles, as well as a collection of man-portable thermobaric multiple rocket launchers, anti-tank guided missile systems, towed artillery and self-propelled mortars. This unit consists of three assault companies.
The ISW indicated that each assault company had a command element, two assault “platoons” (platoon numbers much lower than usual), a drone group, an armored combat vehicle (IFV) group, a fire support platoon and an artillery support platoon, a reserve squad and a medical squad. . Each company has one tank and four infantry fighting vehicles BMP / BMD-2 with anti-tank installations, heavy machine guns and mortars. The Ukrainian reserve officer noted that assault “platoons” of 12-15 people, divided into tactical groups of three, are the main maneuvering elements of the formation. The air assault squad is allegedly supposed to carry out an assault less than a minute after the start of shelling of open fortified positions, the platoon commander directs mortar fire, the soldiers, divided into tactical groups of three, are the main maneuvering elements of the formation.
The Ukrainian reserve officer noted that this new tactical formation is evidence that Russian forces have replaced the inactive battalion tactical group (BTG) with these smaller and more agile maneuver formations.
Source: Racurs
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