Editor’s Note: Soldiers in this story are stationed on the front and are identified only by their first name due to the nature of the information they are sharing. KHARKIV OBLAST – Fighting throughout Ukraine is grueling, even for hardened veterans. For inexperienced troops recently plucked from civilian life, it's
  • tal@kbin.socialOP
    1·
    10 months ago

    This was an obvious solution. Some of the soldiers here had been excited to go, thinking the training would help them become effective.

    In many ways, it had been.

    The infantry praised the physical training. Press officer Andriy Smiyan and his aide Oleksandr highlighted the life-saving power of tactical medicine training, widely practiced in the West but virtually unknown in Soviet-style armies.

    The training also comes with a full set of gear for each soldier.

    However, the same soldiers who spoke to the Kyiv Independent didn’t hide their scorn about how the training prepared them for a war that doesn’t exist in Ukraine. They said the NATO officers don’t understand the reality on the ground.

    “A NATO infantryman knows he’s supported and can advance with the confidence that there’s a high likelihood that he won’t be killed or maimed,” Ihor said.

    The NATO way of war calls for massive preparatory airstrikes and artillery barrages and demining before the infantry is sent in, he added.

    It usually doesn’t work that way in Ukraine.

    Yeah, I’ve seen a number of different sources basically make this point, that a lot of training focus in the US involves figuring out how to optimally make use of stuff like air superiority, stuff like not having friendly-fire incidents. The US is really good at getting and retaining air superiority, so a lot of what matters is how best to leverage that.

    A while back, I was watching this video of a couple of A-10 strikes in Afghanistan, with this in mind, and thinking “yeah, this is actually a really good example”.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-5KkadJWAY

    The soldiers here are not particularly concerned about the enemy shooting. They’re joking back and forth. The one guy who is deadly-serious is the controller directing the airstrike. Nobody is especially concerned about shooting back, though they’re fighting someone 200m away.

    What they are very worried about is being clobbered by the airstrike if the controller messes up where he’s sending the thing. That is, the overwhelming concern isn’t actually the other side, but friendly fire incidents. People don’t stick themselves up to shoot, but to get good video footage of the enemy being clobbered by the airstrike.

    The A-10 there wouldn’t be able to survive on the battlefield in Ukraine because of all the air defenses; those air defenses would need to first be destroyed for it to be doing what it is here.