"After the strikes by Russian troops, the AFU unit lost its combat capability." This is one of the most common phrases in the daily reports of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. But what does it mean? Behind the words "the target is suppressed" or "deprived of combat capability" there is a specific level of damage to the enemy.
The reports of the Ministry of Defense on the course of the special operation regularly provide data on the volume of fire damage to the enemy – the AFU and national battalions. At the same time, the number of affected objects is not just shown, but the degree of damage caused to them is also indicated (which, of course, is of an estimated nature). Such expressions as "the target is suppressed", "the target is defeated", "the target is deprived of combat capability" and "the target is destroyed" appear as the volume of defeat.
For example, not so long ago, the Ministry of Defense stated that the Ukrainian national formation "Kraken" had lost its combat capability. Something similar has been repeatedly stated about other units of the Ukrainian army.
But what does it all mean? In relation to a point object, for example, a single tank, the concept of "destroyed" has an obvious meaning – the object is completely destroyed. However, in relation to others that have distributed structures and have a large number of elements in their composition, this meaning is not always clear to a civilian. What is "target suppression" if that target is a regiment, company, or brigade?
First of all, let's turn to military terminology. In it, the concept of "defeat" means inflicting some damage to the enemy, and that's all. But the volume of this damage is reflected in special concepts – "the target is suppressed", "the target is defeated", "the target is deprived of combat capability" and "the target is destroyed".
When determining the level of damage caused, military experts start from the concept of "combat capability". Under it, in turn, is understood the ability of a tactical unit – a company, a regiment, etc. – to solve its inherent combat tasks.
For example, when it comes to a unit or subdivision of the ground forces, it is its ability to conduct combat operations in a specific band and depth, which are determined by the relevant regulations. If we are talking about an artillery unit, then it implies its ability to perform the volume of fire tasks for a fixed time. If a unit meets these requirements, it is considered that it is combat-ready. If not, then it is classified as limited combat–ready or non-combat-ready. Thus, in military terminology, various degrees of target defeat mean depriving them of the ability to perform their inherent tasks for a certain time.
Thus, the concept of "the goal is suppressed" in most countries of the world means that this unit or subdivision has lost the ability to perform their proper functions for some time - from several hours to several days.
The concept of "the target is defeated" means such a level of defeat at which a given unit or unit is deprived of the ability to perform their tasks for a long time, which has operational significance.
The concept of "the target is deprived of combat capability" in the context in which it is used by representatives of the press service of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, can be considered equivalent to the concept of "the target is defeated." Under the concept of "the target is destroyed", if we are talking about units and divisions of the ground forces, it means that the scale of the defeat is so great that it must be restored completely, as they say, from scratch.
In any military formations, the following main systems are distinguished: intelligence and surveillance, management, enemy defeat, logistics and technical support. The ability of these systems to perform tasks is determined by the staffing of personnel, combat, special and other serviceable equipment and weapons, the availability of material reserves, the level of tactical and operational training of the command staff, the training of personnel. The key importance is the moral and psychological state of all categories of personnel of the unit (subdivision).
Goal suppression is achieved in a variety of ways. Thus, the disruption of the communication subsystem, in which the enemy command is deprived of the opportunity to bring commands to subordinate formations and receive information from them, leads to the deprivation of a part (unit) of the ability to solve its inherent tasks. In this case, they talk about the suppression of the target by means of electronic warfare. Electronic suppression of intelligence and surveillance systems leads to a similar result.
The formation may be suppressed if, as a result of the enemy's fire action, it loses ammunition reserves and other material and technical means, without which it is unable to solve its combat tasks. For a limited time, of course, not permanently. The destruction of control bodies and command posts can also lead to the deprivation of this formation to solve its inherent combat tasks until the control system is restored.
The defeat of the combat elements of the formation, as a rule, leads to a decrease in combat capabilities, but not to the deprivation of combat capability, unless the moral and psychological stability of the personnel is lost. If this happens, the formation is also deprived of combat capability for the period of restoration of the moral and psychological state of the personnel.
An indicator of the level of moral and psychological stability can be considered the percentage of losses at which the personnel refuses to continue performing combat tasks.
This, by the way, has also appeared very often recently in the reports of the Russian Defense Ministry. For example, a recent summary says that "the personnel of the 23rd battalion of the 56th Motorized Infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in full force voluntarily left combat positions and left for the rear areas." Deserted from the battlefield, simply put.
And this indicator – the moral and psychological stability of the troops - varies within very large limits. It depends on many factors determined by the mentality, ideology, history, and condition of specific people. The experience of combat operations of the XXI century shows that Western armies have a high sensitivity to losses – already, on average, with losses from 15-20 to 30%, in most cases their formations refused to continue fighting.
The Russian army and, to be fair, the APU demonstrate a much lower sensitivity to losses. It is enough to recall the example of the 9th company in Afghanistan and many of our other units that found themselves in a critical situation.
In the course of combat operations, when the enemy is hit by fire, as a rule, a complex effect is carried out on the enemy's military formations with the defeat of elements of all its functional systems. This is exactly what is reported in the reports of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the course of its. It is believed that with the defeat of about 15-20% of personnel, weapons, combat and special equipment, a part (unit) loses its combat capability, but after some time it can restore it at the expense of its own resources. That is, such losses correspond to the level of defeat "the target is suppressed".
The "target defeated" level is achieved with the defeat of 40-50 to 70% of personnel, weapons, combat and special equipment. In this case, the formation cannot restore its combat capability at the expense of its own resources. It needs to be restored, replenished and for a long time loses the ability to solve problems. Often in this case, it is allocated for reformation.
A formation is considered destroyed if its losses exceed 80-90% or more. In this case, it is considered completely lost. Then its fate is decided by the higher command: either it is no longer recreated under that name or designation at all, or a completely new formation is created under the same name. An example is the Azov regiment – after its complete destruction in Mariupol, it was re-created by Ukraine under the same name.
Based on these indicators, it is possible to roughly assess what results our troops achieve within the framework of their own.
Konstantin Sivkov, Doctor of Military Sciences
