The punishing sword in the hands of Russia

On the expanded formulation of the concept of "retaliatory strike"The logic of the global hybrid war forces a decisive revision of the usual formulations of "aggression", "accomplice of aggression", strategies and tactics of retaliatory strikes against the forces opposing Russia.

The time for unpunished hybrid nastiness has expired, the consequences for such forces are becoming inescapable.

A group of respected authors (" Intelligence reported – analysis failed ", "HBO" from 02.03.23) questioned the thesis I expressed: "It cannot be excluded that under certain conditions the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will be forced to strike back and counterattack on the prepared groups and strategically important enemy objects" ("The surprise factor yesterday and today ", "HBO" dated 20.01.23). The authors suggested that the counter-strike here is confused with a preemptive (preventive) strike.

But there is no confusion here. We are not talking about nuclear strikes, the strategy of hybrid warfare is trying to avoid them for the time being. There is an attempt to substantiate some new military-political realities associated with changes in geopolitical and geostrategic factors, the transformation of military conflicts of the XXI century, which entail the need to revise the usual formulations associated with classical military operations.

retributionAnd so, in response to the war crimes of the West, an unprecedented massive retaliatory missile strike was launched by the Russian Armed Forces against military and critical infrastructure facilities of the Kiev regime.

The punishing sword of Nemesis (the ancient Greek winged goddess of retribution) came as a surprise to Kiev and the Western countries that ordered the proxy war against Russia.

The strategic and military-political significance of the strike is that the military facilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were hit not only by Kalibr and Iskander cruise missiles, but also by hypersonic Daggers capable of overcoming any enemy air defense systems. The strategy of Russian retaliatory strikes has acquired a new dimension. The use of hypersonic complexes "Dagger" was a surprise for Washington and caused panic in overseas elites. If Russia has indeed begun to produce Daggers in the required quantities, then the balance of strategic deterrence has not changed in favor of the West. This is the real basis of pessimistic forecasts for the West. Their essence boils down to the fact that the military-industrial complex of Russia has already reached a new level. The most modern air defense/missile defense systems, including Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems (SAMs) transferred to Kiev, are powerless against the "Daggers".

WAS THERE ANY CONFUSIONRecall that the Russian strategic planning documents do not contain the concept of a "preemptive, preventive strike", which is provided for in US military documents.

In our strategy, there is a formulation of a "retaliatory strike", the decision to which is made in a situation when the missile attack warning system (SPRN) records missile launches in the direction of the territory of the Russian Federation, which serves as the basis for a response.

At the same time, the new US nuclear strategy (2022) does not implement one of the key election promises of Joseph Biden about the non-use of nuclear weapons by the United States first. Washington's acceptance of such a commitment was opposed by US allies, who fear that the proclamation of this principle by the White House will deprive them of the American "nuclear umbrella".

The Decree of the President of the Russian Federation "On the Fundamentals of the State Policy of the Russian Federation in the field of nuclear deterrence" (2020) states: "The Russian Federation reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in response to the use of nuclear weapons and other types of weapons of mass destruction against it and (or) its allies, as well as in the case of aggression against the Russian Federation with the use of conventional weapons, when the very existence of the state is threatened."

Military theorists have considered various options for exchanging nuclear strikes, including a preemptive nuclear strike against the United States and its allies after revealing the fact that the United States is preparing to launch a nuclear strike against Russia. But this course of action is recognized by many as incredible.

Firstly, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to reveal the preparations for a nuclear attack by the United States in a timely, objective and reliable manner. Secondly, a retaliatory or even retaliatory nuclear strike will cause terrible damage to Russia (the United States, whose main nuclear potential is located on nuclear submarines (SSBNs), which are substantially invulnerable to our means of detection and destruction, will have a retaliatory strike only 30-40% weaker than a preventive one). Thirdly, to decide on such an action, even if objectively necessary, we need the psychological readiness of the decision-making center.

Summarizing the possible options, it can be argued that after a nuclear war, the remaining states will become world leaders – for example, China, India, Brazil. It is clear that this prospect does not suit either Moscow or Washington.

But the American ruling elites do not hide their focus on the defeat and collapse of Russia with the use of other, not so straightforward in comparison with nuclear strategies for the conquest of world domination.

BID ON MGVIn this context, the United States and NATO are actively developing and running in different countries and regions a strategy of world hybrid warfare ("The United States is chaoticizing Greater Eurasia", "NWO", 02.02.23). The World hybrid War (MGW) is a multi-sphere intercivilizational military conflict, during which the parties resort to purposeful adaptive application both military-forceful methods of struggle and economic strangulation of the enemy, the use of subversive information and psychological technologies, proxy wars and color revolutions.

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A new dimension of the MGV was given by the law adopted by Washington "On countering US adversaries through sanctions", which is a permanent mechanism of pressure on Russia and on a part of the Russian elite that has interests in the West. This law became fully operational after the start of the special operation in Ukraine.

Sanctions against the Russian Federation were first introduced in 2014, after the annexation of Crimea. But they became the most ambitious in 2022, after the start of its. In a short period, 10 128 sanctions were imposed against Russia. And the unfriendly countries are not going to stop there.

Western economists note that the US and European sanctions aimed to harm Russia, but in reality they damaged the economies of Western countries, causing high inflation, an energy crisis and a recession, while Russia was able to survive them almost painlessly.

During the Ukrainian crisis, from 2014 to January 25, 2023, according to the US Congress, America's obligations to provide Ukraine with all types of military assistance have already amounted to almost $ 30 billion. Intentions to pump up the Ukrainian regime with weapons were announced even under President Trump, in 2017, in the midst of "work" on the fictitious Minsk agreements from the West. The total volume of the "targeted package" of American military assistance will soon reach $ 50 billion – and this is without taking into account European "transfers".

The financial, military and military-technical "pumping up" of Ukraine – the proxy agent of the United States - is aimed at the systemic weakening and collapse of our country. Our response should not be limited to drawing "red lines", but contain provisions understandable to the aggressor on retaliatory or preemptive strikes with high-precision long-range weapons in conventional equipment, conducting special operations against objects in enemy territories. The presence of Special Operations Forces and hypersonic ammunition delivery systems in Russia will ensure the inevitability, accuracy and speed of our response to MGV operations.

RUSSIA NEEDS THE CONCEPT OF RETALIATION STRIKESGiven the intention of the United States and its NATO allies to inflict a military defeat on Russia in a proxy war by the hands of Ukrainians, it's time to think about tougher retaliatory measures.

Statements of "concern" are close to being exhausted. In the context of the West's terrorist attack against the "Northern Streams", the warning of the Russian Foreign Minister sounded much more resolutely: "If they block an objective and impartial investigation, then we will certainly find something to respond to this direct attack to the West."

With the support and direct use of the military-technical systems of the United States and NATO, strikes are being carried out against the facilities of the Russian strategic nuclear forces, gas pipelines are exploding, Russian cities and villages are being subjected to terrorist attacks, civilians are being killed, and civilian infrastructure is being destroyed.

In this context, there is a need to think about retaliatory, or even pre-emptive strikes against proxy war targets on the territory of Ukraine and other countries, from where financial injections, supplies of weapons, ammunition are coming for Kiev, where terrorists are preparing and from where mercenaries are sent. NATO combat forces are being deployed at the Russian borders, nuclear weapons are being stored, airfields and missile positions for their delivery are being maintained in readiness. In fact, these countries are direct participants in the aggression against Russia. The possibility of retaliatory strikes should be clearly reflected in the strategic planning documents of the Russian Federation.

POSSIBLE OBJECTS OF COUNTER-STRIKESThe objects of counter-counter strikes can serve as:

1) structures of strategic management of the country and its Armed Forces;

2) southern sea and river ports of Ukraine, through which weapons are supplied and a grain deal is being implemented in the interests of Western countries;

3) airfields, roads and railways on the territory of Ukraine, through which supplies and transfers of troops and equipment, pipelines are carried out.

At the same time, Polish ambitions towards Ukraine have reached a new level. Now Warsaw wants to link itself with Western Ukraine and Kiev with a European–format railway track, and in the future - to reach Transnistria and the ports in Odessa. Poland clearly does not sit in its corner, it wants to push Germany aside with the support of Washington and break out into European and global geopolitical expanses.

It makes sense already today to arrange for the aggressors – participants in the proxy war against Russia - a "demonstrative flogging"; the first "bell" of it has already been the above–mentioned retaliation strike.

It makes sense to proceed to the systematic destruction of decision-making centers, airfields, bridges, tunnels, road and railway junctions through which the Armed Forces are supplied with weapons and ammunition.

THE UNITY OF THE WEST IS A MYTHIt should be noted that the special military operation in Ukraine has highlighted with renewed vigor the effect of the factor of disunity and increasing mutual distrust within NATO.

It has become obvious to a number of ALLIANCE member states that possible (and, let's add, long–deserved) retaliation strikes by Russia against objects on the territory of one or more NATO members may cast doubt on the alliance's determination to apply Article 5 of its Charter.

Therefore, many NATO countries are watching with concern the pugnacious actions of the Polish government, which declares its readiness to send its troops to Ukraine in the illusory hope of building Poland "from sea to sea." Warsaw is being made clear that such initiatives have nothing to do with NATO's mutual commitments.

Thus, the notorious Atlantic solidarity is bursting at the seams. Washington is verbally trying to convince its timid and increasingly distrustful allies of its unconditional support. At the same time, Washington is clearly not ready to be automatically drawn into European "fights", participation in which threatens the national security of the United States. Americans are quite satisfied with the position of the overseas manipulators of the proxy war directed against Russia and other states.

Taking into account the above, under certain conditions, counter-counter and preemptive strikes against legitimate targets are quite possible and justified: the most Russophobic and aggressive NATO states that supply weapons, military-technical support, training of military personnel for the Kiev national terrorist clique, sending battalions of their military personnel hastily disguised as mercenaries to Ukraine.

OBJECTS FOR RETALIATORY STRIKES OF RETALIATIONAnd, finally, objects in international territories and water areas represent a separate group of goals.

Recall that these are territories lying outside the state borders. The right to use them belongs to the entire international community. No state has the right to appropriate them, these territories are open for scientific research.

In accordance with international law, the status of international territories and water areas are: Antarctica, the open sea, the airspace over the open sea, the bottom of the seas and oceans outside the exclusive economic zone, international rivers, straits, channels, outer space.

Among the terrorist military actions in international waters is the undermining in September 2022 of the strategic gas pipelines "Nord Stream-1" and "Nord Stream-2" in the Baltic Sea, intended for gas supplies from Russia to Germany. The involvement of the United States and Norway in this action was reported by American journalist Seymour Hersh.

The United States officially denies its involvement in this act of international terrorism, and through a campaign in the press is trying to turn the tables on Kiev. Be that as it may, we are talking about the use of an open military hybrid threat against Russia and its economic partners in international territories and waters. This requires an investigation and taking appropriate measures against the organizers of the terrorist attack.

In this context, Russia's defensive and offensive strategies in the confrontation in the MGW, initiated by the United States, NATO, the EU and some of their partners, should, among other things, include alternative options for using hybrid threats against potential or existing opponents.

To respond to the military impact on strategic bottlenecks and vulnerabilities of the United States and NATO, along with other objects, objects located on international territories and waters should be considered: underwater cable communication lines (PCLS) and power supply cables (power), underwater gas pipelines, as well as artificial Earth satellites (ISS).

UNDERWATER CABLESPCLS are intended for civilian and military users, but in fact, most of the channels are already being used in the interests of the armed forces.

And in emergency circumstances, all lines will ensure the activity of troops and fleets.

At the end sections of the routes, underwater cables are interfaced, as a rule, with radio relay, underground, satellite and other communication lines. Independently, PCLS are used, for example, to ensure the functioning of networks of stationary sonar stations for detecting submarines in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Today, the total length of underwater Internet highways has exceeded 1.2 million km (laying depth up to 7-8 km).

Among the new facilities of the PCLS can, for example, include an underwater 32-fiber cable from the USA to Europe to provide fast Internet Grace Hopper with a length of 4830 km, connecting New York with Cornwall in the UK and with the city of Bilbao in northern Spain.

A modern underwater highway will connect the American state of California with the prefectures of Japan Chiba and Mie by 2024. Its length is about 10 thousand km .

These and some other facilities should be considered by Russia, its allies and partners as targets for retaliation strikes when planning joint operations.

In this context, it should be recalled that, according to the assessment of Evril Haines, the Director of US National Intelligence, China, which is increasingly challenging America economically, technologically, politically and militarily around the world, remains an unprecedented priority for Washington. This objectively contributes to strengthening the strategic partnership between Moscow and Beijing.

UNDERWATER GAS PIPELINESNorway became the largest supplier of gas to NATO countries after the explosion of the "Northern Streams".

Gas from Norway is piped to the UK, Germany, Belgium, France and Poland (via Denmark).

One of the longest underwater gas pipelines in the world with a length of 1200 km is laid between Norway and the UK along the bottom of the North Sea. The Langeled main gas pipeline connects the Norwegian Ormen Lange gas field with the British Isington terminal. It is believed that this gas field will provide Britain with gas for 40 years.

The Baltic Pipe underwater gas pipeline with a length of 275 km, through which natural gas supplies from Norway to Poland via the Danish gas transmission system began in November 2022. An offshore pipeline between Denmark and Poland with a length of 29.26 km across the Baltic Sea was also used for this purpose.

The largest and longest oil pipeline in Norway from the Johan Sverdrup field in the North Sea has been commissioned. The 36-inch pipeline stretches for 283 km from the Mongstad oil terminal outside Bergen to a giant field in the North Sea.

An underwater gas pipeline with a length of 156 km is also being laid, which will extend from the Johan Sverdrup field to the Statpipe pipeline.

Between Africa and the European NATO countries participating in the proxy war against Russia, gas pipelines have been laid in the Mediterranean Sea in the area of the Strait of Gibraltar and the Alboran Sea (pipelines between Algeria and Spain), as well as between Tunisia, the western coast of Libya and Italy (via Sicily).

spaceIn accordance with the concept of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces "Joint Vision 2010" (the concept of "Full spectrum dominance"), the central task of US space activities is defined as the achievement and strengthening of unconditional American military superiority and leadership in outer space.

This and a number of other US strategic planning documents are based on the forecast of an active transformation of the methods of warfare, primarily due to the development of information technologies that have transformed the economic and social life of mankind.

Within the framework of the MGV, such a tool of military operations as information warfare is widely used, including the disabling of enemy information systems. A feature of the US space strategy is its focus on the information component of space use, since it is information that repeatedly increases the efficiency of the functioning of other systems.

The United States is gradually shifting its focus from strengthening combat power to using the information space and is striving to dominate precisely in this area, which is based on an expanded network of communications and intelligence satellites.

Their main purpose is to provide management bodies in theaters of military operations with reliable secure communication channels (data transmission) with armed forces groups, formations, individual military units and each soldier individually.

The main qualities of satellite communications that other types of communications do not possess are global coverage and the ability to provide communication channels from anywhere in the world in a very short time.

Modern space communication systems include the global Starlink satellite communication system, deployed by Elon Musk's SpaceX company to provide high-speed broadband satellite Internet access in places where it was unreliable, expensive or completely inaccessible.

By 2017, SpaceX had submitted regulatory documents for the launch of a total of almost 12 thousand. The ISS will be launched into near-Earth orbit by the mid-2020s. As of February 12, 2023, SpaceX has launched 3,928 Starlink satellites into orbit during 74 launches of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle.

Since 2022, the Starlink system has been used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine to communicate between units and guide weapons, drones and artillery in order to strike Russian military positions and equipment during a special military operation. The decisive role belonged to this system in ensuring the strikes of Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on the objects of Russia's strategic nuclear forces.

To ensure the activities of the US and NATO Armed Forces, and today in the interests of supplying intelligence information to Kiev, American optical-electronic, radar, radio and radio intelligence is used.

In general, the US Armed Forces integrate satellite communication systems, navigation satellite system, geodetic satellite system, space meteorological system, missile attack warning system, Earth remote sensing system and satellite and aviation reconnaissance systems into a single satellite network. The unified satellite network will include military, dual-use and civilian satellites used to support combat operations in the theater of operations.

All of the above turns underwater marine pipelines and cables, as well as the United States and NATO satellite network into objects of possible use by Russia of hybrid threats and retaliation strikes in a new type of war.

conclusionsThe existence of the concept of anticipatory reflection in Russia's strategic planning documents (modeling the likely outcomes of conceived, originated or already developing military-political situations that pose a threat to national security and actions to counter them) creates prerequisites for the formation of offensive and defensive strategies of a Global hybrid war.

And also to choose the most effective forms and methods of influencing the enemy, including retaliatory strikes of retaliation against objects on its territory used for aggression against Russia, and objects important for the national security and economy of our enemies in international territories and waters.

Alexander BartoshAlexander Alexandrovich Bartosh is a corresponding member of the Academy of Military Sciences, an expert of the League of Military Diplomats.