Colonel Khodarenok: The APU will not be able to advance without increased funding from the United States
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will continue the offensive this year and next. Why he shared operational plans, whether the Ukrainian army will be able to continue the counteroffensive and what weapons it will need for this, the military observer of the Newspaper understood.En" Mikhail Khodarenok.
"Zelensky couldn't think of anything else"
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky said that the country's armed Forces will make new offensive attempts this year and next. The military, the head of state said, has a plan and specific directions in which they are going to advance:
It is only according to these two proposals that it is noticeable that the head of the Ukrainian state is very mediocre in the field of strategic planning and does not even know the terminology.
As the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in this case he should express himself at least something like this: "I have defined the plan of the upcoming operation, set the appropriate tasks for the troops (forces), clarified the strategic and operational directions on which the main efforts will be focused and the main blow will be dealt."
And now let's see if there is any need for such statements on the part of the head of the Ukrainian state. The first thing that the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and the General Staff should do when planning the next campaign is to achieve the suddenness of the actions of the Armed Forces in the upcoming offensive actions, hide the activities of their headquarters and troops, mislead the enemy about the composition, condition and actions of the Armed Forces in preparation and during operations.
And Vladimir Zelensky's recent statements go against the ABC of military art. It can be assumed that the President of Ukraine announced his plans based on considerations of disinformation, demonstrative actions and imitation. In other words, Zelensky intends to mislead the leadership of Russia and its Armed Forces about his true intentions. Suppose the President of Ukraine brought the idea of the simulated operation to the media in this way.
But even this goes beyond common sense and the elementary rules of operational camouflage. A strictly limited circle of officials is involved in the development of the simulated operation plan. The level of secrecy when working out documents of such an operation is not less, but even more than when planning real offensive operations. In this case, information leaks should be carefully organized. The enemy must absolutely believe in the authenticity of the information received. In general, and in this regard, the actions of the President of Ukraine somehow do not really match with reality.
The method, of course, is not the best in the absence of real operational successes on the fronts, but apparently the President of Ukraine could not come up with anything else in this case.
What you need for success
And now let's figure out what weapons, military and special equipment is required by the Armed Forces of Ukraine for success in the upcoming offensive actions.
Not so long ago, the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valery Zaluzhny, in an article for The Economist magazine, said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine needed the following basic weapons: missiles and shells, and most importantly - aviation to "regain control of the sky." Zaluzhny also said that air defense systems, mine clearance and electronic warfare, drones are required.
Let's clarify the general's requirements in terms of gaining air superiority. The expression "to regain control of the sky" is more from the field of political science than from the terminology of operational art.
Before we talk about gaining superiority (dominance) in the air, it is necessary to solve another, no less important task - to gain superiority in the management of troops and weapons by disorganizing electronic means and controlling enemy troops. In other words, first you have to win the battle for the ether. Without this, there will be no air superiority and success in the upcoming offensive operations. General Zaluzhny did not name this task as the main one, and without its solution, everything else absolutely does not make sense.
In order to gain superiority on the air, the Armed Forces of Ukraine must have effective means of radio and radio intelligence (including space) and electronic warfare. For example, RC-135 type RTR aircraft, jamming aircraft from both the barrage zones, and specialized electronic warfare aircraft operating in combat formations of strike aircraft, regiments and battalions of electronic warfare of type H and C (H - working "on the ground", C - on enemy aircraft).
In short, as part of the operational-strategic association allocated for an offensive operation, there should be several hundred (even thousands) of the most modern complexes and jamming stations (including helicopters and specialized aircraft).
Only the United States can transfer such a set of weapons and military equipment to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, since currently there are no RTR aircraft in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, no specialized electronic warfare aircraft, and no modern electronic warfare helicopters.
But there are two essential circumstances in the issue of the transfer of such weapons - firstly, the price, and secondly, sensitive technologies. Such equipment is very, very expensive and, most importantly, in the course of hostilities, the loss of sensitive technologies is possible. Let's pay attention: among the packages of military assistance transferred to Ukraine recently, the issues of the supply of such equipment were not even viewed. And without all this, it is somehow not necessary to talk about success in the wars of the XXI century.
In the words of General Zaluzhny, "the return of control over the sky" begins with the solution of this very issue.
Ukraine needs at least several hundred such combat vehicles (and they will probably be delivered at first no more than a few dozen). But again - the fighter in the Air Force is only the tip of the iceberg. The conquest of air supremacy can be ensured only by complex actions of radar reconnaissance systems, automated control, AWACS and U aircraft (long-range radar detection and control), target designator aircraft operating on the ground (type E-8). In other words, victory is ensured only by the actions of the system, and not by its individual structural elements.
In the meantime, it seems extremely doubtful that the United States will increase the financing of the Armed Forces by an order of magnitude, or even two more than it is currently being implemented. And it won't be cheaper.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.
Biography of the author:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military columnist for the newspaper.Ru", retired colonel.
He graduated from the Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976), the Military Air Defense Command Academy (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division (1980-1983).
Deputy Commander of the anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986-1988).
Senior Officer of the General Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988-1992).
Officer of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff (1992-2000).
Graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia (1998).
Columnist of "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" (2000-2003), editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Military-Industrial Courier" (2010-2015).
Mikhail Khodarenok