The development of attack drones, guided bombs, the creation of assault units and other innovations of 2023
Large-scale armed conflicts give dynamics to the development of military art, weapons and equipment. The special operation in Ukraine was no exception. Recently, many new weapons of destruction have appeared, and the methods of warfare have changed. In December 2023, the head of the Russian Defense Ministry, Sergei Shoigu, said at the board of the department that the tactics of combined-arms combat had undergone serious changes. What innovations were introduced into military science last year and how the progress of armaments was manifested — in the material of Izvestia.
Assault specialization
The year 2023 was marked by the creation of specialized assault units in military units and formations. They take fortified areas, conduct military operations in urban areas and are at the forefront. From the very beginning of the special military operation, Russian troops faced powerful defensive positions in the Donbas. In many areas, Ukrainian militants have been building long-term fortifications for more than eight years.
RIA Novosti/Alexey Maishev
Nevertheless, the Russian military has learned how to crack the enemy's fortified defenses. To do this, it was necessary to review the tactics and organizational structure of the troops. Assault detachments of reconnaissance and maneuver were created in units and formations. They detect targets, which are then hit by artillery and drones, and they also storm fortified positions, including in urban conditions.
In September, Izvestia wrote that it had been decided to scale up this experience and specialized reconnaissance and assault brigades would be created in combined arms armies.
Armored and precise
Before the start of the special military operation, some experts were quick to write off tanks as a type of weapon, since the warring parties have a large number of powerful anti-tank weapons. However, in reality, tanks remain indispensable on the battlefield.
In the course of the war, a new use of heavy armored vehicles became widespread. We are talking about shooting from closed positions. The tank is located behind a shelter, and the guidance is carried out with the help of a spotter. This makes it possible to make even outdated tanks with weak armor effective. In fact, armored vehicles thus perform the role of protected artillery.
RIA News
— Shooting from closed firing positions at armored troops is not an innovation in itself, but now it has become actively used in the combat zone, — military expert Alexey Leonkov told Izvestia. — This is a forced measure, because there were not enough artillery complexes to provide fire support to the defending troops. Now this is already being corrected, and there is information that modern self-propelled artillery installations, such as the Coalition-SV, are appearing on the battlefield. The appearance of such installations can radically change the nature of the fire impact on the enemy.
Drones and anti-drones
One of the most characteristic features of the conflict in Ukraine has been the massive use of various types of drones by both sides. At first, they performed mainly reconnaissance functions, but then it became commonplace to use them to solve fire missions.
In the last six months, Russian troops have been actively using FPV kamikaze drones. They played a significant role in repelling the Ukrainian offensive in the summer and autumn of 2023. At the same time, the Russian military had to learn how to detect and suppress enemy drones, which are massively supplied to Ukraine from abroad. Today, including through the efforts of volunteers, troops are massively saturated with means capable of notifying of the presence of enemy drones in the air, anti-drone guns and means of suppressing drones.
RIA News/Pavel Lisitsyn
— Drones have finally found their niche in combined arms combat, - explained Alexey Leonkov. — They have become a reliable auxiliary tool that provides several types of combat work. The first is participation in reconnaissance and fire operations, when the drone performs the role of a target scout. He finds the target, indicates its coordinates, and then the firearm attached to him defeats. The second is a barrage munition, which, based on the data of a reconnaissance drone, attacks targets. Among other things, we are talking about massively used FPV drones, when the operator himself directs it to the target to the last.
Unmanned boats
The conflict in Ukraine was the first in which unmanned boats began to be regularly used. Ukraine has attacked ships of the Black Sea Fleet and coastal facilities dozens of times with the help of marine drones.
The Ivan Khurs reconnaissance ship
Image source: Photo: RIA Novosti/Konstantin Mikhalchevsky
For example, on March 22 of this year, senior sailor Marina Faleeva and chief petty Officer Tatyana Tseluiko destroyed three naval drones attacking ships in Sevastopol with small arms. On May 24, the Ivan Khurs reconnaissance ship, which ensured the safety of the Turkish Stream and Blue Stream pipelines, sent three unmanned boats to the bottom. On November 10, four surface drones tried to strike at the Russian amphibious assault boats of the 11770 Serna project.
Practice has shown that unmanned boats can be detected by radar. And naval artillery and small arms are used to destroy them.
Guided bombs
Before the start of the special military operation, many experts believed that the future lay with high-precision missiles and that they would determine the situation on the battlefield. However, these are expensive and difficult to manufacture weapons systems, and fire tasks must be solved on a thousand-kilometer front.
Image source: RIA Novosti
During the fighting, time-tested aerial bombs gained new life. They began to be equipped with a unified planning and correction module (UMPC), which turns a conventional bomb into a controlled one. Satellite navigation is used to adjust the course. The control unit calculates the speed, altitude, range to the target and controls the wings and feathers of the ammunition.
This allows you to hit the target exactly, and where previously it was necessary to make several sorties, now one UMPC bomb may be enough. Another important advantage of the new system is that the bomb flies to the target at a distance of tens of kilometers, which allows aircraft to use it without entering the enemy's air defense zone.
Roman Kretsul
Julia Leonova
