You know why the Russians are doing such a spectacularly inept job?

[Aristus]

No professional NCO Corps. A Russian sergeant is just a private with six months of additional training. In the U.S. Armed Forces, NCO’s provide the day-to-day leadership for the training, support, morale, and health of the rank-and-file troopers.

Doing that well only comes with years and years of dedication and experience.

A conscript army means every citizen has skin in the game, but in every conflict other than the global, a professional army is the way to go.

[Otto_Harper]

1. While I also believe in the points you provide, especially the lack of Professional NCO's

Some of what we are seeing in the daily reports out of UKR have caused me to wonder whether this is an application of Sun Tzu's teaching from "The Art of War": "When you are weak, appear strong, and when you are strong, appear weak".

Is the (former) Soviet army reduced to using 20 year old MRE's and 45 year old field dressing kits?, or are they trying to draw down the NATO supplies before committing their front line troops and equipment for a much broader conflict?

[uponit7771]

3. +1, 100% agree ... BUT ... the evidence of RA being inept is in action now and internal communicatio

... inside of Russia calling up reserve forces from other areas of conflict

[Metaphorical]

5. To what objective?

Russia has roughly two million men in their military, of which about 12% has been committed to Ukraine, and their losses are extraordinarily high. Their economy is not, by any indication, on a war footing, so the tanks, personnel carriers, aircraft, and so forth that have been lost are not going to be replaced any time soon. Most of the weapons support that Ukraine is getting from allies were state of the art twenty years ago.

No, this isn't some kind of feint. This was a bad miscalculation on Putin's part, or, from Zelenskyy's standpoint, another Sun Tzu aphorism: If your opponent is making a mistake, don't stop them.

[underpants]

2. Yes that is one of many things that have stood out

✅

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. There is a great deal of corruption in the Russian military

Link to tweet

[Picaro]

6. Great point!

My father commanded the last squadron in the US Army that kept horses in the mid 60’s.

He took me to his squadron HQ and introduced me to his Sargent Major. My father looked at me and said, “He runs the place.”

Even as a 9 year old I could tell that that was true (that my father, a Lt. Col knew this, and openly acknowledged it made him extraordinarily popular with his men).

The Sargent Major was there before my father and was there long after my father left for Vietnam.

The NCO’s are the backbone of every service in the US. That Russia doesn’t have a professional NCO corp blows my mind.

No wonder they suck and can only resort to ineffective brute force.

Thanks for this info.

[Wounded Bear]

9. "Sergeant" Major...

[Picaro]

10. Thanks

The way I was spelling it didn’t look right and I even looked it up in Merriam’s Dictionary. The dictionary was no help.

Your spelling is the one that looks right that I couldn’t remember.

[Wounded Bear]

11. IIRC Dick Sargent played Darrin on Bewitched...

BTW, I was a Staff Sergeant when my hitch was up. Semper Fi!

[Picaro]

12. You guys made it all work...

[Aristus]

15. My father was a major, and he always spoke of senior NCO's with immense respect.

Interesting fact: Each of the services has a Sergeant Major of the (Army, Air Force, or Marines) and Chief Petty Officer of the (Navy or Coast Guard). Each of the NCO's is the highest-ranking enlisted person in their particular service, and the only one of their rank. For diplomatic purposes though, these enlisted service members carry the equivalent rank of lieutenant general (three stars.)

[lpbk2713]

7. Putin is making tactical and strategic decisions.

Last edited Wed Mar 30, 2022, 02:56 PM - Edit history (1)

And he doesn't have a military background.

His people should tell him where Hitler went wrong.

[Aristus]

16. And Hitler HAD a military background.

Lot of good it did him.

[EX500rider]

18. Well being a Corporal isn't a very high rank. nt

[sarisataka]

8. All the way back to Soviet days

That has been an issue with their forces. The centralized C3 was a necessity because junior officers were too busy being small unit leaders to make their own tactical plans.

The problem has been exacerbated with the change to the Battalion Tactical Group organization instead of motor rifle regiments. The BTGs are similar to our Army Task Forces or Marine Expeditionary Units; a good combined arms formation to achieve limited objectives.

Two weak points are they require initiative at platoon level or lower and the units lack staying power with limited personnel. The US counters these weaknesses with a strong corps of NCOs and only giving them limited objectives. If greater objectives are part of the plan a Brigade Combat Team or Marine Expeditionary Brigade will be deployed.

Russia tried to replace motor rifle regiments with groups BTGs. While on paper they have the same firepower, they lack the support and ability to absorb casualties the regiments provided.

Likely there is going to be a change to Russia’s OOB very soon.

[hunter]

13. There's a reason the Russians can't implement a similar structure.

Fighting for Russia is not the same as fighting for Putin.

Leaders like Putin have enough difficulty insuring the loyalty of their commissioned officers. Adding a a bunch of NCOs to this mix, who are probably more motivated by nationalism than any loyalty to Putin, would threaten Putin's absolute control of the military.

[sarisataka]

14. The situation long predates Putin

All the way back to the beginning of the Red Army. There was even less trust then as commanders had a political officer, Zampolit, at their side to insure Party loyalty. While the commander was senior to the political officer, issuing orders contrary to the approval could lead to the termination of the command(er)

Russia has been trying to improve their NCO corps but with limited success. They believe the centralized command structure is ultimately superior to the western model and so reject training NCOs as leaders. They are currently making their NCOs into technical professionals taking some duties off of officers' shoulders to allow them to lead more. It is said to be an improvement but obviously is still in need of work.

[Aristus]

17. This is great information. Thank you.

[Kaleva]

19. They are also equiped to fight the wrong war.

While RU has a much bigger defense budget then the UKR does, a sizeable percentage of that budget goes to the Navy, the nuclear forces, internal security forces, R&D, supporting the military industrial complex, and maintenance of legacy weapons left over from the Soviet era .

UKR's budget is concentrated on having a defense force whose purpose is to defend the nation from an attack by Russia .

On paper RU looks like a giant but what it can actually use against UKR isn't that impressive.