Russian-Belarusian "aggression" will break out in September
A few months remain until the Belarusian-Russian strategic military games “West-2017” announced from a year ago (to be held from September 14 to 20), and in the NATO countries they will be worn out about this for half a year or more. Get ready for the worst! The final ground-air part of the planned maneuvers will take place mainly at the Belarusian training grounds, in connection with which a substantial contingent of troops of the Russian Federation with equipment and weapons is being introduced into the Blue Republic aviation. So the North Atlanticists seriously believe that the “best” in the course of the exercises is if the introduced Russian units then “forever” remain in Belarus. What’s going to attack ?!“The aggressive intentions of Moscow and Minsk” are particularly concerned in the Baltic countries - the teeth on edge are no longer just what they ate, but nagged. In April, the State Security Department and the Second Department of Operational Services under the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense in an annual assessment of the threats to the national security of the country indicated that Russia had increased its military potential in the western part of the country and in the Kaliningrad region. And now I could, during 24 – 48 hours, start military operations against the Baltic states. Intelligence agencies - to the same: warned of possible provocations on the border during the upcoming actions of numerous troops of the Union State.
Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite called the “West-2017” “offensive military exercises against the West”, which, among other dangers from Russia, “pose a great threat to the people of all Europe”.
The United States indulges the Balts with might and main, which in recent months or weeks not only marked their rhetoric many times, but also greatly intensified their intelligence activities near the western borders of the Union State.
DOES NOT GO TO THE ISKANDER BALTIC?
A typical example. On June 2, Western military aviation tracking sites reported that on this day, two U.S. Air Force strategic reconnaissance aircraft - RC-135W and RC-135U, located at Mildenhall Air Force Base (UK), made regular reconnaissance flights at Russian land borders in the south of the Baltic . The first, being in the Polish airspace, scurried about three hours 60 km from the southern border of the Kaliningrad region. The second for a long time “looked out for something” over the waters of the Gulf of Gdansk, being at the same distance from Baltiysk, where the Baltic base is located fleet (Bf). Similar barrage is almost the daily practice of alliance aircraft.
The question is, why almost so actively snooping around, how did the Germans at the time at the western borders of the USSR before the attack? “NATO’s intelligence is of great interest in the daily combat training of the fleet, which has grown today compared to previous years. But they are especially interested in new warships that are already part of the Baltic Fleet or are being tested here, ”explained the situation to the BF Commander, Vice Admiral Alexander Nosatov. But now is not the 41 year, and, according to the commander, the activity of NATO reconnaissance in the area of responsibility of the BF is under control: “And they see it very well. This concerns both our readiness and our capabilities. Therefore, they do not violate international maritime law - there were no rudeness or incidents near our borders. ”
Suffice it to say that in the last winter period of training the ships and submarines of the Baltic Fleet performed almost 700 combat training activities, including more 100 combat exercises with the practical use of rocket, artillery, torpedo and mine weapons. According to the official representative of the Baltic Fleet captain 1 rank Roman Martov, "parts and formations of the 11 Army Corps of the Baltic Fleet conducted about a thousand combat firing as part of units, more than 800 small arms shooting, about 300 driving exercises for special vehicles and special cars": "Compared to the same period last year, the intensity of combat training of the army corps units increased by 12%."
But there is one more reason for the increased activity of NATO's RC-135W, etc. According to Nosatov, in the upcoming "West-2017" exercises "the whole Baltic Fleet will take part in one way or another": "This is practically all units of the sea, land and aviation components of the forces and means of the fleet. " It is quite possible that the testing of methods of transferring Iskander missile systems to the Kaliningrad Region from the large Russian complex will be carried out once again. On this occasion, the vice-admiral noted that at the strategic exercises seamen are ready to perform every task that will be assigned to them within the framework of the fleet's mission.
Preparations for the September mass outing to the sea and to the landfills are already proceeding in the most active way, the intensity of the ships entering the sea is increasing day by day. The plans for the summer-autumn - and long-distance trips to the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and the Arctic, as well as the participation of surface forces in international maneuvers. As for the main exam - the September teachings "West-2017" - then, as noted by the Commander of the Baltic Fleet, the Balts are full of intentions to pass it unequivocally successfully. By the way, this attitude is very understandable, if we remember that last summer for the “omissions in the daily activities of the troops (forces)”, the then commander and chief of staff of the BF Vice Admirals Viktor Kravchuk and Sergey Popov were removed from military service and dismissed from military service and a whole series of warriors.
ON THE ROLLED LINE
The level of “concern” about the upcoming military games of the two countries began to rise sharply in the West after in March, President of the Republic of Belarus (RB) Alexander Lukashenko approved the plan for the September maneuvers. Recall that they - traditional, planned - since 2007 have been held once every two years alternately in Belarus and Russia. The purpose of the bilateral strategic exercises West-2017 is to test the readiness of the Regional Group of Forces (RGV) of the “two” to fulfill missions for the defense of the SG. Recall that the composition of the RGV includes all the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus and the 1st tank Army of the Western Military District of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. It is precisely part of its forces and assets (about 3 thousand military personnel and 280 units of equipment) that will arrive in the republic to participate in training battles. The total number of participants is up to 13 thousand people. In addition to ground forces, aviation is involved, including up to 25 aircraft and helicopters from the Russian side. The troops will deploy and fulfill tasks at 7 training grounds. In addition, territorial defense structures and border guards will practice. The tasks of restoring the combat effectiveness of the troops and their comprehensive support will also be worked out. On the whole, according to the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Belarus, Lieutenant General Andrei Ravkov, "the spatial scope of this exercise is very large - from the Kola direction in the Arctic zone to Belarus."
In the West, these statements were immediately subjected to "serious doubts." According to the Pentagon, in the exercises "West-2017" can take part from 70 thousand. To 100 thousand. Russian military alone. And taking into account the officers and soldiers of the Belarusian army, whose number is 46 thousand people - and do scream "guard". Given the factor of re-equipment and modernization of weapons of both armies, all this, of course, is very annoying to the Americans and their "younger brothers" in NATO.And indeed, only in the last couple of months Russia has delivered 12 multi-purpose helicopters Mi-8MTV-5 to Blue-Blue (and the contract was completed ahead of time) and a batch of modernized T-72B3 tanks. On the day of the transfer of the last to the 969 th personnel of the reserve reserve of armored vehicles (June 2), the Belarusian military signed another agreement with Uralvagonzavod to modernize the 72's. The T-72B3 has a more powerful engine, armor is enhanced, and the new guided weapons complex guarantees a high probability of destroying a moving target from a standstill and on the move at a distance of up to 5 km. In the same period, an agreement was reached on the purchase of a new radar station "Oppnik-G" from the Russian defense-industrial complex. A little earlier, Belarus received from Russia a quartet of combat-training aircraft Yak-130 and the fourth anti-aircraft missile battery Tor-М2. Also, according to the information of the commander of the national air forces and air defense forces, Major-General Oleg Dvigalev, “the development of the modern Su-12SM multi-purpose aircraft from the Russian Federation is being completed.”
Interfax and other media broadcast messages about updating the Russian weapons fleet almost every day. There is no doubt that the break-in of new products will be significant, if not fully implemented during the September strategic war game. In any case, it was so in all five previous exercises "West".
Against this background, the commander of US ground forces in Europe, Lieutenant General Ben Hodzhes, expressed concern that Russia could upgrade and strengthen "some of its equipment located in the Kaliningrad region on a permanent basis." In particular, advanced air defense systems and Iskander missile systems.
In May, he once again visited the Baltic. Estonian Defense Minister Margus Tsahkna, at a meeting with him, said that hand in hand “with the US ground forces we will closely monitor the large-scale“ West ”exercises conducted by the Russian Federation. The head of the Lithuanian military department Raimundas Karoblis spoke in the spirit of the same line of rhetoric. Citing “intelligence data” (in the Belarusian Ministry of Defense, they were softly called “conjectures” that need not be commented upon) expressed conviction that the “West-2017” exercise was “not a defense simulation, but obviously an offensive simulation against NATO. Specifically - against the Baltic countries and, apparently, Poland. ”
It is strange that so far Kiev has not acutely felt the "increased threat from Russia." However, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko at the end of April mentioned that his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko called him about this: “He firmly assured me that the planned Russian-Belarusian strategic exercises“ West-2017 ”near the border of Ukraine would not turn into preparation of the Russian Federation is a springboard for the invasion of Ukraine from the Belarusian territory. "
Beyond the Atlantic, not only the Pentagon was tense. On April 6, a group of US congressmen, including the notorious “hawk” John McCain, sent a letter to Alexander Lukashenko. In it, according to the latter, they “touched upon the theme of the upcoming exercises“ West-2017 ”. “For these gentlemen, this is some kind of danger,” said Alexander G., without going into details about what exactly McCain and others see it. On the same day, he only publicly absented them in absentia in the sense that “but for us, is it not a danger that today NATO has been activated on our borders?”
Various forces, bearing in mind the sometimes explosive temper of the Belarusian Farther, also provoke him to curtail military cooperation with Russia due to disagreements in other important areas. First of all, we mean the permanent oil and gas "war". The next “combat” coordination of fuel prices, which lasted a year with a big tail, was only recently settled (for how long?). And next to this skleshka and other economic battles, in particular the meat and dairy bans that Russia does not stop, which painfully respond to the Sineok economy.
But the Belarusian leader here again gives a decisive rebuff to the attackers: “Contrary to the opinions of certain“ experts, ”I declare that Belarus is not going to curtail military cooperation with Russia because of the disagreements in other areas. On the contrary, the teachings of "West-2017" is a demonstration of our constancy in ensuring the security of two fraternal peoples. " According to him, military-technical cooperation with Moscow "is not subject to any kind of trade."
In general, Westerners use even the seemingly most incompatible with the upcoming exercises of the site, so that they can pound on such a tasty topic of the Russian threat. In early June, the XXI International Economic Forum was held on the banks of the Neva. So, they “caught” the state secretary of the NG, Grigory Rapota, and asked him - absolutely not in the topic - to comment on the statements of representatives of a number of NATO countries about the exercise “West-2017”. They say, according to some sources, at the end of the games, Russia plans to leave part of its military contingent on the territory of Belarus. “There are no grounds for this,” the somewhat overwhelmed general secretary was forced to dissuade. - Such things are not done that way - they came and stayed. If suddenly such an intention arose, then an appropriate interstate agreement would be signed, which the parties would necessarily make public. ” He explained that at every such exercise, depending on what country they are in, the Russian military come to Belarus or the Belarusian to Russia, and upon completion “all units return home to their permanent bases”.
The internal Belarusian opposition (the “fifth column,” as Lukashenko invariably calls it) has not yet intensified. I remember when Russian units were put forward for the “Zapad-2009” doctrine, its representatives, especially young ones, nasusknye senior leaders (these worked out financial handouts from the West), literally lay down on the rails along the lines of troop strengths and equipment of the Western Military District. The reason for such extraordinary attacks was serious then: the presidential election was coming. So, maybe, this time in September they will go to the “feat of Anna Karenina”. As the pipe of the West will call.
Commenting on all these oral and written picks, Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Russian Federation Council international affairs committee, expressed the view that inflaming passions in the Baltic countries had long become a viable background for any, even quite planned, military activity of Russia, powerful and rich allies that they are "on the front lines" in the matter of countering our country. "
WHOSE TRANSPARENCY TRANSPARENT
Lithuanian Defense Minister Karoblis "sees the biggest problem today in the fact that these exercises are truly ambitious, but their transparency is really weak." The logic of the statement is obvious: there are still months before the exercises, and in Vilnius eyepieces have already become “sweated.” Here, the chief of the Lithuanian military department again delivered his overseas partner, General Hodges.
Last in May, being in Tallinn, quite extensively spoke on this topic. “The fact that Russia is conducting maneuvers of its troops is nothing supernatural,” he said. - We all conduct exercises. But this time, the “West” teachings, which are held every four years, are of particular interest throughout Europe. ” The general’s awareness is still “every four years” (made a reservation?) - but oh well. He further continued: “Therefore, our wishes for Russia are to be as transparent as they are in Western countries. Whenever we conduct maneuvers, we invite the press and observers to the site. ” And he even gave an example: “Last year, Russian military inspectors visited the headquarters of the Anaconda-2016 exercises. And he gave advice, similar to the instruction: “If Russia is genuinely interested in reducing the level of tension and anxiety, it should invite journalists to the West exercise”.
The commander of US ground forces in Europe is breaking open doors. Long before his sentence, the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Belarus, Lieutenant-General Andrei Ravkov, announced that “we will send invitations for 50 days before the start of the exercise”: “There is a serious interest from foreign partners in coming and observing the exercise. The needs they claim will be met. ”
The Belarusian Ministry of Defense acts here in pursuance of the instructions of Alexander Lukashenko. He also 20 March, when signing the planned war games, demanded “everyone to have this event in our country transparent and accessible not only for our friends in the CSTO, EAEU, CIS, but also for representatives of the North Atlantic bloc - NATO”: “We hide nothing, and hide should not. We will invite everyone to these exercises. And you will see that they are exclusively defensive in nature. "
The insinuations around the exercises "West-2017", in the opinion of the Belarusian leader, are already abundant. And he specified in his “corporate” emotional style: “They began to frighten us that the troops would be brought in, they would overthrow me, they would turn the country upside down and be part of a well-known state.” He explained why this is being done - “in order to break the military-political unity of Belarus and Russia, which no one else has in the post-Soviet space”.
He reproached the countries of the West for the fact that they themselves, in particular Poland, “with a bluff, extol” the increase in the number of NATO troops near the borders with Russia: “But they are demanding from us: no exercises should be, this is an attack. What is this lunge? We do not place the troops of the People’s Republic of China, Turkey, and even Russia, with which we have a single group, near your borders. ” Here he did not gobbled up at all. In 2015, Lukashenko categorically refused to give the go-ahead to deploy a Russian air base on the territory of the republic, plans of which were built by the military departments of the two countries for three years. After that, Moscow and Minsk diplomatically agreed that “from the point of view of military expediency, the deployment of the Russian air base in Belarus does not need Belarus or the Russian Federation.”
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov found it necessary to comment on the words of General Ben Hodges, who called Moscow for transparency in future maneuvers: "Over the past five years, we invite the media to military exercises without advice - we do this every year and continue." And not without irony, he remarked: “General Hodges, before urging us to be open, would have to begin to remember if he ever invited Russian media to the teachings of American troops in Europe.”
WORKOUTS BEFORE MAJOR ACTION
As long as the court is concerned, the Russian and Belarusian military are kneading and continue to pump up muscles in several "simpler" exercises before the upcoming strategic field games. Only the Russian Airborne Forces and the Belarusian Special Operations Forces conducted spring and early summer with half a dozen joint field exits.
One of them, the most ambitious, took place from 1 to 6 in April in the Vitebsk region of Belarus. The exercise took place on a total area of more than 12 thousand square meters. km (for comparison: the area of the entire Vitebsk region is over 40 thousand sq. km). The tasks were worked out by about a thousand blue berets of the Union State using 600 units of military, special and automotive vehicles. Their actions provided for a dozen airplanes and helicopters of the military transport and army aviation of the Sineoka Air Force. From the Russian Airborne Forces, the reinforced parachute company of the 98 Division of the "winged infantry" from Ivanov, more than 100 people, took part in the exercises.
For the first time since 2007, Ivanovtsy performed jumps on the “forgotten” D-6 parachutes, which were provided by Belarusians (Russians parachute under the D-10 and T-10В domes, as well as use special-purpose parachute systems “Arbalet-1” and guided parachutes “Arbalet-2” and managed parachutes “Arbalet-76” and operated parachutes “Arbalet-60” and controlled parachutes “Parabuts” -900 "). Within the framework of the exercises, those and others for the first time carried out a landing from an IL-XNUMXMD aircraft in mixed groups - according to XNUMX, Russian and Belarusian military personnel. In this case, such a nuance was taken into account as the spring arrival of birds. Therefore, the manual for safety compliance decided to drop the landing from a height of XNUMX m - a couple of hundred meters higher than the standard.
After landing, the units made an 7-kilometer march in the direction of the settlement, which, according to the legend of the exercises, was captured by illegal armed groups (IAF). Block and knock them paratroopers assisted units of internal troops of the republic.
Later on, during the main stage of the tactical exercises, the reconnaissance aircraft made a 150-kilometer march through the territory of eight administrative districts of the Vitebsk region during the day. Intelligence and search actions were conducted in unfamiliar areas in order to determine the safest route for the advancement of the main forces and means of the "Allied landing force". And the “path” was also that: with flooded and impassable sections that needed to be identified, assessed and to determine the main routes of detour along the route of the troops. Also, the task was to choose the most suitable landing site for the main forces of the landing force, and when it left the aircraft in the air, provide cover from the ground.
This combat training “walk” was complicated by the fact that the scouts were opposed by the “enemy” sabotage groups. They had to not only be eliminated, but also to discover the basic areas of concentration of illegal armed groups and to gather full information about them. Its paratroopers transmitted by means of unmanned aerial vehicles "Mosquito" to the command post control operations.
On the same days, the paratroop company of the Ryazan regiment of the 106 Airborne Division (Tula) arrived in the city of Brest to participate in joint Belarusian-Russian tactical exercises with landing on an unfamiliar landing site. From 11 to 13 in April, the combat guests, together with their Belarusian colleagues, successfully worked out the combat training tasks for blocking four groups of illegal armed groups during the raffle. They broke into the territory of one of the major administrative centers and seized several strategically important facilities in its district - a gas distribution station, a supply base providing the infrastructure of the airfield. The paratroopers of the two countries acted in cooperation with the units of the internal troops.
In the Polotsk district of the Vitebsk region another episode was played out. Here, the "winged infantry" with fire support of aviation and artillery prevented the breakthrough of large gangs of illegal armed formations on the territory of a friendly state in one of the border areas of Belarus.
Obviously, this local “reconnaissance in force” will help the Russian and Belarusian blue berets to solve the more complex tasks of large-scale “West-2017” exercises just as well. In general, the intensity of the exercises of the Russian Airborne Forces is impressive. According to the information released by the Russian Defense Minister General of the Army Sergei Shoigu, the 2016 exercises of various levels, including 387 international, were held by the “winged infantry” only for 13 a year.
In this sense, others try to “breathe in their backs”.
In the second half of May, again in Sineok, under the leadership of the head of the radio-electronic warfare department (EW) of the Belarusian General Staff, Colonel Igor Danilchik, a seven-day special exercise was conducted with military units of EW of the two allied countries. Three large field sites of different distances in Brest and Vitebsk regions were involved. They were acted on by officers of the control systems of the EW of the two countries, the corresponding Belarusian military units and a number of similar structures of the Russian Western Military District.
The training was aimed at providing high-quality and complete training of EW forces and facilities for the joint strategic exercise "Zapad-2017". The participants also sought to increase the level of interaction and coherence between the EW military units while jointly solving their professional tasks and gain more skills in the skillful use of full-time special equipment. Experts have worked out the completion of the preparation of a joint group of EW troops for combat use. This is when the isolation areas of actions of illegal armed formations and sabotage and reconnaissance groups of a conditional enemy are fully isolated. In the same outline - polishing in the management of military units and EW units in the course of military operations while repelling aggression against the Union State in a rapidly changing complex electronic environment.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation officially stressed that this kind of training in the armed forces of Belarus and Russia is being held for the first time. At the same time, the development of forms and methods of using the EW grouping was planned taking into account modern local wars and armed conflicts.
In turn, the command and staff exercises to control the orbital group during the pre-emption of the missile attack of the conditional enemy and the information support of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation plan to conduct the VKS under the command of their commander-in-chief, Colonel-General Viktor Bondarev. The working out of these tasks is also solved on the threshold of joint strategic maneuvers, in which in September the aerospace system will be significantly represented.
The Defense Ministry notes that the intensity of training in the VKS during planned training has increased steadily over the past few years. Over the past winter period of training (from December 2016 of the year to April of this), more than 140 exercises of various levels were conducted, during which more than 7 thousand bombings and launches of aircraft missiles were performed. And the total flight time of pilots was more than 130 thousand hours (it is a pity that it is impossible to understand from these data how much each person has on average).
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