And if the coronavirus enters the army: thoughts on a pandemic
The panic associated with the spread of coronavirus, with a pandemic and the consequences for the economy and culture of not only individual countries, but of humanity as a whole, could not but raise quite reasonable questions for the military. And what happens if the virus is detected in military units? How, under such conditions, can the army fulfill the tasks assigned to it? Can the army really help in eliminating the danger?
Agree, the questions are not idle. With any attitude to a pandemic, the army causes a large number of fears in the majority of the population.
Firstly, military teams are the best suited for the spread of the virus. A large number of people concentrated in one place does not contribute to limiting contacts. Imagine what will happen if the coronavirus enters the closed part, for example, the IKS? Or a compound that controls intercontinental ballistic missiles?
Secondly, modern weapons often require a crew to function properly. The absence of even one of the crew members will lead to the loss of part of the combat effectiveness of the entire system. If necessary preventive measures with contactees, infection of one team member leads to automatic isolation of the entire crew.
Thirdly, traditionally in Russia it is the army that provides quarantine compliance measures. Army units block the infected area. Army doctors, along with civilian specialists, are directly involved in working with patients. The army provides a quarantine zone with everything you need, from mobile hospitals to food and hygiene.
Fourthly, it is the army that possesses the necessary equipment and machinery that are needed during disinfection, degassing, and decontamination. Equipment that can eliminate large foci of infection. Moreover, units and parts of CBR protection can do this in all environments.
Let’s try to figure out what our military can oppose to the coronavirus. Moreover, there is nothing to think out here. Most of the activities are practiced on exercises, information about which is quite accessible to those interested. So, what will happen if the military gets information that a coronavirus epidemic is threatening some kind of closed garrison?
First of all, army units block the area of infection. On all roads, roadblocks are set up that are not allowed into the affected area of civilians or are allowed after checking for viruses and processing equipment. This is a necessary measure. Just because modern man is so arranged that there are surely “extremes” who just desperately need to penetrate into this zone.
Further, inside the zone, full RCB reconnaissance will be carried out. Samples of land, air, water will be taken. This is necessary in order to determine the degree of infection and the type of virus that caused the outbreak.
A simple question immediately arises: why all this? After all, it is clear that this is a coronavirus.
The fact is that experts need facts. Until now, no one can name exactly the ways of the spread of infection. And the laboratory, which leads the work in this direction, is located in Novosibirsk. The military simply cannot wait for the results.
What happens next is no secret to most readers. Units are being deployed for processing equipment, personnel, terrain, and weapons. Work control is carried out using chemical reconnaissance vehicles RXM-6. The terrain and cars that somehow fall into the territory of the zone, and this, given the road network, is quite possible. A transit car is simply forced to enter the zone for a couple of kilometers. The highway is so built. And life, even with the threat of infection, can not be stopped. Someone always needs to urgently take something.
By the way, what I wrote above has already been done. This was reported to me by just one of the motorists, who on March 12 went to the cottage near Volgograd. Well, he became a participant in the exercises of the RBM regiment to repel a viral attack on a closed military garrison. Masked armed men stopped him on the road and sent him to the car wash. They washed it qualitatively from the autofill station (ARS-14KM) and sent on.
He told me about this incident with a laugh, but then admitted that his heart skipped a beat. It was when I saw the "astronauts" in chemical protection and with spray guns in their hands. Has something happened? Our people in this regard, as it turned out, prepared. I’m not talking about the older generation, even the young people who were not particularly told about WMD at school understand. They calmed down quickly as soon as they learned that these were just teachings. Many remembered the "Golden Calf" ...
But such a rosy picture does not preclude the presence of already infected soldiers and officers in units. For this case, there are OMEDB (in teams), MedR or medical center (in regiments), MedV or center (in battalions) in units. There, quarantine points for sick people and contactees are organized. In this case, patients should be evacuated to hospitals as soon as possible.
As you can see, in general, the situation with coronavirus in the army is understandable. For all the dangers that a large crowd of people has in a pandemic, the army has a significant advantage. First of all, it is controllability. Any unit or part can be really isolated from the outside world or limit contacts to a minimum. And this is the key to a quick victory over the infection.
So we should treat the pandemic simply as another challenge to our army. Another call. You just need to work. No panic and fuss.
Information