Where are our guns?
Army artillery follows the traditions and rules of a century ago
Many people are surprised that Russian artillery systems do not have demand in the world market. Surprise passes when you learn about the attitude to this type of weapons and military equipment in your own defense department.
Events in Ukraine have shown that the effective use of strike fire systems is quite possible without achieving operational superiority over the enemy. These tasks are accomplished by conducting a counter-battery struggle, defeating the reserves that advance from the depths, neutralizing control centers (electronic weapons), and destroying those breaking through into the defenses. tanks, which robs the enemy of the initiative. This is characteristic of both local conflicts and future wars. But success is possible only with the integration of forces and means in the reconnaissance and fire system.
Change goals
First of all, this is about the artillery component of the MTA of the Ground Forces. Recall: organizationally it includes compounds (units, subunits) of howitzer, cannon, reactive, anti-tank artillery, anti-tank missile systems, mortars, as well as reconnaissance, control and support. The structure is branched and rather complex. In order to meet the requirements of time, it must be constantly improved, saturated with new weapons and military equipment.
This requires not only the challenges of the time, but also global trends. The development of technologies has allowed the integration of the management of forces and assets in a single information, intelligence space and move from a rigid centralized management vertically to a network-centric - horizontally. These processes led to a revision of views on the organization and conduct of hostilities, including the use of artillery weapons.
The leading trend, says a senior researcher at the 3 Central Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Candidate of Military Sciences Valery Lozhnikov, is the creation of interspecific groupings of troops, minimizing or completely eliminating the conduct of close firefight with units and units. Emphasis is placed on mobility and maximum activation of the combat potential of small groups based on the new capabilities of reconnaissance, control, destruction and support systems.
Changing priorities and fire destruction. The main efforts are focused on the destruction of critical infrastructure, government and military systems.
At the operational level, emphasis is placed on the destruction of objects that determine the functioning of the main combat and support systems of the enemy. The aggression of the United States and other NATO countries against Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya has become a practical test of these conceptual provisions. The results show that the main trends of warfare are:
-expansion of the spatial scope of actions against enemy combat systems and the extent of destruction;
-the shift of the center of military operations in the aerospace sphere;
-use in battle of a single information space;
- the lack of direct contact of the fighting forces;
-the presence of open flanks.
In the end, there is a gradual switching of exposure from manpower and enemy equipment to key control objects. But such an application of MTAs can be carried out only in a single information and intelligence space with maximum maneuverability, which implies the deployment of units and subunits on the move to unprepared firing positions.
“In recent years, problems have arisen in the field of automation of MTA management due to both objective and subjective factors,” said Valery Kezhaev, professor at the automation department of the MFAR management of the Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy. - According to some estimates, commanders of artillery divisions today are forced to make decisions with only 30 percent of necessary information, and sometimes 10 percent of information about the situation. But even for the preparation of the attack of the battalion (division), it is required to solve about 500 various preparatory tasks.
What is the reason for the lack of information?
The scope of tasks for enemy fire engagement has increased dramatically, and the time for making a decision on combat has decreased. In addition, information about the enemy in MFA is suitable if their lag time does not exceed 50 minutes. With the advent of new maneuverability means less and less.
Problems are solved only through the integration of MFA control systems into the reconnaissance-fire system. To understanding this did not come yesterday. But another problem arose related to the introduction of robotic systems in the reconnaissance-fire system, including the subsystems of control, reconnaissance, target designation, support. Not everyone understands the significance of such revolutionary changes.
It’s not for nothing that the leadership of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and scientific research institutes now even talk about reprinting the dictionary of operational tactical terms. And in the armies of developed countries, the activity of applied scientific research in the field of the use of new forms and methods of military operations has sharply increased.
Change of principles
The concept of network-centricism contributes to the introduction of innovative technologies in the automated management of MTA and that will allow you to successfully implement promising ways to perform fire tasks regardless of the complexity of the combat situation and the nature of the hostilities.
These technologies will become crucial in the near future, which will require appropriate training of specialists, including robotics. According to Professor of the RViA Department of the Mikhailovsky Military Artillery Academy, Doctor of Military Sciences, Associate Professor Colonel Vitaly Lukianov, one of the tasks of the RVAA is to impart interspecific groups of troops to the theater and operational areas of the basic properties of a reconnaissance-fire system operating in a single information space. This is impossible without the full functional integration of forces involved in enemy fire attack, equipping MFA forces with high-precision automated control and reconnaissance systems, missile and artillery systems of the new generation of ASTRON, automated daring-type combat operations such as Zarya-22. The rearmament involves the transition to an IWT on new physical principles.
In order for MFA units to be outside the enemy's fire zone, the range of missile and artillery weapons must be increased by 1,5 – 2 times, and the accuracy reach weapons long-range ground forces - tripled, and even five times.
World tendencies show that the use of forces and means of fire destruction is characterized by a transition from the destruction and destruction of objects to the disruption of their functioning for the time necessary for the troops to accomplish the task. None of the above goals, according to Valery Kezhayev, will be achieved if there are no people who sincerely care for the result, for introducing new methods and technologies into military practice. There are such specialists, but there are still quite a few problems in the way of the implementation of seemingly understandable solutions.
“This is an initiative that was recently shown, in particular, by Colonel-General Vladimir Zaritsky and Lieutenant-General Valery Tsukanov,” Valery Kezhaev said at a conference at the Army-2015 forum. “There are few who would raise such questions in principle, on the solution of which the fate of the kind of troops depends.”
Change of officials
Chief of Staff - First Deputy Chief of the Missile Forces and Artillery of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (2001 – 2006), Doctor of Military Sciences, Lieutenant-General Valery Tsukanov explained that the analysis of armed conflicts of recent years, and this is Iraq with Afghanistan, and Libya with Syria, and Ukraine , shows: in modern combat, information plays a decisive role, more precisely, the ability to receive it in time and quickly dispose of it. It is important that our scientists were able to anticipate these global trends. They also began to solve the problem under the direction of Colonel-General Vladimir Zaritsky, Chief of the MTA and Land Forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (2001 – 2008). In 2002, work began on the MFA R & D development concept as a reconnaissance-fire system. It contained seven sections, including nuclear support. But unexpected difficulties arose in the way of her statement. And after years of 13 they did not disappear.
The concept worked for two years, it was coordinated with all the central military administration bodies, scientific research institutes, universities, the commander-in-chief of the Ground Forces, and approved by the Chief of General Staff. Documents were sent to 68 organizations, including leading industrial enterprises. And most importantly, research and development work on integrated weapon systems for MFA was carried out. Connected VAGSH, Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy, research institutes, other organizations. There were many publications and scientific papers. But the result is not impressive.
The industry before 2014 mainly completed completed R & D projects and created the basis for the reconnaissance and fire system. But by this time the Ukrainian conflict had flared up, which sharply put on the agenda the question of the significance of the enemy's fire destruction and the role of artillery in the operations of the Ground Forces. It would seem that this should accelerate the development of the established groundwork, but it turned out the opposite.
Since 2013, attempts by the industry and the main consumer of this weapon (the MFA administration) to convince finances managers, first of all, the Main Agrarian University, to order the delivery kit for army divisions of a separate motorized rifle brigade that was almost adopted, did not produce results. The request to the Deputy Minister of Defense for Armaments in April 2013 also did not find understanding. A personal appeal to Lieutenant-General Valery Tsukanov to the GRAU (already as an adviser to the general director of one of the enterprises of the military-industrial complex, which was entrusted with the development of appropriate systems) did not bring results.
After that, Colonel-General Zaritsky made a report at a meeting of the Military Industrial Commission under the government. Members of the NTS, he was adopted with approval. However, the matter did not move again.
“After that, guided solely by questions of increasing the state’s defense, the general director of Russian Electronics was decided to address the issue to the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Military-Industrial Committee of the Russian Federation Dmitry Rogozin,” Lieutenant-General Tsukanov said. - It was reported that Rosselectroniya, with the support of the Russian Academy of Rocket and Artillery Sciences, completed the creation of an integrated artillery combat fire system, which in the orders of the Ministry of Defense from 10 June 2014, was found suitable for admission to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. This is the result of many years of purposeful work of the administration, the State Industrial University, industrial enterprises, the Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation ”.
This reconnaissance and fire system increases enemy damage by 2 – 2,5, saves ammunition by 10 – 15 percent, shortens the control cycle in the division by 3 – 3,5 times, and controls the means of reconnaissance by 4 – 5 times. There are other positive characteristics that are given in the act of state tests.
Unfortunately, at present, the means of artillery units that carry out enemy fire engagement are not always integrated with reconnaissance and command complexes. So, in some conditions ineffective. But for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the purchase of individual samples of old weapons continues. Not a single unit, artillery formations using the new combat integrated reconnaissance and fire system (except for Iskander) have been formed. As a result, by the 2020 year we can get a completely negative result: MFA units with modern weapons will not be formed, since complete deliveries of such weapons and military equipment are not provided for in the state defense order.
It may turn out that by the year of 2020 we will be left without new system-forming weapons in MTA. Russian Electronics, guided by the interests of the defense of the state, asked to consider this problem with the invitation of interested parties: the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Defense, industrial enterprises, RARAN, universities. Offered:
1. To supplement the NKTsP "Development of artillery weapons" with a paragraph on specific supplies of weapons for equipping reconnaissance and artillery systems.
2. To appoint a system integrator-customer, for whom to assign the tasks of forming the state defense order, equipping the troops, and arranging the coordination of units in one of the training centers; Arms Department - to prepare the relevant documents.
3. To determine the head enterprise of the industry for developing system-wide and special software, to assign scientific support to the appropriate institute and RARAN.
What did Comrade Rogozin say? He referred to the customer - GRAU. The answer, in particular, stated that the equipment of the artillery battalions of the combined arms and military brigades of weapons and military equipment is currently being part of the delivery kits and in accordance with the approved plan. "In connection with the above, there is no need to consider ..." In a word, then everything is clear.
Change of approaches
Maybe this development worthless? What lies in this answer - incompetence, ignorance of the basics of military service and the combat use of MFA? After all, artillery is an armament system functioning in a single program space, the main striking force of the Ground Forces. But such an attitude can also be interpreted as failure to comply with presidential decree No. 603, which dealt with this system. Not to mention the fact that with the knowledge of the customer himself (the state), a lot of time and money was spent on its development.
“In May, I visited 2015 in the Central Military District, where I was once the head of the RViA of the Volga Military District, and made sure that no troops were supplied to the troops in recent years,” Lieutenant-General shared his observations with concern. Valery Tsukanov. - Not to mention some kind of integrated systems. We in Moscow are creating something, inventing, and the troops do not even have information about it. They are preparing in the old manner to go on the attack, leaving thousands of lives on the battlefields ”.
Professor of the Mikhailovsky Academy, Alexander Bogdanov, added that today it was necessary to adjust the shooting rules and training courses for artillery units, which would allow an objective assessment of their training, to reflect the latest changes.
“We are facing the need to revise the practical and theoretical tasks of artillery,” said Bogdanov. “In which there are as many 577 articles and shooting rules.”
What else is needed to support the combat capability of artillery units? According to experts, the current training ground is a small patch where it is extremely difficult to organize high-quality training for the management of fire and strikes by MFA units and subunits. So you have to think about the new site.
A more effective solution also requires the problem of introducing robotic complexes into the reconnaissance-firing system, including the subsystem of control, reconnaissance, target designation and all types of support. Prospective directions are outlined in connection with the strengthening of the role of innovative technologies in the field of the automated control of MFA.
Ensure victory on the battlefield mass casualties, as it was in the Great Patriotic War, will not succeed for many reasons. In order not to repeat 1941, officials in uniform and without them should be attentive to every sound thought from the troops and the military-industrial complex, every technical novelty, especially the armament system and the maintenance of hostilities that are born most often thanks to enthusiasts.
Many people are surprised that Russian artillery systems do not have demand in the world market. Surprise passes when you learn about the attitude to this type of weapons and military equipment in your own defense department.
Events in Ukraine have shown that the effective use of strike fire systems is quite possible without achieving operational superiority over the enemy. These tasks are accomplished by conducting a counter-battery struggle, defeating the reserves that advance from the depths, neutralizing control centers (electronic weapons), and destroying those breaking through into the defenses. tanks, which robs the enemy of the initiative. This is characteristic of both local conflicts and future wars. But success is possible only with the integration of forces and means in the reconnaissance and fire system.
Change goals
First of all, this is about the artillery component of the MTA of the Ground Forces. Recall: organizationally it includes compounds (units, subunits) of howitzer, cannon, reactive, anti-tank artillery, anti-tank missile systems, mortars, as well as reconnaissance, control and support. The structure is branched and rather complex. In order to meet the requirements of time, it must be constantly improved, saturated with new weapons and military equipment.
This requires not only the challenges of the time, but also global trends. The development of technologies has allowed the integration of the management of forces and assets in a single information, intelligence space and move from a rigid centralized management vertically to a network-centric - horizontally. These processes led to a revision of views on the organization and conduct of hostilities, including the use of artillery weapons.
The leading trend, says a senior researcher at the 3 Central Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Candidate of Military Sciences Valery Lozhnikov, is the creation of interspecific groupings of troops, minimizing or completely eliminating the conduct of close firefight with units and units. Emphasis is placed on mobility and maximum activation of the combat potential of small groups based on the new capabilities of reconnaissance, control, destruction and support systems.
Changing priorities and fire destruction. The main efforts are focused on the destruction of critical infrastructure, government and military systems.
At the operational level, emphasis is placed on the destruction of objects that determine the functioning of the main combat and support systems of the enemy. The aggression of the United States and other NATO countries against Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya has become a practical test of these conceptual provisions. The results show that the main trends of warfare are:
-expansion of the spatial scope of actions against enemy combat systems and the extent of destruction;
-the shift of the center of military operations in the aerospace sphere;
-use in battle of a single information space;
- the lack of direct contact of the fighting forces;
-the presence of open flanks.
In the end, there is a gradual switching of exposure from manpower and enemy equipment to key control objects. But such an application of MTAs can be carried out only in a single information and intelligence space with maximum maneuverability, which implies the deployment of units and subunits on the move to unprepared firing positions.
“In recent years, problems have arisen in the field of automation of MTA management due to both objective and subjective factors,” said Valery Kezhaev, professor at the automation department of the MFAR management of the Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy. - According to some estimates, commanders of artillery divisions today are forced to make decisions with only 30 percent of necessary information, and sometimes 10 percent of information about the situation. But even for the preparation of the attack of the battalion (division), it is required to solve about 500 various preparatory tasks.
What is the reason for the lack of information?
The scope of tasks for enemy fire engagement has increased dramatically, and the time for making a decision on combat has decreased. In addition, information about the enemy in MFA is suitable if their lag time does not exceed 50 minutes. With the advent of new maneuverability means less and less.
Problems are solved only through the integration of MFA control systems into the reconnaissance-fire system. To understanding this did not come yesterday. But another problem arose related to the introduction of robotic systems in the reconnaissance-fire system, including the subsystems of control, reconnaissance, target designation, support. Not everyone understands the significance of such revolutionary changes.
It’s not for nothing that the leadership of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and scientific research institutes now even talk about reprinting the dictionary of operational tactical terms. And in the armies of developed countries, the activity of applied scientific research in the field of the use of new forms and methods of military operations has sharply increased.
Change of principles
The concept of network-centricism contributes to the introduction of innovative technologies in the automated management of MTA and that will allow you to successfully implement promising ways to perform fire tasks regardless of the complexity of the combat situation and the nature of the hostilities.
These technologies will become crucial in the near future, which will require appropriate training of specialists, including robotics. According to Professor of the RViA Department of the Mikhailovsky Military Artillery Academy, Doctor of Military Sciences, Associate Professor Colonel Vitaly Lukianov, one of the tasks of the RVAA is to impart interspecific groups of troops to the theater and operational areas of the basic properties of a reconnaissance-fire system operating in a single information space. This is impossible without the full functional integration of forces involved in enemy fire attack, equipping MFA forces with high-precision automated control and reconnaissance systems, missile and artillery systems of the new generation of ASTRON, automated daring-type combat operations such as Zarya-22. The rearmament involves the transition to an IWT on new physical principles.In order for MFA units to be outside the enemy's fire zone, the range of missile and artillery weapons must be increased by 1,5 – 2 times, and the accuracy reach weapons long-range ground forces - tripled, and even five times.
World tendencies show that the use of forces and means of fire destruction is characterized by a transition from the destruction and destruction of objects to the disruption of their functioning for the time necessary for the troops to accomplish the task. None of the above goals, according to Valery Kezhayev, will be achieved if there are no people who sincerely care for the result, for introducing new methods and technologies into military practice. There are such specialists, but there are still quite a few problems in the way of the implementation of seemingly understandable solutions.
“This is an initiative that was recently shown, in particular, by Colonel-General Vladimir Zaritsky and Lieutenant-General Valery Tsukanov,” Valery Kezhaev said at a conference at the Army-2015 forum. “There are few who would raise such questions in principle, on the solution of which the fate of the kind of troops depends.”
Change of officials
Chief of Staff - First Deputy Chief of the Missile Forces and Artillery of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (2001 – 2006), Doctor of Military Sciences, Lieutenant-General Valery Tsukanov explained that the analysis of armed conflicts of recent years, and this is Iraq with Afghanistan, and Libya with Syria, and Ukraine , shows: in modern combat, information plays a decisive role, more precisely, the ability to receive it in time and quickly dispose of it. It is important that our scientists were able to anticipate these global trends. They also began to solve the problem under the direction of Colonel-General Vladimir Zaritsky, Chief of the MTA and Land Forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (2001 – 2008). In 2002, work began on the MFA R & D development concept as a reconnaissance-fire system. It contained seven sections, including nuclear support. But unexpected difficulties arose in the way of her statement. And after years of 13 they did not disappear.
The concept worked for two years, it was coordinated with all the central military administration bodies, scientific research institutes, universities, the commander-in-chief of the Ground Forces, and approved by the Chief of General Staff. Documents were sent to 68 organizations, including leading industrial enterprises. And most importantly, research and development work on integrated weapon systems for MFA was carried out. Connected VAGSH, Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy, research institutes, other organizations. There were many publications and scientific papers. But the result is not impressive.
The industry before 2014 mainly completed completed R & D projects and created the basis for the reconnaissance and fire system. But by this time the Ukrainian conflict had flared up, which sharply put on the agenda the question of the significance of the enemy's fire destruction and the role of artillery in the operations of the Ground Forces. It would seem that this should accelerate the development of the established groundwork, but it turned out the opposite.
Since 2013, attempts by the industry and the main consumer of this weapon (the MFA administration) to convince finances managers, first of all, the Main Agrarian University, to order the delivery kit for army divisions of a separate motorized rifle brigade that was almost adopted, did not produce results. The request to the Deputy Minister of Defense for Armaments in April 2013 also did not find understanding. A personal appeal to Lieutenant-General Valery Tsukanov to the GRAU (already as an adviser to the general director of one of the enterprises of the military-industrial complex, which was entrusted with the development of appropriate systems) did not bring results.
After that, Colonel-General Zaritsky made a report at a meeting of the Military Industrial Commission under the government. Members of the NTS, he was adopted with approval. However, the matter did not move again.
“After that, guided solely by questions of increasing the state’s defense, the general director of Russian Electronics was decided to address the issue to the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Military-Industrial Committee of the Russian Federation Dmitry Rogozin,” Lieutenant-General Tsukanov said. - It was reported that Rosselectroniya, with the support of the Russian Academy of Rocket and Artillery Sciences, completed the creation of an integrated artillery combat fire system, which in the orders of the Ministry of Defense from 10 June 2014, was found suitable for admission to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. This is the result of many years of purposeful work of the administration, the State Industrial University, industrial enterprises, the Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation ”.
This reconnaissance and fire system increases enemy damage by 2 – 2,5, saves ammunition by 10 – 15 percent, shortens the control cycle in the division by 3 – 3,5 times, and controls the means of reconnaissance by 4 – 5 times. There are other positive characteristics that are given in the act of state tests.
Unfortunately, at present, the means of artillery units that carry out enemy fire engagement are not always integrated with reconnaissance and command complexes. So, in some conditions ineffective. But for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the purchase of individual samples of old weapons continues. Not a single unit, artillery formations using the new combat integrated reconnaissance and fire system (except for Iskander) have been formed. As a result, by the 2020 year we can get a completely negative result: MFA units with modern weapons will not be formed, since complete deliveries of such weapons and military equipment are not provided for in the state defense order.
It may turn out that by the year of 2020 we will be left without new system-forming weapons in MTA. Russian Electronics, guided by the interests of the defense of the state, asked to consider this problem with the invitation of interested parties: the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Defense, industrial enterprises, RARAN, universities. Offered:
1. To supplement the NKTsP "Development of artillery weapons" with a paragraph on specific supplies of weapons for equipping reconnaissance and artillery systems.
2. To appoint a system integrator-customer, for whom to assign the tasks of forming the state defense order, equipping the troops, and arranging the coordination of units in one of the training centers; Arms Department - to prepare the relevant documents.
3. To determine the head enterprise of the industry for developing system-wide and special software, to assign scientific support to the appropriate institute and RARAN.
What did Comrade Rogozin say? He referred to the customer - GRAU. The answer, in particular, stated that the equipment of the artillery battalions of the combined arms and military brigades of weapons and military equipment is currently being part of the delivery kits and in accordance with the approved plan. "In connection with the above, there is no need to consider ..." In a word, then everything is clear.
Change of approaches
Maybe this development worthless? What lies in this answer - incompetence, ignorance of the basics of military service and the combat use of MFA? After all, artillery is an armament system functioning in a single program space, the main striking force of the Ground Forces. But such an attitude can also be interpreted as failure to comply with presidential decree No. 603, which dealt with this system. Not to mention the fact that with the knowledge of the customer himself (the state), a lot of time and money was spent on its development.
“In May, I visited 2015 in the Central Military District, where I was once the head of the RViA of the Volga Military District, and made sure that no troops were supplied to the troops in recent years,” Lieutenant-General shared his observations with concern. Valery Tsukanov. - Not to mention some kind of integrated systems. We in Moscow are creating something, inventing, and the troops do not even have information about it. They are preparing in the old manner to go on the attack, leaving thousands of lives on the battlefields ”.
Professor of the Mikhailovsky Academy, Alexander Bogdanov, added that today it was necessary to adjust the shooting rules and training courses for artillery units, which would allow an objective assessment of their training, to reflect the latest changes.
“We are facing the need to revise the practical and theoretical tasks of artillery,” said Bogdanov. “In which there are as many 577 articles and shooting rules.”
What else is needed to support the combat capability of artillery units? According to experts, the current training ground is a small patch where it is extremely difficult to organize high-quality training for the management of fire and strikes by MFA units and subunits. So you have to think about the new site.
A more effective solution also requires the problem of introducing robotic complexes into the reconnaissance-firing system, including the subsystem of control, reconnaissance, target designation and all types of support. Prospective directions are outlined in connection with the strengthening of the role of innovative technologies in the field of the automated control of MFA.
Ensure victory on the battlefield mass casualties, as it was in the Great Patriotic War, will not succeed for many reasons. In order not to repeat 1941, officials in uniform and without them should be attentive to every sound thought from the troops and the military-industrial complex, every technical novelty, especially the armament system and the maintenance of hostilities that are born most often thanks to enthusiasts.
Information