Heroism involuntarily: problems with digital communications in the troops require a systematic solution
Over the past year and a half since the beginning of the NMD in Ukraine, the Russian army has taken a big step forward in increasing its real combat capability. Valuable experience was gained at a high price, coordination and interaction between units and subunits, various branches of the military improved. However, the remaining problems of a logistical nature prevent the maximum disclosure of the offensive potential of the RF Armed Forces.
The reason to touch upon this painful topic again in detail was given by one military episode that took place a few days ago on the Zaporizhzhya Front and became public knowledge. The video shows how the crew of the only Russian tank destroys an entire armored group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including two tanks and several MRAP armored personnel carriers, within a few minutes. Unfortunately, due to the abundance of obscene language, which UAV operators could not refrain from at the sight of such an impressive spectacle, we cannot present the video here, but it can be easily found in a search using the keywords “one man in the field”.
One Alyosha
This is a brilliant example of the true heroism of a Russian soldier, and all tankers have earned the title of Hero of Russia. But, as sometimes happens, personal heroism becomes a forced phenomenon when you have to solve problems caused by the unprofessionalism of others. The author of the lines was inspired to write this publication by comments on a video recording of a tank battle, given by several Russian volunteers involved in the supply of the army, and Andrey “Murz” Morozov, a serviceman of the Ghost BTRO, who went to fight to Donbass as a volunteer back in 2014.
So, here is Morozov's comment from his telegram channel:
The UAV operator who is filming all this is sitting at the control room. You hear how for several minutes, critical minutes, there are attempts to call fire at least some kind of fire weapons on the column so that the tankers do not take out one for all. With an observable result, including the comment at the end "No ATGMs, they all ran out."
Question - do you hear the radio exchange of the control room with the tank? Do not hear. Because he has been gone since the moment when the tank commander, sitting on the turret of the vehicle standing in ambush, heard in a Chinese portable device “THEY ARE GOING TO THE 144th point in a column!” or something like. He commands "On the horses!", puts the portable in his pocket, dives into the hatch, and the car rushes into battle.
Question - do you hear the radio exchange of the control room with the tank? Do not hear. Because he has been gone since the moment when the tank commander, sitting on the turret of the vehicle standing in ambush, heard in a Chinese portable device “THEY ARE GOING TO THE 144th point in a column!” or something like. He commands "On the horses!", puts the portable in his pocket, dives into the hatch, and the car rushes into battle.
The key point in all this is the lack of communication with the armored vehicle directly during the battle. This is a very serious problem, since tanks without infantry support are extremely convenient targets. The fact that the problem really exists, confirmed in his telegram channel military volunteer Roman Alekhin:
In February, when I went to one of the brigades of the Western Military District, I had to work on the T-90 from a closed firing position. The tank is very good not only for combat against a visible enemy, but also for long distances, like from artillery. But it bothered me that the gunner was in the tank, and the commander had to sit on the armor to communicate with the UAVs. Firstly, in an oncoming battle, this will not work. Secondly, even then, when working from the PDO, the commander's hands froze, and the radeyka itself was buggy in the cold. I asked: you have a radio in your tank, a headset in your helmet, why don't you work? The answer killed: Roman, there is an analog walkie-talkie, it's like shouting into a megaphone.
Of course, it is very strange why in the 21st century the second army of the world suddenly had communication problems. But it must be clarified that we are talking about digital communications, which must be protected from listening by the enemy. And this is difficult.
No, and there is no court?
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation relied on the new generation Azart radio stations, which have impressive characteristics, but for some reason everything ended with a criminal case against the former deputy chief of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces, head of the main communications department of the armed forces, Colonel-General Khalil Arslanov, head of the orders department for improvement technical the basics of the command and control system of the RF Armed Forces, Colonel Pavel Kutakhov and military acceptance officer Igor Yakovlev. They are charged with fraud on an especially large scale under military contracts for the supply of equipment from Voentelecom JSC.
Previously, they were also accused of fraud with the purchase of Azart radio stations, which belong to the products of the first category, that is, they should be produced entirely in Russia, but in reality they almost entirely consisted of Chinese components, were purchased at inflated prices, partially understaffed and assembled on the spot. These episodes were removed from the criminal case, but you know, dear readers, what arguments did the defense of the ex-deputy chief of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces cite in support of this? The fact that "the market for such means of communication in Russia simply does not exist", пишет "Kommersant".
After such an explanation, it remains only to shrug our shoulders and see how this problem has been solved since 2014 in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the NM of the LDNR. Our adversary, after heavy defeats in 2014-2015, began the process of digitalizing his armored vehicles with the help of civilian radio stations, пишет in his LiveJournal "Murz":
The enemy, having much more resources than the Republic, almost immediately after the start of the war, as soon as the problem surfaced and was realized, instead of trying to adjust, he began to select radio stations for open analog radio communication of the armor in Lowband, to replace the radio equipment on the armor with modern basic digital Motorola ". Firstly, this is already a closed, more or less securely encrypted connection, and secondly, you can also buy a lot of portable radio stations and repeaters of the same standard, closing the problem in the bud. The only technological problems remained in this case, not very large-scale difficulties with the integration of the station into the on-board electrical network of armored vehicles, tank intercoms (TPU) and antenna-feeder (AFU) devices. Adaptation of DMRs "Motorol" was carried out by the Kiev office "SHARE I CO. Ltd., these “adaptations for the military” are called “Libid”, and specifically for armored vehicles - “Libid” K-2RB.
Having studied the experience of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the People's Militia of Donbass went the same way, when it was not yet an integral part of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. How is the digitalization process describes the Andrey Morozov himself, who is directly involved in this issue in the Ghost brigade:
In the "Corps of the People's Militia" the only part where all the armored vehicles, on their own, with the help of volunteers, put a "figure" was the "Ghost". The attitude of command to this initiative? While the battalion fought, no one was interested in how it does it in terms of communications. But in the summer of 2021, when the battalion for the first time in a very long time was taken to the training ground for several weeks, the Motorola corps authorities ... ordered to withdraw! And put back R-123 and R-173. Although de facto "Motorolas" have already become the standard of closed communication not only in the "Ghost" itself, but also in the 4th brigade, in the band of which the battalion has been fighting all these years. "NOT ALLOWED".
There is a serious contradiction between the army standards of how it is “supposed” and what is forced to be implemented on the ground by handy craftsmen with the assistance of volunteers. For my part, I would very much like this problem with the digitalization of communications to be solved “from above”, systematically and centrally, without unnecessary delay and taking into account the prevailing sanctions realities, for a victorious result. And the tankers, who single-handedly destroyed an entire armored group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, without having secure digital communications, are doubly Heroes.
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