Growing Focus on Russian Tactical Evolutions Bringing Renewed Battlefield Success on the Eve of Offensive Season

The following is a hefty ~4,000 word premium article on the shifting frontline tactics of the Russian Armed Forces. It features a breakdown of a new WSJ article on the topic, as well as detailed anatomies of recent assaults, and an interview with a Russian soldier culminating in the idea of a ‘revolution in military affairs’ taking place in Russia—featuring the ‘democratization’ of the armed forces—in spite of ongoing technical and logistical struggles.

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The Wall Street Journal published a new guide to Russia’s increasingly successful battle tactics. It comes at a time when Western press and its pro-Ukrainian lackeys have quietly begun admitting to the various successes and evolutionary tactical progressions that Russian forces have been achieving.

Let’s start with the WSJ piece:

https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/blasting-a-path-an-illustrated-guide-to-russias-battle-tactics-a0163d9c

Brief summary from a Russian source:

Americans think the Russian army is not fighting like gentlemen.

WSJ writes that the Russian military is "blazing a trail in Ukraine, combining the brute force of the Red Army with modern technology."

The Russian way of warfare, according to the newspaper, is based on drones that detect targets and "the power of bombs and artillery that pave the way for infantry to seize territory."

"Each element of the attack supports the others, happening simultaneously or in waves. This can create a snowball effect, forcing the Ukrainians to retreat," the article says.

Hold on to that first bolded line, it will come into play later.

Firstly, as a statement of methodology WSJ claims to have “[spoken] with Ukrainian and Russian soldiers as well as military analysts to form a picture of how it works.”

They begin by stating a lot of obvious points—Russia has hundreds of recon drones all over the front at any given time, and they use them to pinpoint massive bombing strikes on Ukrainian positions from Su-34s and the like:

A recent photo surfaced showing an Su-34 flying at 11,070 meters, or ~36,000 ft, with the nighttime cityscape of Zaporozhye city ahead of it. The designated wing pylons 3, 11, 12, and 4 are loaded with Fab-500 bombs:

What makes this interesting is the distance to the city appears perhaps 50-70km at most, with the plane’s orientation as directly south of it. It implies Ukrainian long range air defense is attrited to such an extent as to allow these planes to fly at max altitude that close to a major Ukrainian population center. Recall it was only a year ago that A-50 AWACS flying much farther away near the Azov Sea were reportedly at threat of 200-300+ kilometer AD missiles.

Some estimates indicate Ukraine is woefully short:

On the drone front, Russia has been increasingly expanding its recon drone fleet. Here’s a test flight in the Sverdlovsk region of a prototype EW drone with antennas attached, that can suppress enemy signals—note how the viewing monitors turn off or go to static as the drone flies over:

Such drones can be used to suppress enemy FPV operators across a given front.

At the same time, a Russian team tested the first long range FPV operation wherein an operator sitting in Moscow was able to control an FPV drone in Konstantinovka:

For the first time, an FPV drone controlled from Moscow hits a Ukrainian Armed Forces facility in Chasov Yar

The strike was carried out by the FPV drone "Ovod" using the new control system "Orbita".

The UAV crew from the Espanyola brigade prepared the drone for takeoff.

The drone was controlled by a UAV operator located in Moscow.

The drone flew more than 11 km and successfully hit the target.

"Orbita" will allow drone strikes to be carried out by issuing commands from anywhere in the world.

/RIAN/

Granted, this is nothing new to American operators flying MidEast Predator kill missions from the comfort of Las Vegas, but for FPV drones this is a new development that could allow the distribution of remote pilots to alleviate operator droughts on given fronts, not to mention take operators out of harm’s way.

The WSJ article goes on to explain that Russians essentially use small, fast motorcycle riders in a dual role. Not only are they carrying out the trickling ‘drip-feed’ method of insertion I’ve often described here by quickly speeding across open enemy territory to ‘accumulate’ in a captured position, but they are simultaneously utilizing ‘reconnaissance-by-fire’ to draw out Ukrainian positions:

Recall that in the very opening, the article states:

The Russian way of war relies on drones to spot targets and the power of its bombs and artillery to blast a path for infantry to seize ground. Each element of an attack supports the others, happening simultaneously or in waves. This can create a snowball effect, forcing Ukrainians to retreat.

They admit that this is a deliberate unified strategy, which is usually highly coordinated between the artillery set to fire on the ‘exposed’ forces that the motorcycle riders have outed via their recon-by-fire assault. Russian artillery and drone teams then suppress the enemy fire points, allowing the motorcycle riders to quickly entrench in the captured position.

One of the enduring Ukrainian claims, ‘demonstrated’ in dozens of videos, and hinted at in the WSJ article, is that these Russian riders are some kind of expendable troops which mostly die as soon as they arrive. This claim is supported by videos showing many of the ATVs and motorbikes being destroyed after the arrival.