MILITARY THOUGHT (USSR): IMPROVING THE OPERATIONAL TACTICAL TRAINING OF MILITARY ENGINEERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP10-00105R000100970001-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 11, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: March 10, 1975
• Content Type: MEMO

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Intelligence Information Special Report
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COUNTRY USSR
DATE 10 March 1975
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MILITARY THOUGHT (USSR): Improving the Operational-Tactical Training of
Military Engineers
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Improving the erational-Tactical Training
o ita ineers
by
General-Mayor of Aviation Ye. Artyushenko
The importance of operational-tactical training of students at
military engineer educational institutions has grown considerably at
present. In this connection the program of these institutions must ensure
that the students learn the fundamentals of operational art, the
organization, armament and tactics of the arms of troops, and the basic
conditions of staff work; and the students must develop the solid command
and technical skills required in their service assignments, as well as the
ability to use their acquired knowledge to solve the complicated problems
of modern warfare. However, for a number of reasons the content and
quality of tactical training still does not ensure the solution of these
problems.
First of all, the fact is that the range of problems and disciplines
directly or closely related to tactical training has considerably expanded
in connection with the requirements for thorough knowledge of complicated
combat and special equipment and the fundamentals of their use. New
elements of theory, operational art, and tactics have emerged, which has
led to an expansion of the curricula and complicated the organization of
the study program.
Experience shows that it is now impossible for a single operational-
tactical chair to cover all the curriculum problems and fully ensure
thorough learning. This would involve changing the organizational
structure and significantly increasing the amount of personnel of the
chair, which would result in the creation of a cumbersome, barely
manageable collective.
This situation is the reason for the search for new, more progressive
training methods at the Air Defense Forces of the Country Military
Radiotechnical Academy. Beginning with the 1965-66 academic year, the
method of combined instruction of operational-tactical disciplines, w dely
used by command academies, was introduced. The essence of this method
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(conforming with a higher military engineer educational institution)
comprises the following.
Along with the operational-tactical chair, the profile chairs of the
academy are called upon for the operational-tactical training of students.
Depending on the specialization, each one provides instruction to students
in separate subjects or divisions of the operational-tactical training
program within the limits of its school hour time. The operational-
tactical training chair concentrates its main efforts on the organization
and training of divisions of the course for up to a regiment (separate
battalion) of a particular arm of troops. But the profile chairs work on
their own distinctive special course divisions, as well as problems
involving the combat use of armament and the organization of combat
performance in the subunits of an arm of troops.
Thus, for example, in teaching the course "Fundamentals of Training in
the Conduct of Combat Actions by an Air Defense Division", the instructors
of these chairs set forth the problems of organizing radioelectronic
warfare, communications, anti-space camouflage and other subjects. In
addition, using materials from tactical problems and short exercises worked
out by the operational-tactical training chair, the profile chairs work
out, or expand against the background of these problems and exercises,
specialized subjects (problems) conforming to their own faculty profile.
Responsibilities for the teaching of measures for protecting the Air
Defense Forces of the Country from weapons of mass destruction, are
distributed among the chairs as follows. Protective measures of an
operational-tactical nature, which are reflected in the decision of the
commander on the organization and conduct of combat actions and in the
combat actions plan, are studied under the direction of instructors of the
chairs of operational-tactical training; and the weapons of-mass
destruction and protection of troops from them are studied against a single
operational-tactical background. The profile chairs (independently or
combined with the chair of weapons of mass destruction and protection of
troops from them) teach the problems of the protection of radiotechnical
means and the organization of the combat performance of subunits under
conditions of the use of weapons of mass destruction.
Instructors of the profile, and frequently also of the special
technical chairs, also take an active part in working out and conducting
command-staff exercises, research games, and tactical-technical exercises,
with the students and the permanent staff of the academy.
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We have arrived at the conclusion that in planning and organizing the
combined method of teaching operational-tactical disciplines, first of all
the problems (subjects) taught by each chair involved should be defined and
coordinated with the operational-tactical training program; and the
problems (subjects) selected are included in the chair program and are
adjusted to the academy curriculum. In this way, a single operational-
tactical training program is worked out and each chair is given a definite
teaching assignment.
The teaching methods and materials of combined training (lectures,
systematic development, etc.) are discussed in inter-chair conferences of
interested chairs with the active participation of the training department,
and under the direction of the deputy chief of the academy or the chief of
the operational-tactical training chair. The sequence and time frame for
conducting combined training is determined by the semester calendar-subject
plan of the operational-tactical training chair. Training conducted
independently by each chair is planned by the usual procedures, in
conformance with the program and curriculum.
The method of combined instruction of operational-tactical disciplines
in a higher military engineer educational institution, in our view, offers
a number of advantages. In the first place, it becomes possible to
significantly expand the range of operational-tactical training subjects
(problems) and increase the time spent working on them. The problems of
organizing subunit combat performance and the use of arms and equipment,
which are central to the overall operational-tactical training system, thus
are more thoroughly developed. As a whole the level of tactical training
is significantly raised, since not one, but several, chairs are engaged in
it, which ensures continuity and sequence of study of these disciplines.
In the second place, this method strengthens the scientific and teaching
method relation s between academy chairs and also ensures a higher quality
of solution of tactical and technical problems in support of the training
process and scientific research work. In the third lace, it broadens the
operational-tactical horizon of the teaching staff of the profile chairs,
and the instructors of the operational-tactical training chair can devote
more attention to the special problems of tactics and to mastering new
models of technical equipment. And, in the fourth lace, this method is
conducive to the effective introduction of tactics into the programs of
profile chairs, which to a significant degree specifically defines and
improves their content, bringing it closer to the problems solved by the
troops.
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However, the introduction of the combined method still does not solve
the problems of school hour limits, which are insufficient for tactical
training at a higher military engineer educational institution.
Can additional time be found? Yes, we have reserves. Above all, we
obviously should review the curricula of higher military educational
institutions on the whole, and reapportion the time planned for studying
each discipline according to its place and weight in the overall system of
training broad-profile military engineers.
Of course, such a statement of the problem affects the interests of
several leading chairs which play an important role in engineer training.
But nevertheless it must be done for the good of the overall program since
we are preparing not civilian specialists but military engineers who at any
time may became commanders (or replace a commander in battle), and in the
future may even become prominent military leaders.
There is also an urgent need to resolve the problem of developing
textbooks and training aids for operational-tactical training and supplying
higher military educational institutions with them, since at present each
of these institutions, pleading a different number of hours allotted to the
study of a course, and the various peculiarities of its programs, tries to
develop and publish its own textbooks (training aids) independently.
This position, in our opinion, cannot be considered normal, since the
various collectives of authors duplicate each other and as a result the
students at higher military educational institutions of the same service
study the same tactics using different textbooks (training aids).
Furthermore, independently developed textbooks (training aids) often
contain many deficiencies, different interpretations of the same problems,
different terminology, etc.
In our view, the development and publication of textbooks (training
aids) on basic operational-tactical training disciplines should be
centralized for all higher military educational institutions of a given
service. The command academy is the center in this case, but
representatives to the staff of the authors' collective should be drawn
from all the other interested higher military educational institutions. In
order to avoid considerable discrepancies in school hours the various
schools allot to the study of a given discipline, a single standard program
should be devised for all higher and middle technical educational
institutions. In writing these textbooks (training aids), the possibility
of using them for the command training of generals and officers of a given
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branch of the armed forces (arm of troops) should be provided for.
There is yet another effective method of upgrading the
operational-tactical training in higher military engineer educational
institutions, though insufficient use is made of it. This is a bilateral
link between the chairs of these institutions and the armed forces. We
know this kind of link is conducive to raising the effectiveness of the
instructors and to incorporating advanced troop experience in the training
process; and, in turn, the institutions will help the troops solve their
problems. This is fully corroborated by the training work practiced at our
academy.
With a view toward further broadening and strengthening these links it
frequently is desirable: to assign the teaching staff of higher military
engineer educational institutions as umpires or role-players in exercises
and war games conducted by the troops; to call conferences and meetings
organized according to the plans of the general staffs of the branches of
the armed forces (i.e., meetings of arms of troops and services) and of
formations; to make more use of the practice of having troop
representatives address students and the teaching staff, and having
representatives of higher military educational institutions give lectures
and talks to the troops; to adapt for these institutions periodic
information on the advanced experience of combat and operational-tactical
troop training which would be useful in the training process.
Experience shows the realization of the measures given above depends
not only on initiative and organization at the working level, but also on
timely planning from above. In our view, the above is justified if at the
beginning of the academic year the higher military educational institution
is given (for a year or a period) such initial data as the place, time, and
type of activities in which the institution representatives will take part,
the number of these representatives, and when and to what exercises (war
games) they can be assigned as umpires. The institutions would plan their
work on the basis of this basic data. In our opinion, we should return to
the practice of consolidating higher military educational institutions with
specified troop formations (large units). Then we could more specifically
discuss combining work by setting up links.
Operational-tactical training exercises at our academy (as in other
higher military engineer institutions) are conducted basically by one
chair. This chair is multiprofiled, since it includes more than a dozen
different operational-tactical and other military disciplines. If such an
organization of operational-tactical training answered the demands made on
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it before (considering the broadening of the program with the same number
of instructors), then now the teaching methods and scientific research of
chairs will become complicated.
Since important changes have taken place in the organization of troops
and in the theory of operational art and tactics in recent years, an urgent
need has arisen to revise the direction of the operational-tactical
training as well. It would be desirable to reorganize the existing chairs
of operational art and tactics, setting up on their base two chairs:
general tactics (tactics of arms of troops), and a special chair along the
lines of the profile of one of the engineer academies. It also is very
important that the organization of subunit combat performance and. problems
of the combat use of equipment be studied not only in the combined training
system, but as an integral part of the course work of profile chairs of the
academy. This requires changing the classification and the organic
organizational structure of these chairs somewhat to create chairs of
equipment and combat use.
Of course, there may be other variants of solving this problem.
However, in all cases one should proceed from the principle of establishing
multiprofiled chairs.
The instructor staff of the chairs largely determines the quality of
operational-tactical training. In our opinion, the instructor staffs
should be composed of experienced officers from the troops and, above all,
commanders, chiefs of staffs, and officer-operators who have completed both
a command academy and a higher military engineer educational institution.
Combining instructors who have a command-staff training profile with those
having an engineering education favorably affects the quality and
thoroughness of the tasks the chair carries out. It should be emphasized
that it is desirable to select instructors of operational-tactical
disciplines (especially tactics of the arms of troops) from those arms of
troops whose tactics are studied at a given higher military educational
institution.
Staffing the chair, "Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Protection of
Troops from Them", which makes a definite contribution to the operational-
tactical training of students, should include officers with command-staff
experience, doctors and engineers (including radioelectronics officers)
along with chemical service officers. As the five-year experience at our
higher military educational institution proved, this staffing principle is
fully justified.
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At the same time, it would be desirable for other organs, besides the
chemical services of the branches of the armed forces, which are concerned
with protection problems, to participate in teaching these subjects. Such
a link would be conducive to greater incorporation of advanced troop
experience in the training process.
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