Breath 3 World. The largest military exercises in Russia begin on September 11 - Vostok-2018

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

On the coming Tuesday, September 11, the grandiose strategic exercises of the Russian Armed Forces begin "Vostok-2018" … As announced by the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu, about 300 thousand military personnel (about a third of the personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation), 36 thousand tanks, armored personnel carriers and other combat vehicles, more 1 thousand helicopters, aircraft and drones, ships and vessels of the Northern and Pacific fleets. A number of combat training episodes on Russian territory will be attended by about 3 thousand army soldiers and officers PRC, as well as several military units from Mongolia.

At the same time, for the first time in history, a detachment of warships of the Northern Fleet, accompanied by the nuclear icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy and its diesel-electric counterpart Ilya Muromets, is completing the passage by the Northern Sea Route from the Barents Sea to the Chukchi Sea in difficult ice conditions. The detachment that left Severomorsk on August 8 includes the large anti-submarine ship "Vice-Admiral Kulakov", large landing ships "Alexander Otrakovsky" and "Kondopoga" with marines on board, sea minesweeper "Vladimir Gumanenko", tanker "Sergei Osipov", rescue tug "Pamir" and killer vessel KIL-143. All these ships and support vessels are without a reinforced ice belt. Therefore, sailing in those areas is clearly very risky for them. Even in early autumn, when the ice in the Arctic is thinnest.

It is logical to assume that in the coming days the Americans in Alaska will have a unique opportunity to get a good look at the Northern Fleet detachment through ordinary binoculars. Because the Severomorians are probably about to cross the Bering Strait and leave the Arctic for the Pacific Ocean. It is clear - to also take part in the exercises "Vostok-2018" in a theater of operations new to them.

In a word, what has already begun in Siberia, the Far East, Arctic and Pacific waters is making an unprecedented impression on the whole world. After all, such a scale of troop movements in the Armed Forces of our country has not happened for almost four decades. Since the time of the Soviet military exercises "West-1981".

Let me remind you that those maneuvers were carried out simultaneously on the territories of Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, part of the regions of Russia and all four groups of our troops in Eastern Europe. But then, as we now know, the world was literally hanging by a thread. The war in Afghanistan, condemned by the West, was in full swing. And during "West-1981"In fact, the commanders of the Soviet Army and the Warsaw Pact countries worked out the introduction of additional troops into Poland, in which large-scale protests of the population were gaining momentum, led by the well-known opposition movement Solidarity, led by the future president of this country, Lech Walesa. Naturally, the possible reaction was also taken into account. NATO to enter the troops of the Warsaw Pact.

Therefore (although this was not advertised) the main legend of the Zapad-1981 exercises was the beginning of a great war on the continent. Now what are we going to work out at Vostok-2018?

Both in our country and in the West, most experts are sure that today we are actually preparing for exactly the same thing. For example, the German business newspaper Handelsblatt recently published an article about the upcoming exercise. The authors of the publication express the opinion that in this way the North Atlantic Alliance will be shown impressive military power. And since the scale of the exercises is comparable to the largest operations of the Second World War, they, thus, "make the fears of Washington come true."Moreover, the fears are completely real, because the participation of the Chinese military in "East-2018" clearly demonstrates to the world signs of the formation of a new anti-American military alliance, whose aggregate power is significantly higher than that of USA.

Yes, but then why are the exercises taking place at the eastern and not at the western borders of Russia? After all, several thousand Chinese soldiers and officers could easily have been transferred somewhere near Bryansk or Voronezh? There are probably two reasons.

The first - Strategic command-and-staff exercises, at least on a district scale, have recently been held in Russia every year. But the zones of their holding are selected strictly in turn. So, in 2015, the Center-2015 maneuvers took place. Exactly one year later - "Caucasus-2016". Another year has passed - "West-2017". Thus, now it is the turn of the Of the East.

But the formalization of the date and place of the maneuvers, of course, is not the main thing. It is much more politically important for Moscow today to concentrate this heap of weapons and a cloud of personnel as far as possible from the line of contact with the alliance, which is heating up right before our eyes. To avoid additional charges of provocation. We remember how last year's Zapad-2017 exercises caused a real hysteria in Europe and USA … Therefore, the calendar, which has long been approved by the General Staff, has just turned up right at hand.

But the fact that right these days we are simultaneously learning to fight not only in the Far East, the Pacific Ocean and Siberia is convinced by a simple list of Russian military activity in the last month. Judge for yourself.

In August, Russia concentrated off the coast Syria the largest ship strike group since Soviet times. It includes at least nine carriers of high-precision long-range missiles "Caliber" - missile cruiser "Marshal Ustinov", frigates "Admiral Essen", "Admiral Makarov" and "Admiral Grigorovich", small missile ships "Grad Sviyazhsk", "Veliky Ustyug, Vyshny Volochek, diesel-electric submarines Veliky Novgorod and Kolpino.

In fact, there are probably more cruise missile carriers there, since the presence of our nuclear submarine missile cruisers anywhere is never made public. But something suggests that one or two of these nuclear-powered ships are also secretly fighting in that area. In any case, not only Syria is targeted by the grouping - all of Europe, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Middle East in general.

All this is all the more convincing that on September 5, in the interests of the ship group over the Mediterranean, a pair of Tu-160 strategic missile carriers worked out, which made a 10-hour flight to Syria from the Volga Engels. And four days before them, two long-range anti-submarine Tu-142 aircraft, also flown from Russian territory, were performing tasks there.

On September 7, a very symptomatic exercise took place in Crimea … There, a squadron of attack pilots on the Su-25 of the 4th Army of the Air Force and Air Defense of the Southern Military District trained in the conditions of a sudden missile and bomb attack of the enemy to withdraw the surviving aircraft to alternate airfields. Moreover, I had to take off from a conditionally damaged runway. At the same time, the tasks of combating the fire of other aircraft and airfield facilities were worked out.

Let's take a look at Pacific Ocean … The Vostok-2018 exercise has not yet begun, and on September 2, a pair of Russian long-range Tu-142 anti-submarine aircraft flew over the Japanese island of Hokkaido. On the same day, one of our front-line bomber Su-24 flew near the island of Honshu. In both cases, Japanese fighters were raised to intercept.

September 4 off the coast Of Japan suddenly appeared a large detachment of our warships, consisting of 28 pennants. He made the transition from the Sea of Okhotsk to the Sea of Japan along the La Perouse Strait and passed only 210 kilometers from the coast of Hokkaido.

Now, would you be so kind as to look much further north. September 6, according to the statement of the command of the aerospace defense North America (NORAD), a pair of Russian Tu-95MS strategic bombers ended up "near the western coast of Alaska, north of the Aleutian Islands." The flight route ran in the 200-mile (320 kilometers) NORAD area of responsibility over the Bering Sea. Two American F-22 Raptor fighters were raised to intercept from Alaska.

So are these teachings "Vostok-2018", I will note once again, while even did not start … But does anyone doubt that all these numerous ships and aircraft, long before the official start of the maneuvers, began to carry out combat training missions according to a single plan with maximum effort along the entire perimeter of our borders? Then what is this, if not an attempt by Moscow to simulate the beginning of the Third World War?

But further on it will definitely be even hotter. Please note: we are promised to participate in the exercises "Vostok-2018" incomprehensible to the mind 36 thousand "Tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles." Where do we get so much in the Far East and Siberia?

As part of our Eastern Military District and the Pacific Fleet, there are only nine motorized rifle brigades and one covering brigade, one separate tank brigade, two airborne assault brigades and two marines. Their organizational and staff structure is different. But for the sake of brevity, let's take into account that in each brigade, except for the tank one, there is a tank battalion. Each tank battalion has 42 tanks. Another 94 tanks in the only separate tank brigade in these parts.

Not all of these vehicles are, of course, combat-ready. So more than half a thousand T-72 of various modifications for "Vostok-2018" we definitely can't roll it out. Taking into account armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, armored tractors and other things, we will generously increase this number tenfold. All the same to the promised 36 thousand - as from Vladivostok to Portugal. Where will the rest come from?

Yes, there are 11 more bases of immense storage and repair of military equipment scattered across the Far East. It is clear that a lot of all kinds of shooting goods are conserved there. Therefore, they will take something from there. And even they are already taking it. According to the Ministry of Defense, “at the training ground in the area of the Divisionnaya station, practical exercises were held to prepare for the combat use of T-72 and T-62 tanks to arm two tank companies. The equipment was removed from long-term storage and loaded onto railway transport to be sent to the troops. Separate classes to improve skills in military specialties were held with citizens called up for training camps in the repair and restoration regiment."

So after all, it is only by the titanic efforts of the storerooms that two tank companies have been redeemed! Which doesn't bring us much closer to the mind-blowing 36 thousand all kinds of military vehicles. It turns out, even if we count the commander's UAZs, still a lot will have to be dragged to the Far East by echelons.

And then the Russian railway workers will face a uniform nightmare. Because for the transportation of just one motorized rifle battalion with standard vehicles and armored vehicles (up to 120 units), one train will not be enough. And these battalions in the eastern direction during "Vostoka-2018" Apparently, it will have to be transported, if not in hundreds, then at least in dozens. Then, after a couple of weeks, the same amount - in the opposite direction.

Nobody forgot, of course, how in 2009, during the much more modest scale of the Russian-Belarusian exercises, we tried to transport just one motorized rifle brigade by rail to a distance of about 500 kilometers from the place of permanent deployment. The brigade traveled to the concentration area for five days. And here the military travels are coming six to ten times longer. And then - if the account is kept only from the Urals.

We have not yet extended anything other than the Transib and BAM to the Far East. This means that the pictures at the stations will be like in The great Patriotic … With the military commandants tearing off the throats, the general's fierce abuse and the usual passenger and goods trains, for a long time sent to dead ends.

In another way, and in the last war, it did not work. And here - a rehearsal of the Third World War. We'll have to endure, citizens. Not to fat - I would live.