Foreword: The battle in Ukraine has been almost ten days, from various reports we can see that whether it is morale, or the quality of weapons, the total strength of the army has an overwhelming advantage of the Russian army on the battlefield performance is not very good, not only abandoned weapons and equipment everywhere, but also a lot of senior officers killed, this battle is not as good as the Performance of the Soviet Army in World War II when the Soviet Army counterattacked Ukraine, reminiscent of Russia's army reform in recent years is not on the wrong path, and the Chinese Army is also walking on this road.
One: Reform of the US-Russian Army
The U.S. Army was born on June 14, 1775, at the beginning it was a group of "ragtag people", first driven around by the British army, and then by the British army and the Canadian militia with 6 casualties to defeat tens of thousands of people, but also burned the White House, at the beginning of World War II was completely annihilated by the Japanese army in the Philippine garrison, the German army at the end of World War II surrendered a whole division in the Ardennes, to the Korean War was driven from the Yalu River to the 37th Line, to the Vietnam War half a million American troops fought for ten years and could not defeat the poorly equipped Vietnamese guerrillas. Can only stage the Saigon escape moment, this Saigon moment is repeated in Afghanistan, the only highlight of the US Army is the Desert Storm operation in the Gulf War, but the Iraqi army itself is a "ragtag group" that has not won a victorious battle in the 70 years of its founding, and even the Indians with extremely poor combat effectiveness can beat the Iraqi army to The urine in Baghdad in 1942. Even the 30,000 Iraqi troops armed with American M1A1 tanks were defeated by eight hundred guerrillas with only AK pickups in the Battle of Mosul in 2014.
It can be seen that the only highlight moment of the US Army is also watery, in general, the US Army is a group of well-equipped "ragtag people", scaring the army that has lost the will to fight is OK, but where the opponent has a little fighting spirit, the US Army has never won a war, unless the opponent is isolated and helpless. However, as a typical army with no personnel and equipment, the U.S. Army is the "bellwether" in the development of military science and technology, from the five-group atomic division in the 50s, to the air assault division in the 60s, to the 86th division in the 80s, and the digital division in the 1990s, the U.S. Army has never stopped exploring how to expand combat efficiency, in April 1994, the U.S. Army set up the "Army Digital Office", began to design a new type of information-based Army, and formed the world's first digital combat battalion. In 1996, the first digital combat brigade was built.
By 2000, the U.S. Army's 4th Mechanized Infantry Division became the world's first digital Army division, theoretically increasing its combat effectiveness by 3 times, and the U.S. Army's plan was to build a 21st Century Army consisting of 6 heavy divisions and 4 light divisions within ten years, but this transformation plan was shelved by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, who came to power in 2000, rumsfeld advocated that the Army was obsolete, that the United States no longer needed infantry for war, and in the reduction and restructuring of the Army transformation plan implemented by Rumsfeld." The Stryker Brigade "became a darling, but the reality soon hit the face, in the 7 years of iraq war and the twenty years of The War of Afghanistan, the US military, despite its great momentum and exhaustion of various high-tech means, has never been able to overwhelm the opponent, which found that the war of the earthlings still depends on the army.
So Lieutenant General Laporte, commander of the Third Army of the Army, put forward a concept of "action-centered warfare" based on modular units, planning to reorganize the Army into 70 brigade combat teams and more than 200 support brigades, with the brigade as the basic combat unit to implement modular reorganization into a new type of combat brigade with independent combat capabilities, so since 2003, the basic combat unit of the US army has been reduced from a division of 15,000 people to a brigade of 3,000 people, which is divided into combat brigades, support brigades, functional brigades, and modular brigades are similar to the regimental combat teams of the US army in World War II. A reconnaissance battalion and a service support battalion were added, greatly improving situational awareness and reducing logistical requirements, and the former armored cavalry regiments, airborne brigades, air assault brigades, heavy brigades, Stryker brigades, and light infantry brigades were simplified to infantry brigades, Stryker brigades, and heavy brigades.
In 2014, the U.S. Army had a total of 16 heavy armored brigades, 8 Stryk medium brigades, and 21 light infantry brigades, of which 45 combat brigades were planned to be withdrawn in 2017, 10 of which were abolished, including the 4th Stryk Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division, the 2nd Armored Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, the 3rd Armored Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, the 4th Armored Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division, the 3rd Armored Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division, the 3rd Infantry Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division, and the 4th Infantry Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division. The 2nd Armored Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, the 3rd Infantry Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division, the 4th Infantry Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division, and the 170th Armored Brigade and the 172nd Armored Brigade, by 2020, the U.S. Army will have 9 armored brigades, 15 infantry brigades, 8 Stryk brigades, a total of 93 battalions, this reform will reduce the active duty troops from 530,000 to 490,000, completing the layout of global integrated operations.
Under the influence of the synthesis and modularization of the US Army, Britain, France, Japan, and Russia also followed, Russia in the 2008 Russian-Georgian conflict, the 58th Army was bloated, slow to mobilize, the huge strength of the army in the early stage of the war only three battalions can be put into battle, but the Georgian performance is too poor, the Russian army has controlled the war situation, based on this lesson, Russian Defense Minister Serdyukov comprehensively implemented the "division brigade", trying to put 24 12,000 people in the motormobile / The tank division was reorganized into 113 capable "modular" motorized infantry/tank brigades of 4,300 personnel, and the establishment was transformed into a system of one brigade and one battalion of the army, completely breaking the existing division of arms, and forming joint units such as "sensor army", "precision strike army", "rapid mobile army" and "intelligent logistics army", with the goal of building a small, lightweight, digital use, and large range of activities. Mobile units with strong assault power,
Two: the Reforming Chinese Army
General Sripuchenko, former vice president of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences, published two books, "Sixth Generation War" and "Contactless War", believing that after 2020, the army will no longer exist, and the war is all "contactless war", Sripuchenko led the Russian military delegation to visit China and told the Chinese military that if there is a war, the People's Liberation Army will be useless to follow the powerful firepower of the Soviet Army, and its views have a huge impact on the People's Liberation Army, and the "army obsolescence" theory was once popular in the army. The Chinese Army, with 850,000 people, is the largest army in the world, if the end is "long-range precision strike beyond the visual range", then the number of soldiers is meaningless, the seven major military regions at that time had a total of 18 group armies, which were prepared for large-scale ground warfare, the organization was relatively complicated, the structure was not reasonable enough, there were too many traditional arms, and there were too few army aviation and support services.
In the context of "building an informationized army," the Pla.S. People's Liberation Army, with reference to the "projection and all-round" type army of the United States and the "regional defense" type army of Russia, proposed the combination of informationization and mechanization to promote the transformation of the army in order to build a new type of army with high mobility, three-dimensional offensive and defensive capabilities, and diversified long-range combat capabilities. Command and control, battlefield management and other capabilities are integrated, which can carry out independent combat tasks, while the number of personnel is reduced by one-third, and the Jinan Military Region has also carried out the same test.
After a series of tests, the overall planning of modular units was established, which was divided into three stages, the first stage broke the original organization, built a small number of brigade and battalion-level combat units, and focused on the construction of a modular command structure; the command system of the US army was changed from the four levels of the theater army-army-army-division-brigade" to the third level of the campaign application command - the first brigade headquarters of the tactical application command, and the Russian army also changed the four levels of "military district - group army - division - regiment" to the third level of "campaign strategic command - campaign command - brigade". Before 2017, the Chinese Army and the Russian Army were the same as the "military region - group army - division - regiment" four levels, the previous adjustment and reform of the establishment has not changed, in 2017, a new round of military reform will be 18 group armies reduced to 13 group armies, the command level from the group army, division, regiment, battalion to the group army, brigade, battalion", the number of soldiers reduced to 30%.
The second stage gradually increases the number of modular troops, the third stage basically realizes the modularization of army units, modular units are composed of four kinds of multi-functional modular brigades of information combat brigade, fire brigade, motor brigade, and comprehensive combat brigade; the information combat brigade is composed of battalion-level units such as special operations, intelligence, communications, engineers, armor, and artillery on the basis of the original electronic countermeasure regiments, network warfare detachments, and other units; the mob brigade is composed of compressed firepower units on the basis of the original motor infantry divisions and machine infantry divisions, and supplements the battalions of electronic countermeasures and intelligence reconnaissance. The company-level units are formed, and the fire brigade is composed of battalions and company-level units such as electronic countermeasures and intelligence reconnaissance on the basis of the original artillery brigades, air defense brigades, and land aviation regiments.
The integrated combat brigade is regrouped and reorganized on the basis of the original aircraft infantry division and armored brigade, and is supplemented by battalion and company-level units such as electronic countermeasures and intelligence reconnaissance. The support brigade is composed on the basis of the special operations brigade, the signal regiment, the Zhouqiao regiment, the engineer regiment, and the anti-chemical warfare regiment; the rear-loading support brigade is composed of the basis of the original medical team, ammunition depot, supply detachment, service detachment, maintenance team, and other units; under the modular brigade is a modular battalion; a brigade consists of 3 to 6 composite battalions, 3 to 5 support battalions, and 1-2 support battalions; the modular battalion with special functions is an intelligence reconnaissance battalion, an information operation battalion, a special operations battalion, a ground fire battalion, an anti-air fire battalion, an air fire battalion, and an air fire battalion. The communication support battalion, the anti-chemical warfare battalion, the Boat and Bridge support battalion, the rear support battalion, the engineer battalion, and the composite battalion have gathered armor, artillery, reconnaissance, engineers and other arms.
In the 90s, as the main combat unit, the infantry battalion had only 9 82 mm mortars with a range of 4660 meters and 6 82 mm recoilless guns with a range of only 500 meters, and the anti-aircraft firepower was only 3 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine guns, and the firepower was quite different from the Soviet motor rifle battalion in the early eighties, a Soviet motor rifle battalion had 46 BTP-60/70 wheeled armored transport vehicles equipped with 14.5 mm anti-aircraft machine guns, 8 120 mm mortars, 3 AT-3/4 anti-tank missiles. 6 AGS-17 30 mm grenade launchers and 9 SA-7/14 individual anti-aircraft missiles, fire coverage depth of up to 7100 meters, firing altitude of 4.5 kilometers, such a motorized battalion was also reinforced by 24 122 mm howitzers and 40 main battle tanks in wartime, the People's Liberation Army needed at least one reinforcement regiment to withstand the attack of a Soviet motorost battalion in the field.
Since 1997, the infantry battalion has been equipped with PP89 100 mm mortars and PF98 120 mm heavy anti-tank rocket launchers, which are still a single-class system, do not have independent combat capabilities, and their firepower is far inferior to that of the Soviet army's motormobile battalion before the collapse of the Soviet Union. After being reorganized into a medium-sized composite battalion, it was equipped with PLL05-type 120 mortars and 11-type wheeled assault vehicles, which were basically consistent with the US military's "Stryker" brigade infantry battalion, and after the reorganization, the fire coverage was increased to more than 12 kilometers, the combat effectiveness increased exponentially, the independent combat capability was higher than that of the previous light aircraft infantry regiment, and the composite battalion not only had equipment within the formation, but also had the guide of the army aviation corps in the battalion, and gradually became the basic combat unit of the informationized battlefield. Small, full, fine,
Three: Problems after the reform of the US and Russian armies
At a time when the Chinese army is developing toward small, complete, and refined in an all-round way, the US Army has begun to debate fiercely within the United States Army on the question of whether small, complete, and fine can play a real role in all-out war. Because there are many problems with the modular units of the US army, the infantry brigade and the heavy brigade are 2 battalions, and another battalion is replaced by a reconnaissance battalion, the previous armored brigade had 116 main battle tanks.149 infantry fighting vehicles, 24 155 mm howitzers, 20 120 mm mortars and 72 infantry squads, while the heavy brigade only had 88 main battle tanks, 121 infantry fighting vehicles, 18 155 mm howitzers, 14 120 mm mortars and 54 infantry squads, which inevitably caused a decline in combat effectiveness. The biggest disadvantage of the structure of the 2 battalion system is the lack of infantry,
Without modularization, the U.S. Army had 699 combat companies, and now only 541 combat companies remain, the lack of infantry deficiencies is a big problem in Iraq and Afghanistan, infantry brigades and heavy brigades in low-intensity operations must not dismantle reconnaissance and artillery battalions as light infantry, and generals returning from the Battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan hope to restore the 3rd combat battalion. Because the 2 battalions had only 3800 soldiers, the operational effect was far inferior to the 5500 soldiers of the 3 battalions, and the 2 battalion model caused the brigade to lack reserves, either drawing troops from the infantry battalion to form reserves, weakening the combat ability of the infantry battalion, or drawing troops from the reconnaissance battalion to weaken the reconnaissance ability, in the exercise, the two-battalion brigade could not fight with the enemy of the same size because of the lack of reserves and infantry.
The Trik Brigade, composed of three infantry battalions, a reconnaissance battalion, a fire battalion, a support battalion and a brigade-affiliated military intelligence company, a communications company, an anti-tank company, an engineer company and a tactical drone platoon, commanded a little better, with a strength of 4253 people, the largest number of the three brigades, fast delivery is better than heavy brigade, protection and firepower are better than infantry brigades, Stryk brigade equipped with Stryker armored vehicles, although insufficient protection, but the infantry brigade's "Hummer" vehicles and anti-mine anti-ambush vehicles are more vulnerable, Moreover, the infantry brigade and the Stryker brigade are difficult to identify the enemy at a distance of 5500 meters, lack of the ability to attack tanks with active protection systems, anti-tank firepower is only 27 M1128 mobile artillery systems, nine M1134 Tao missile launchers and 67 "Javelin" anti-tank missiles, M1128 mobile artillery system is only 18 rounds of ammunition, the protection ability is not enough to fight with tanks, the infantry brigade anti-tank firepower is even worse, only 16 "Tao" anti-tank missile launchers, The infantry battalion headquarters company only had four 81 mm mortars, and the Stryker Brigade was equipped with only 12 155 mm towed howitzers, not to provide sufficient firepower.
The Russian-Georgian conflict in 2008 caused a great shock to the US army, the Russian 58th Army dragged two infantry brigades of the Georgian army with three battalions on the first day, and the next day the Three Regiments of the Russian Army began to rout after the war, when the Russian army put in a motorized infantry division on the third day, the Defeat of the Georgian Army was decided, the US military originally thought that the Combat Capability of the Georgian Army trained by the United States was much higher than that of the Russian Army, even if it could not win, it could not be defeated, but the result of the conflict made the US Army re-examine itself, and the US Military proposed the concept of "2020 Army" in 2009 to re-transform the modular brigade The armored brigade and infantry brigade also added a third battalion, the number of personnel was also increased from 3500 to 4500 people, the Stryk brigade added 6 155 mm towed howitzers, the infantry brigade and the armored brigade were restored to three six-door artillery companies, in addition, the previous modular brigade only had one engineer company, under the jurisdiction of two combat engineer platoons, can only perform simple engineering support work, not enough to quickly complete the opening of roads, minesweeping obstacles, crossing the river and other sapper operations, sometimes when the infantry is lacking, the engineer company is also used as ordinary infantry, The brigade engineer battalion was reinstated
After the Russian-Georgian conflict in 2008, the 5th Motor Brigade and the 4th Tank Brigade of the Western Military Region were restored to a divisional structure, but Russia only one-tenth of the military expenditure of the United States every year, the economy was overly dependent on oil, and under the condition of long-term sanctions by the West, it was not easy to recover from a dilapidated scene of the Soviet Union, it was not easy, the Russian army basically did not update the equipment from 1991 to 2006, most of the funds were used on nuclear weapons, there was not enough funds, The Army can only be refurbished with the basis of weapons produced during the Soviet period, mainly renovating T-72 and T-80 tanks, BMP, BMD and BTR series of combat vehicles, and the troops are also equipped with a large number of old weapons left over from the Soviet era.
Judging from the performance of the Ukrainian war, the old weapons renovated by the Russian army are still not reliable enough, resulting in a large number of troops abandoning armored vehicles that cannot be moved, and there are too many gaps between the miniaturized troops of the Russian army, the digitization is too poor, the perception ability is not high, and it is impossible to control a large area, the Ukrainian army can move freely in the gap, resulting in frequent attacks on the Russian logistics and command organs, logistics support is not effective, many armored vehicles have to be thrown on the side of the road because there is no oil, and many senior officers who should be safe are killed. The ambush of the ground force command structure shows that there are major deficiencies in Russian intelligence and reconnaissance, and the reform is far from successful.
Four: Conclusion
The PLA has historically fought with the armies of Japan, the United States, Britain, France, India, the Soviet Union, Vietnam, and other countries, and has never been left behind; the tradition of not being afraid of suffering and not being afraid of death has become its soul; the West still circulates the warning not to fight with the PLA Army; of course, the glorious history cannot be eternal, and some of the PLA's traditional operational concepts and support methods are indeed somewhat outdated in the era of information-based warfare, so the PLA Army in the 21 st century is constantly carrying out reforms, and the development trend of today's world army is small, complete, and refined From the perspective of the losses of the Russian army in Ukraine, the modular brigades of China and the United States and Russia are facing a problem, that is, the firepower and continuous combat capabilities are not enough to confront the enemy forces with the same number and equipment, and can only deal with low- and medium-intensity battles, in large-scale high-intensity operations, the modular brigades of China and the United States are also likely to face the situation of the Russian army in Ukraine today, fortunately, the Chinese army has more new equipment and better reconnaissance and logistics capabilities than the Russian army. If the Chinese army does not go to the battlefield as the Russian army,