An air defense colonel told why the tactics of delivering strikes on enemy rear lines have changed
On Friday night, the Russian Aerospace Forces delivered another missile strikes in Zaporozhye at the places of deployment of units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which are being prepared to the offensive. According to military expert Air Defense Colonel Yuri Knutov, the Russian army has changed the tactics of delivering strikes before the enemy’s offensive — they hit only confirmed and large-scale targets.
Photo: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
The enemy, in turn, according to the expert, realizing his vulnerability, before the last «offensive» began to widely use imitation — exposes inflatable mock-ups of artillery installations and tanks. Some models even imitate electromagnetic thermal radiation, and the personnel create the appearance of servicing this equipment.
Recall that on the night of Friday, Russian troops launched several missile attacks on targets in Zaporozhye. Local authorities announced an attack on critical infrastructure. In addition, in the region, Russian aviation and artillery hit the concentration of enemy forces in the settlements of Olgovskoye, Gulyai Pole and Orekhovoe. In the southern sector of the front, our troops attacked the personnel and equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Stepanovka and Antonovka.
According to military expert, director of the Air Defense Museum Yuri Knutov, one of the most important roles is now played by intelligence. Success in delivering strikes against the Armed Forces of Ukraine depends on its data:
— Today, the goal of the strikes of the Aerospace Forces is the maximum destruction of the infrastructure of the Ukrainian army, namely the destruction of warehouses and equipment that can take part in a future offensive. But given the large dispersal of Ukrainian troops, military equipment and warehouses, it is not so easy to identify them.
If the amount of equipment is small, then, of course, in these cases it is not advisable to strike. It is better to save missiles and kamikaze drones until the start of the main offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the concentration of enemy troops. And just at that moment to inflict the maximum defeat on him. Therefore, a reasonable tactic was chosen: to hit only the most significant targets and those targets that are one hundred percent confirmed by intelligence data.
According to the expert, Ukraine widely uses fake tanks and artillery to confuse our intelligence officers:
— We know that Ukraine is now widely using mock-ups of equipment, false positions in order to mislead us so that we strike not at real self-propelled guns, tanks or missile launchers, but at their mock-ups, which sometimes even imitate the corresponding electromagnetic and thermal radiation. Determining where are false targets and where are real ones is a serious task, and our reconnaissance structures are engaged in it.
According to the expert, the enemy’s inflatable “fakes” are of rather high quality.
— Models, as a rule, outwardly correspond to the original, at least from a distance of 200 meters, it is difficult to distinguish them from real equipment, — he said. — They have models of armored vehicles, tanks, self-propelled artillery mounts. Sometimes even the personnel imitate the vigorous activity of servicing this equipment, supposedly, this is a real position. Not by shooting, of course, because it is impossible to shoot from it.
Before the start of the offensive, the enemy will still have to reveal his cards, and real accumulations of military equipment, which is now dispersed and camouflaged, will be in full view. The expert is sure that the enemy is well aware of this and is betting on the NATO air defense system.
— These are complexes «Gepard», for example, — he said. — But, in my opinion, these are not so effective German anti-aircraft installations, quite old, capable of working only on cruise missiles and drones of the Geran type. But they are not capable of operating on more modern air-to-surface missiles. I'm not talking about multiple rocket launchers or artillery shells. Therefore, now Ukraine is seeking from NATO as many deliveries of anti-aircraft missile systems as possible.
Yuri Knutov also noted that the enemy will not be able to cover the accumulations of Western equipment before the offensive with the existing air defense systems. According to the expert, for a reliable cover of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, “hundreds of such systems are needed, but they will not exist.”
— Therefore, the Armed Forces of Ukraine come up with different options in order to ensure a breakthrough not so much with a massive concentration of equipment, but with strikes against our neighbors to the rear, the destruction of logistics chains, command posts, the destruction of communication centers, — he noted. — But we also understand this very well and also disperse warehouses, military equipment. Command posts are constantly moving and changing their positions.
The enemy relies on kamikaze drones, reconnaissance drones. But we must pay tribute, recently our electronic warfare system — EW — has become even more perfect. Now it is able to operate in the entire frequency range, suppressing the control and navigation channels of most of the drones used by the armed formations of Ukraine. Drones are changing, new ones are coming, with different frequencies. But our electronic warfare systems have a very wide range, so they immediately begin to work on both new drones and old ones.