ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE
Chief of the Russian General Staff and First Deputy Defence Minister General Valery Gerasimov participated in a conference on developing a military strategy on March 2. During the conference, he made several remarks, which are worth to be taken into account to understand the current Russian military and security posture.
General Gerasimov pointed out that Russia’s geopolitical rivals are preparing to wage wars against a “high-tech adversary”, using high-precision air- and space-based weapons and actively conducting information confrontation.
“Therefore, the search for rational strategies for waging war with a different adversary is of paramount importance for the development of the theory and practice of military strategy. We need to clarify the essence and content of military strategy, the principles of prevention, preparation for war and its conduct”, General Gerasimov stated.
He added that under these conditions, the Russian Armed Forces must be ready for armed conflicts of a new type, which would involve both “classical” and “asymmetric” methods. He said that it is necessary to develop further the forms and methods of using the armed forces, primarily in the sphere of strategic deterrence as well as to improve the state defence structure.
The Chief of the General Staff revealed that “all the commanders of military districts, integrated combined arms forces, air force and air defence units, as well as 96 percent of the commanders of combined-arms units and formations, have combat experience“.
At the same time, the share of modern weapons in the Russian nuclear component has reached 82%, according to General Gerasimov.
He added that Russia “must, by all means, ensure technical, technological, and organisational superiority over any potential adversary”. The reason of this is the complexity of modern weapons, which makes it almost impossible to organise their production in a short time in the event of a war.
Commenting on the US military and political posutre, General Gerasimov noted that the US and its allies have set an aggressive vector in their foreign policy, are working on offensive military actions and aiming to eliminate statehood in countries they dislike, like in Venezuela.
“The United States and its allies have determined the aggressive vector of their foreign policy. They are working on offensive military actions, such as global strike, a multi-sphere battle, they are using the colour revolution technology and soft power. They aim to eliminate the statehood of countries they dislike, undermine sovereignty, change the legally elected bodies of state power”, he said.
The general added that the US is developing a new warfare strategy focused on actively using fifth columns to destabilise the situation in the targeted countries while simultaneously striking the most important strategic facilities with high-precision weapons.
“The Pentagon has begun to develop a fundamentally new strategy of warfare, which has already been dubbed the Trojan Horse. Its essence lies in the active use of the protest potential of the ‘fifth column’ for the destabilisation of a situation while simultaneously attacking the most important facilities with high-precision weapons”, he stressed adding that Russia is ready to deal with any of the new strategies.
“In recent years, military scientists, together with the General Staff, have developed conceptual approaches to neutralise the aggressive actions of potential opponents.”
According to General Gerasimov, the core of the Russian response is an active defence strategy, which provides for a set of pre-emptive measures to neutralise threats to the security of the state.
“The justification of the measures that are being developed should constitute the scientific activity of military scientists. This is one of the priority areas for ensuring state security. We must be ahead of the enemy in the development of military strategy, one step ahead”, the Chief of the General Staff said.
He added that the expirience of the Syrian conflicy allowed to develop and employ a new practical sphere in the Russian defense strategy. This means undertaking actions aimed at defending Russian national interests beyond the state borders in the framework of the “stragtegy of limited actions”.
The basis of this strategy is the creation of a all-sufficient mobile force grouping, which is capable of complete assigned tasks and missions. In Syria, the Russian Aerospace Forces became the core of such a force.
The key compnents of this strategy, according to General Gerasimov, are infomrational advantage, rapid and secret deployment of forces and readiness of the managing systems in advance. He also emphasized the importance of information technologies in the modern warfare.
