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Lessons of Russo-Georgia War, 2008


Panzer_Leader

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Hi Guys

For those interested in the lessons of the Russo-Georgia War of August 2008 there is a 144 page book ‘The Tanks of August’ available as a PDF here: http://www.cast.ru/eng/?id=386. You can also order a free printed copy, which I’ve done. This book was brought to my attention by the blog Real and Simulated Wars: http://kriegsimulation.blogspot.co.nz/.

I haven’t had the chance to read it yet myself but, as it’s published by the Moscow based Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, it may be somewhat biased. Nonetheless, I’m interested to read it to understand how Russian armoured doctrine and tactics have evolved, if at all, from the Soviet era as a basis for modelling present-day OPFOR in scenarios.

Interestingly, the Russian equipment used during the conflict spanned T-72, T-62 (yes, T-62!), BMP-2, BMP-1 and MT-LB and the Georgians employed the T-72 SIM-1 (see: http://www.army-guide.com/eng/product4806.html, possibly replicated by T-72M4) so could be some scope for “RED v RED” scenario development, which is what the blogger at Real and Simulated Wars is attempting.

I’m definitely interested in this conflict from both a current OPFOR doctrine and tactics perspective and its potential for scenario development.

Cheers

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Hello,

Thanks for the referral to my blg, PzLeader.

Speaking of that war, I am playing a tiny custom scenario inspired by the attack by 3 Georgian tanks on the Russian peacekeeper's camp south of Tskhinvali. The OOB in the scenario is off, the map is actually in Germany, and I don't know which type of T-72s the Georgian's had. But, hey! I just needed an excuse to play around with the T-72 M1!

Stay tuned, more is coming soon.

http://kriegsimulation.blogspot.com/2012/07/short-stories-from-small-wars-iv.html

http://kriegsimulation.blogspot.com/2012/07/short-stories-from-small-wars-iv_16.html

Cheers,

P/S: Furia, off topic, but I am having a blast with the Centauro: does the Ejercito de Tierra publish their field manuals?

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Hello,

Thanks for the referral to my blg, PzLeader.

Speaking of that war, I am playing a tiny custom scenario inspired by the attack by 3 Georgian tanks on the Russian peacekeeper's camp south of Tskhinvali. The OOB in the scenario is off, the map is actually in Germany, and I don't know which type of T-72s the Georgian's had. But, hey! I just needed an excuse to play around with the T-72 M1!

Stay tuned, more is coming soon.

http://kriegsimulation.blogspot.com/2012/07/short-stories-from-small-wars-iv.html

http://kriegsimulation.blogspot.com/2012/07/short-stories-from-small-wars-iv_16.html

Cheers,

P/S: Furia, off topic, but I am having a blast with the Centauro: does the Ejercito de Tierra publish their field manuals?

No probs El_Chacho. It's a great blog a blog and I check it regularly. Based on my reading of Georgia's T-72 SIM-1 the T-72M4 is probably the best proxy due to its reactive armour and TIS but of course it's not crewable. Still, might be helpful if you want to turn the tables and try things from a Russian perspective.

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As I’m doing a deep dive on this topic and there seems to be a level of interest from some in the community I thought I’d share two more documents I found reviewing the Russian performance during this conflict.

The first, ‘Russian Operational Art in the Russo-Georgian War of 2008’ is written by Colonel G. Donovan, Jr. and published by the US Army War College: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/71686353/Russian%20Operational%20Art%20in%20the%20Russo-Georgian%20War%20of%202008_Donovan%2C%20G_2009.pdf

The second, ‘Russia’s Conventional Armed Forces and the Georgian War’ is written by Roger N. McDermott and published in ‘Parameters’, the journal of the US Army War College: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/71686353/Russia%27s%20Conventional%20Armed%20Forces%20and%20the%20Georgian%20War_McDermott%2C%20R_2009.pdf

Again, I haven’t read them yet but they have gone into the pile and I will make my way through them shortly. They both look excellent: the first is focused purely on Russia’s military performance from an operational and tactical perspective and the second looks at broader implications for the Russian armed forces.

Enjoy.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Speaking of that war, I am playing a tiny custom scenario inspired by the attack by 3 Georgian tanks on the Russian peacekeeper's camp south of Tskhinvali. (...)

Stay tuned, more is coming soon.

http://kriegsimulation.blogspot.com/2012/07/short-stories-from-small-wars-iv.html

http://kriegsimulation.blogspot.com/2012/07/short-stories-from-small-wars-iv_16.html

And here are the 2 remaining episodes:

* http://kriegsimulation.blogspot.be/2012/07/short-stories-from-small-wars-iv_18.html

* http://kriegsimulation.blogspot.be/2012/07/short-stories-from-small-wars-iv_21.html

Very interesting, as usual

- THX EC for maintaining yr interesting site,

Also PL, thx for the links.

K

Edited by Koen
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  • 2 weeks later...

Here’s another excellent publication on the Russo-Georgia War I’m half way through reading: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/71686353/The%20Russian%20Military%20and%20the%20Georgia%20War%20-%20Lessons%20and%20Implications_SSI_2011.pdf

I’ve finished the other papers I provided links to and, for those interested, I’d primarily recommend reading this one and ‘Tanks of August’. They both cover similar ground but this paper provides a more US-centric perspective and ‘Tanks of August’ a more Russo-centric, though surprisingly unbiased, one. Colonel G. Donovan, Jr.’s paper is probably the best if you only have the time or inclination to read one relatively short paper on the subject.

For what it’s worth, my reading is that Russian doctrine and operational art during the Russo-Georgia War didn’t differ much from the Soviet era except that there wasn’t notable use of airborne or heliborne forces, except as line infantry; the air campaign was not well coordinated with the ground campaign and; some effort was made in cyber warfare and information warfare (pro-active public relations). The other interesting thing is that much of the Russian equipment used was actually from the Soviet era and had been barely upgraded since then!

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a+ thread - I read The Tanks of August when this thread was originally posted. It's an excellent book. I also signed up for them to send me a copy - it did not arrive and I suspect i'm on some KGB (or whatever they like to call it nowadays) watchlist now or something :P

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