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Old 01-05-2018, 09:27 AM
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Arrow Russian military used syria war to train forces and learn u.s. Combat moves, says gen

RUSSIAN MILITARY USED SYRIA WAR TO TRAIN FORCES AND LEARN U.S. COMBAT MOVES, SAYS GENERAL
BY DAMIEN SHARKOV ON 1/5/18 AT 11:32 AM
RE: http://www.newsweek.com/russian-mili...2027?piano_t=1

Russian has used the war in Syria to train scores of its servicemen and to pick up valuable glimpses of the United States' own tricks and tactics on the battlefield, a top Air Force intelligence general has said.

Moscow launched an aerial campaign in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2015, and although at times the operation’s targets overlapped with those of the U.S.-led coalition, the two have had several tense standoffs. The latest close encounter between U.S. and Russian jets came last month, when a U.S. spy aircraft had to fire flares in a bid to avoid collision with incoming Russian Su-25 fighter jets.

These encounters and the tense coexistence of the competing forces in Syria has given Moscow the opportunity to get well informed about how U.S. forces operate, the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for intelligence Lieutenant General VeraLinn "Dash" Jamieson said.

"In the skies over Syria, it's really just been a treasure trove for them to see how we operate," she told congressional staffers and reporters on Thursday during an Air Force Association briefing in Washington, D.C., according to armed forces news site Military.

Some of the changes in Russian operations are the first-time frontline use of more high-end technologies, such as precision guided munitions and long-range bombers on deployments “18-to-24-hours long,” she said. The shift comes “because our adversaries are watching us, they're learning from us," Jamieson insisted.

That is not to say Russian operations are close to identical to U.S. tactics, but it is all part of a kind of a war effort far from national borders that U.S. forces are familiar with but is a first for post-Soviet Russia.

"They have conducted really what I would characterize as their first 'away game' operations in a complete and continuous deployment arena," Jamieson said. Fighting with a full array of air forces, navy and ground troops in an alliance with Syria and Iran, Russia’s joint environment, “wasn't as integrated as we operate…(but) it is a change for them," she stressed.

The number of staff and units drafted into Russia’s deployment over the last two and a half years also show that Moscow is using Syria as a "testing ground" for new martial techniques.

"By their own account, Russia has cycled nearly 85 percent of all line-unit aircrew from across their air force into combat operations" in Syria, she said. "One of the things they learned from us was, 'It's one thing to be in an exercise and train. It's a whole other thing to be in combat and face an adversary and threat.' And they wanted to test that out. Not just for the few, but for the majority of their line aircraft and pilots."

Russia’s Chief of General Staff Valeriy Gerasimov suggested as much in an interview with pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda last month, but he did not credit the U.S. for inspiring any part of the effort.

“We practically had no experience of deploying the army and the armed forces at such a distance, on the territory of a country that does not border with our country,” Gerasimov said, casting his mind back to the start of the operation. “There was only one example in 1962,” he added, referring to Soviet troop deployments to Cuba.

Through the course of the intervention the command of 90 percent of divisions and over half of brigades and regiments underwent battle testing. A plan consisting of three-month rotation deployments for units ensured Moscow provided real battlefield experience to "test" the mettle of some forces and above all, the top brass.

"That is what we did and not only (with) servicemen. The main thing was to test the commanders, the officers" Gerasimov said. "We had all the commanders of the military districts spend quite a long time there." The majority of Russia’s armed forces is divided into four geographic military districts, whose commanders answer to Moscow. All of these top officers spent “quite a while” in Syria, at some point or another, Gerasimov said.

Russian defense officials have repeatedly boasted that it hundreds of new items of military kit and engineering have been tested in Syria, though the Kremlin maintains that the reason for the intervention was to combat extremists such as militant group Islamic State.
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