Larry Johnson – SONAR May 30, 2023
I suppose it should not surprise anyone that the failure to understand the challenges Ukraine faces in trying to launch a counter offensive is a consequence of the fact that most Western politicians and media have zero experience serving in a military organization. That lack of experience means there is little understanding of the importance of training and the logistics chain that must be in place to support that training. Once of the biggest problems confronting Ukraine, in my view, is the complete lack of uniformity.
The strength of any army is the principle of uniformity. Here is a Captain Obvious moment — the reason that a military organization sports a uniform is to ensure that troops in the heat of battle can easily identify their fellow fighters. Can you imagine an army that would grant each soldier or sailor or Marine the option to choose their own wardrobe? While you might get some fabulous fashion choices, allowing such diversity would undermine the operational effectiveness of that organization in combat.
The concept of uniform in the military extends beyond what men and women wear. How about training? An effective military organization relies on standard operating procedures in order to ensure that even the least mentally competent member of a unit knows the policies, procedures and tactics he or she must perform under stress. One of the critical objectives in basic training is to teach new recruits how to communicate and how to act on orders. If a military organization incorporates different units with different methods of communicating the odds of confusion on the battlefield increase dramatically.
So look at Ukraine’s problem. Ukrainian soldiers are not being instructed at Ukrainian bases on Ukrainian soil by Ukrainian officers. Nope. Ukrainian troops are being trained in the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, France and Italy. Would you be surprised to learn that each of those countries employ different methods for teaching everything from marksmanship, marching, unit maneuvers and personal hygiene? I am not suggesting that the respective NATO countries are doing a poor job of training the Ukrainian units under their care. However, once those Ukrainian troops return home and are deployed to the front lines it is highly likely that a unit trained in the United Kingdom will operate differently from a unit trained in France. In other words, lack of uniformity. That creates a command and control challenge.
Lack of uniformity also is a problem because of the variety of weapons issued to Ukrainian troops. Anti-tank weapons illustrates the dilemma. The photos below show a British NLAW and a U.S. Javelin missile. Both are designed to kill a tank, but the procedures a soldier must follow to fire a NLAW differs from a Javelin. The Javelin, for example, is equipped with an optic, the NLAW is not. I am not saying that a soldier cannot be trained to use both. Of course they can. But the reality is that these anti-tank weapons are being delivered to Ukrainian troops who have not had the opportunity to go through a training regimen to make them proficient in either or both.
We see the same discord when it comes to the tanks, vehicles and planes that have been or will be supplied to Ukraine. This diversity adds another level of complexity because of the various maintenance requirements for these systems. It means you need an ample supply of spare parts and, most importantly, trained technicians who know how to do the mechanical work maintain or repair the vehicle or aircraft.
We know from the classified documents ostensibly leaked by Jack Teixeira that the Ukrainian brigades slated to spearhead the counter offensive are not being trained and organized in the same fashion. Ukraine is training three Brigades and the U.S. and NATO partners are training (or have trained) nine brigades. And there is no guarantee that a Brigade trained in the U.K. will operate to the same level of competence as a Brigade trained in Germany or France.
It does not matter how brave or committed the Ukrainian troops are who will carry out the attack on Russian positions if the offensive is launched. If it comes, they will start with a deficit because they have been trained in different ways. More troubling is that the 12 brigades have not conducted a joint exercise where they have learned to carry out coordinated operations with the other units. Their task is made even more difficult because the attacking force will not have the close air support from combat jet and rotary wing aircraft. The Ukrainian units also are unlikely to have mobile air defense systems to fend off Russian aerial counter attacks. Ditto for mobile artillery.
The only hope for the Ukrainian troops tasked with this mission is that NATO intelligence has identified a weak point in the Russian defenses that can be exploited by the attacking force. If such a location exists, it is probably in an area with no significant population or urban centers. That means Ukraine will be capturing fields and forests and that will accomplish nothing that changes the tactical or strategic face of the war.
The German Wehrmacht, a much more powerful and well trained force than anything Ukraine can put on the battlefield, learned to their chagrin that lack of logistics and combat air support during the last days of Operation Barbarossa (which was launched in the summer of 1941) deprived them of victory. While the Nazis succeeded in driving to the suburbs of Moscow, they literally ran out of the fuel, supplies and reinforcements needed to maintain the momentum of their offensive.
Instead of executing a viable military strategy, Ukraine’s military is being asked to perform a political charade to satisfy Western expectations. Whatever success Ukraine achieves in the initial phase of its counter offensive, it lacks the depth in terms of reserves and materiel to sustain an attack. This is not a desperate gamble. This is forced suicide.
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I’m on the fence with LJ.
“The only hope for the Ukrainian troops tasked with this mission is that NATO intelligence has identified a weak point in the Russian defenses that can be exploited by the attacking force.”
Now, let’s be clear, the Nazi West is paying for this war, and they want VFM.
NATO has been running the UKraine military since the start of the SMO, maybe before the SMO, or shortly after the SMO started. As LJ states, NATO looking for weak nesses. Much of UKraine is empty, and rightly so, the Russians have made many tactical retreats, because they see no point in holding ground with no stratigic value, so they pull out. The UKrainian Nazis are then told to advance, by NATOs best commanders!! Then the Russians shell the shit out of them. Easy to understand why our sheeple were sent over the top in WW1, because no one gave a shit about the loss of life. The UK has never recovered from those loses.
Is this the best NATO ca do, with what was the biggest military force in Europe, counting Turkey as in Asia.
Medvedev and others, have said ‘Russia hasn’t really started’. Having said that, I think it’s possible that NATO has more mercenaries to throw into this fight, and I think way more tanks will arrive, than announced.
The British Nazis like to win from adversity, just as WW2 looked hopeless, suddenly the Russians won WW2 for the alies, and Nazi UK took the credit for beating the German Nazi monster, they created. We see an almost carbon copy in UKraine today. Same Nazi Jew running the front desk for Nazi UK, just like Hitler.
Oh dear, how many will call for me to be banned?
This is the thing. The Nazi NATO West is a sect like no other. As CDM said yesterday. No one can be off script, or they’re gone.
It’s just like this Good Morning paedo farce. You have a tiny group of very powerful sheeple running ITV and the BBC and literally everyone knows what’s going on, they all go to the same sherbet fueled parties, they know who’s shagging who, but no one says a thing, because that’s them cancelled. This is just one small element within the British Nazi system, and you can replicate this almost anywhere in elite UK life. Whistle blowers are protected, alledgely. So where are the whistle blowers exposing the NHS wards treating UKrainian Nazis?
“The only hope for the Ukrainian troops tasked with this mission is that NATO intelligence has identified a weak point in the Russian defenses that can be exploited by the attacking force.2
Wrong!
The only hope for the Ukrainian troops is to realise they are fighting for ((( them ))) . Accordingly, they should simply give up, go home and live some kind of normal lives.
Right now, between supporting Russia or Ukraine/NATO/USA, I choose Russia.
Just look at what USA Nuland did in 2014.
The Redacted newsletter says some of the Javelin anti-tank weapons the US sent to Ukraine have reached the drugs cartels in Mexico.
Now they’ll be able to take out not just cop cars but their armoured MRAPs.
https://redacted.inc/newsletter/hoo-ah-june-01-2023/
Biden, drown Ukraine with scrap metal . it
will enrich Russias blast furnaces !
‘Oh dear, how many will call for me to be banned?’
Carl Jones on June 1, 2023 at 8:01 am
I am not calling for you to be banned.
I would just like to know what in the name of goodness you are trying to say here in the first place.
I have read a great deal of your stuff with interest.
It looks like you MIGHT be making some valid points here, but you have finally rendered an entire lengthy comment utterly incomprehensible by the simple fact that your Tourette’s-style ‘nazi’ tic has taken everything you write over –
It ironically says in the text ‘Here is a Captain Obvious moment — the reason that a military organization sports a uniform is to ensure that troops in the heat of battle can easily identify their fellow fighters.’
What you have done by the indiscriminate application of the word ‘nazi’ here is to turn your prose into a battlefield where no one knows what the flip is going on because EVERYONE is wearing the same uniform.
The indiscriminate use of the word ‘nazi’ by itself is annoying, because it is an extention of what George Orwell was complaining about decades ago with the overuse of the word ‘fascism’ (“the word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies ‘something not desirable’” )
But even if you used the word ‘Apples’ instead of nazi, it would still render your meaning equally incomprehensible –
@GRB Difficult to disagree.Way too much ego from Mr Jones.He’s clearly a learned individual but i reluctantly give his posts an instant miss for the very reasons you give.Like some foam-flecked street-preacher inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity and tainting this fine site with moronic nazi bilge ad infinitum.
Winterwatch is an equally good site but nowhere near enough the commenters it richly deserves ?