Dear Reader,

By tradition, we want to start the year by sharing with you our plans and intentions for the future. At the same time, we would like to ask for your advice as to what should be done and how to make the main military theoretical journal of the Ministry of Defense, the Military Thought, a true reference book for each military professional. We list in this category not only those, who are currently with the Armed Forces or other power structures, but also everyone, who even after retirement keeps alive the military thought and is not indifferent to the fate of military science and the state military organization as a whole. These people never stay put in their professional growth, and amid the bustle of life always find time for gaining more knowledge. The journal, for its part, is designed to be the compass helping the military professional not to stray off the course in the "stormy sea" of information. It is for you, our severe but benevolent critic, our reader, to judge how it works.

A. F. KLIMENKO

Lt. Gen. A. F. KLIMENKO (Ret.) Candidate of Military Sciences

Matters of ensuring a country's military security and neutralization of military threats retain their priority to date. They are traditionally regarded within the framework of national military doctrine regulating the military aspects of internal state relations in the national security sphere.

V. I. OSTANKOV

Col. V. I. OSTANKOV Doctor of Military Sciences

Validation of the composition and strength of the Armed Forces is one of the most difficult problems of the theory and practice of their organizational development and has always been within the scope of military science and the military-political leadership. Military-strategic validation of the Armed Forces composition and strength was based on taking into account possible threats to national interests of Russia as required for pursuance of missions by the military means by the combat strength of groupings of troops (forces), as well as the country's economic and mobilization capabilities. In the past, the Armed Forces composition was predominantly shaped to measure up to the most difficult variant of armed defense of the state. This kind of approach was in accordance with the doctrinal directives of the country's military-political leadership and was supported by its powerful economic basis. In the new social and economic conditions, it is inexpedient from both military- strategic and economic points of view: the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, on the one hand, must ensure the armed defense of the state, while on the other cannot go beyond its economic and mobilization capabilities in their upkeep and development spending. This is a problem of theory and practice of organizational development of the Armed Forces, whose solution is unthinkable unless one operates a suitable scientific and methodological apparatus.

V. I. KUROYEDOV, M. V. MOSKOVENKO

Fleet Admiral V. I. KUROYEDOV Doctor of Political Sciences

Captain 1st Rank M. V. MOSKOVENKO (Ret.) Candidate of Historical Sciences

Russia's national interests at seas and oceans, which historically evolved in all main spheres of activity-political, economic, scientific, and military-also extend to inland waters, territorial seas, the exclusive economic zone, and the continental shelf as well as areas at seas and oceans that are outside the jurisdiction of littoral states.

A. B. KRASNOV

Col. A. B. KRASNOV (Ret.) Doctor of Military Sciences

The high combat readiness of the Air Force is key to the state's national security. This is due to the fact that the emphasis in warfare has been shifted into the air space and so the main threat to the country's Armed Forces and sensitive installations in the rear area will be posed by aggressor's aviation, capable of delivering massive, powerful strikes earlier than other forces and assets. This threat can be effectively met by the Air Force, which features high mobility, fighting strength and firepower, and an ability to concentrate forces in any sector to achieve parity with an adversary in air (air defense) operations, especially in the period immediately following outbreak of war.

V. I. TSYMBAL, S. V. KALUGIN

Col. V. I. TSYMBAL (Ret.) Doctor of Technical Sciences

Lt. Col. S. V. KALUGIN

In military-organization terms, the year 2001 was marked by resolute action in pursuit of the plans to reform the RF military organization, to bring it into conformity with the country's economic potentialities and with the threats to its security. Such an approach was given sufficient backing in financial and economic terms as well.

V. F. FEDOROV, O. Yu. KOBYZEV, V. A. BAIBORODIN

Maj. Gen. V. F. FEDOROV (Ret.) Candidate of Historical Sciences

Col. O. Yu. KOBYZEV

Col. V. A. BAIBORODIN

Much importance within the framework of the current military reform attaches to the problem of recruitment of enlisted ranks below sergeant or equivalent and the NCO personnel to the Armed Forces. As of today, a combined method of manpower acquisition for the Army and the Navy is in place, including draft and voluntary (contract) enlistment. At the same time, the reality continues putting forward some fundamentally new requirements as regards recruitment to the Armed Forces in the emerging socio-political and economic conditions.

L. A. GOROZHANIN

Captain 1st Rank L. A. GOROZHANIN (Ret.) Candidate of Historical Sciences

Organizational development of the Navy in such areas as keeping it in constant operational readiness, the training of personnel, provision of reserves and mobilization stockpiles is mainly the responsibility of state structures (RF Government, Defense Ministry, etc.). At the same time, the Defense Industry Complex (OPK) made up of enterprises of various forms of ownership is taking an active part in the building of ships and vessels, creation and provision to the navy of naval weapons. Russia has not yet come up with the optimal OPK structure for several reasons: reforms begun in 1992 are hard going owing to changing the economic system and switching from a planned economy to market-driven relations; the OPK, unlike the civilian sector of industry, has many strategic components and calls for a considerable participation of the state in regulating production; there are no sufficient financial resources.

V. A. KISELYOV, V. M. RYBALKO

Col. V. A. KISELYOV Doctor of Military Sciences

Lt. Col. V. M. RYBALKO

Troops used underground service lines and structures for centuries, doing that as far back as the Roman and Byzantine empires. Already at that time there were undermining tunnels made under fortifications. The Russian army led by Ivan IV (The Terrible) made a skilful use of this tactics while storming Kazan (1552).

V. V. BULGAKOV

Col. Gen. V. V. BULGAKOV

Hero of the Russian Federation

Radical changes in the military-political and military-strategic situation, the creation and employment of new weaponry and forms of warfare with and without use of arms call for an unconventional approach to studying the problems of war and peace. The reality is such that there still remain in the world and in the RF many political, economic, ethnic and other contradictions not all of which, unfortunately, lend themselves to being resolved through peaceful means. As a result armed conflicts arise.

V. I. ALEXANDROV

Col. V. I. ALEXANDROV Doctor of Military Sciences

Theory and practice of military art show that increasing operational mobility of troops is closely linked with their maneuverability. Modern military theory defines maneuverability as "a property of units of various services and combat arms of the Armed Forces and special troops characterizing the extent of their capability to move around and ability to quickly carry out movement and deployment in preparing for and during the course of combat." It follows from the definition that the basis of maneuverability of troops (forces, assets) is their capability of moving- "...ability ... to rapidly move around before the start of an operation (combat) and in the course of combat." This notion, this author thinks, is identical to the idea of "mobility."

Ivan Vorobyov does not offer ready-made solutions and easy roads to victory in a combat. His book offers his thoughts about the art of tactics and an attempt to get a glimpse of a commander's creative laboratory. The author is out to show the obstacles to be overcome when looking for an original solution in a battle, to reveal the contradictions and difficulties of command and control, and to demonstrate that the road to victory is a thorny one. The author is convinced that the officers should be taught to think originally, to reject shopworn patterns and approaches, and to avoid bureaucratic quagmire. In short, tactics should be restored to its status of a true art of combat.

Tactics and its core, the theory of combat, covered a long and winding road of evolution. Throughout centuries mankind has been accumulating combat experience through trial and error method based mainly on intuition. Failures cost lives, this made military leaders ponder on how to avoid errors and wage combats so that to save lives and avoid unnecessary losses. With time tactical devices tested in many battles entered military treatises, rules, and instructions thus becoming obligatory. This relieved military leaders of the necessity to invent new methods when planning a battle. They used accumulated experience to learn how to improve combat formation, achieve secret, fast, and concerted actions, use decoys, etc. In this way talented commanders made their contributions to military tactics.

Mew weapon types will determine the future of tactics. Today we are witnessing a new tactical model being shaped by a new material basis of armed struggle in which high precision weapons play the main role, in future they will probably become the central force of armed struggle.

Dear Readers,

We are calling your attention to some of the main points of a draft Manual of the Ground Forces.* Many of you will be made familiar with the full version of the draft in the line of duty. For those who do not have such an opportunity, we bring the contents of the draft Manual, to get an idea of its structure and scope, and some of the main points of the document's chapter one and chapter two. They contain new, we think (or substantially different from those in the preceding edition of the Field Manual of the Ground Forces), basic definitions which call for being interpreted and understood in no uncertain terms not only in the tactical but also in the operational (and some of them, in operational- strategic) command and control echelons.

Chapter One

Principles of Combined-arms Combat

1. Combined-arms Combat, Its Nature, Modes of Conduct and Weapons

1. Combat-a form of tactical actions of troops-consists in strikes, fire and maneuver by combined units, (units, subunits) organized and coordinated in objective, place and time for the purpose of destroying (routing) the enemy, repulsing its strikes and performing other missions within a limited area and in the course of a short period of time.

A. V. SHLYKOV

Lt. Col. A. V. SHLYKOV Candidate of Military Sciences

It is a top priority for a possible adversary at outbreak of an armed conflict to achieve air superiority, which is a prerequisite to effective engagement of opposing forces.

The majority of local wars in recent decades were started by an aggressor featuring a distinctly superior air force. Importantly, for a long time after the end of World War II, aviation's ability to effectively engage ground targets was considerably higher than the ability of air-defense forces to fight off air attacks. The quantitative/qualitative air- defense capability of countries subjected to aggression as a rule was insufficient to defend even the most sensitive of installations, although that was in fact the main task of air-defense forces in the 1960s-1970s. The priority target of strikes by an air enemy force was predominantly fighter aviation while strikes on air defense forces were spotty.

V. I. KUROCHKIN

Col. V. I. KUROCHKIN Candidate of Military Sciences

Until recently it was presumed that to achieve success in counterinsurgency warfare it is enough to have a force superior to an adversary's in the technical equipment and personnel training level. Nonetheless, this form of warfare is a very special kind of activity that defies appraisal in terms of standard methodology and criteria.

V. G. Lebedko

Rear Admiral V. G. Lebedko (Ret.) Candidate of Military Sciences

Dear Readers,

This section is devoted completely to an important milestone-the 175th anniversary of the Naval Academy named after Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Nikolai Kuznetsov. In his contribution Rear Admiral (Ret.) V. Lebedko discusses the historic role of the Navy in defending the country's interests in the World Ocean. Russia has always been and remains a great naval power thanks, to a great extent, to dedicated services of those who graduated from the academy. In the second contribution to the same section Vice-Admiral (Ret.) N. Zakorin, Captains 1st Rank (Ret.) N. Makhrov and V. Kobzev pay a tribute to the memory of an outstanding Russian mathematician Mikhail Ostrogradskiy who dedicated larger part of his life to teaching army and naval officers in the academy.

N. D. Zakorin, N. V. Makhrov, V. P. Kobzev

Vice-Admiral N. D. Zakorin (Ret.) Candidate of Military Sciences

Captain 1st Rank N. V. Makhrov (Ret.) Candidate of Naval Sciences

Captain 1st Rank V. P. Kobzev (Ret.) Candidate of Military Sciences

The new, twenty-first century is a century of informatization of all spheres of human life. This is especially true of the military sphere. Mathematics and logic are the core of high information technologies. Today mathematics is the key link of high efficiency, reliability, and security and the use of force and weapons on the sea. Nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed navy requires highly professional officers whose skill is based on profound knowledge of natural, humanitarian and technical sciences.

There was a readers' conference on the theme "Military Art of the Land Forces at the Juncture of Millennia and the Military Thought Journal" held at the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on November 21, 2001. The conference was attended by Lieutenant General G. E. Kotenko, First Deputy Chief of Main Staff of the Land Forces; Army General M. A. Gareyev, President of the Academy of Military Sciences; the Academy's heads, professors, teachers and students; as well as prominent military scientists and Military Thought editors.