Saturday, August 25, 2018

The 21st Century Spanish Civil War

The Russians seem to have been more interested in using their small intervention force in the multi-war in Syria the last five years to get combat experience than to fight for Assad:

A total of 63,012 Russian personnel have "received combat experience" in the war-torn country, the ministry said in a video about Russia's campaign to support the Syrian regime dating back to September 2015.

This number includes 25,738 ranking officers and 434 generals as well as 4,349 artillery and rocket specialists, it said.

So that's 26,172 officers leading 36,840 enlisted men. Which means each officer led 1.4 enlisted men.

Clearly, Russia was rotating officers through Syria to get some real world experience, which they know is a major American military advantage.

I dismiss the Russian claims of killing huge numbers of jihadis, which either is wholly made up or includes civilians defined as well disguised jihadi terrorists.