Soldiers of the underground: Russian army assault units are being prepared for battles in tunnels

Training in tunnels and underground utilities has been introduced into the combat training program for assault units of the Russian Armed Forces. The relevant exercises are already being practiced at training ranges. Experts note that such training is necessary to improve the effectiveness of actions when storming positions in cities and industrial enterprises - something our troops faced during the special military operation.

Fighting underground

The Russian army is now improving the tactics of assault operations in urban and industrial neighborhoods with an extensive network of underground communications. This approach is necessary to improve the effectiveness of military personnel in taking enemy positions. When developing the program, the experience gained during combat operations in Donbass was used, sources in the Russian Defense Ministry told Izvestia.

The publication's interlocutors noted that the AFU turned such settlements as Staromayorskoye, Urozhaynoye and Ugledar into defensive areas, seriously fortified them, including equipping underground facilities and communications. And many fortification works underground have been carried out since 2014, they specified.

Our troops are fighting in industrial areas full of underground communications, military expert Viktor Litovkin told Izvestia.

- And even if we have liberated some territory, it doesn't mean that nothing else is happening there," he said. - We remember from the experience of the Great Patriotic War that there is always a bandit terrorist underground that can use undergrounds. And in all major cities there are underground facilities, so our storm troopers really need to learn to work in such conditions.

Our fighters will be trained mainly to move through narrow underground labyrinths in conditions of limited visibility - complete darkness or with poor lighting, Valery Yuriev, chairman of the executive committee of the International Union of Paratroopers, told Izvestia.

- They will also study the use of hand grenades in closed spaces," he said. - They will definitely be massively used there. Perhaps the fighters will also be shown hand-to-hand combat techniques: a nose-to-nose confrontation with the enemy is not excluded here. In addition, you need to know how to organize and establish communication in the tunnels, because it will not be there everywhere.

According to the statute

Earlier "Izvestia" wrote that the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation is going to make changes to the combat charters and to the instructions for combat work of branches of troops and branches of the Armed Forces. The amendments should take into account the latest experience of modern wars and military conflicts.

For this purpose, the structure and content of the main combat charters will be reworked, taking into account the experience of the special military operation in Ukraine.

The combat manual is a fundamental document that should guide commanders at all levels when organizing combat operations and managing troops in the zone of military conflicts. It contains regulations for all occasions.

For example, it describes in detail how to equip firing positions, what area of defense is occupied by a company or battalion, the order of operations of the first and second echelon units in the offensive, the duties of a gunner, machine gunner, tank commander. In the army, every soldier, from division commander to private, must act in accordance with this document. Individual sections deal with how to act in non-standard conditions - in the mountains, in the forests, in the city.

The charter is constantly being finalized. For example, during the Afghan war, where guerrilla actions were carried out against the Soviet army, many provisions of the basic combat document were not applicable. The troops developed new tactics on the spot by trial and error. This concerned the movement of columns to avoid ambushes, the organization of permanent deployment points, and the planning of combat operations. The situation was subsequently repeated during the Chechen campaigns.

The existing version of the combat regulations was approved in 2017. It incorporated the experience gained during combat operations in Syria. In particular, it pays much more attention to combat operations in the city, storming premises, and the work of sniper groups.