Countersabotage and antiterrorist struggle in a combat operation.

The analysis of the experience of local wars and armed conflicts of recent decades makes it possible to reveal certain tendencies in the development of methods and techniques used in subversive and terrorist activities in a modern combat operation (action), and to offer a number of new approaches in counter-sabotage and antiterrorist struggle in large-scale, regional and local wars and in armed conflicts.

For instance, it cannot be ruled out that a large-scale war could start with a special subversive and terrorist campaign carried out by the enemy. Most likely, such a war will be waged as a part of a so-called information war so as to create a permanent subversive front ("fifth column") inside the confronting state, to misinform and mislead the opponent, to weaken its armed forces' military efficiency.

The experience of local wars and armed conflicts shows that a special subversive and terrorist campaign can be carried out in several stages, with its components being subversive and terrorist operations and separate subversive acts and terrorist attacks.

Unlike World War II, modern combat operations tend to involve a wider arsenal of forces and equipment aimed at affecting the enemy in subversive and terrorist purposes. In addition to traditional resources, non-traditional instruments can be used. They tend to affect the public opinion, human consciousness, subconsciousness and behavior, as well as psychological condition, feelings and health. Such instruments can include, first of all, means of informational and psychological influence; psychotropic drugs; techno-psychological weapons; psychotropic weapons.

The use of psychotropic weapons could become a productive instrument of subversive activities. This kind of weapon is based on the mechanism changing the biochemical characteristics of the processes occurring in a human nervous system by administering pharmacological preparations, narcotic substances and poisons in the concentrations causing required mental reactions, inadequate condition and behavior of the military personnel. Such groups of psychotropic substances could be applied in combat operations: they can be dispersed as aerosols and powders in the areas where control units, support echelons, missile launchers, artillery sites etc. are located.

Techno-psychological weaponry is based on the mechanism modifying the bioelectric processes in the brain of a human being by affecting him with electromagnetic radiations of certain frequency and intensity. As sources of such radiations, various kinds of generators, resonators and acoustic devices can be applied, since they are capable of causing feelings of fear, dizziness, nausea, painful sensations and mental disorders; they can make people panicking and create psychomotor malfunctions. It should also be noted that ultralow frequencies can easily penetrate the walls of shelters and armored vehicles.

Somatic-and-psychological weapons are based on the application of microwave electromagnetic fluctuations capable of destroying the enemy's communication system and computer networks and demolishing the electronic systems of combat vehicles and transport facilities.

It should be said that non-traditional instruments, first of all, tend to suppress the human will to resistance; they are designed to zombie the people's mentality and program the behavior of the military personnel and the population, making it most favorable for the enemy. Such instruments can also be used to achieve political, economic and military purposes even prior to the stage when military power is applied, which can actually be viewed as psychological subversive activities.

Electronic subversions represent another type of sabotage activities that have been quite widely applied in local wars and armed conflicts. Their aim is to break into the enemy's automated command and weapon control system and to destroy it from the inside. A subversive act of this kind was organized during the Six Day War between Egypt and Israel (1967). Having accomplished a pre-operational reconnaissance of the troop command and control system in the Egyptian Army, in particular in the Air Force and the Air Defense System, the Israelis took the initiative just from the first minutes of the war, shortly after the Egyptian planes took off. Being aware of the enemy's frequencies and codes, they immediately got connected into its radio networks so as to mislead both the ground command posts and the planes by initiating false commands to them. While evaluating the results of this war, the former Israeli Defense Minister M. Dayan wrote: "The role the Israeli intelligence has played (in other words, its subversive actions.--Authors.) was not at all less than the role the Air Force and the armored troops have been playing." (1)

In view of electronic warfare enhancement, the range of electronic subversive activities could be even wider nowadays, and these activities can include not only electronic jamming, but also the application of electromagnetic and directed energy radiation devices, anti-radiation homing weapons and means having special programmable impacts on the information circulating within the enemy's control systems.

In subversive purposes, various computer viruses can be used, which could result in complete failure of computer networks in the enemy's control systems. And if a virus is infiltrated into a computer of a modern automatic telephone station, this could lead to extensive connection failures or to mutilated calls. One of the programmable impact tools could also involve a software bug representing a set of commands initiated in any programming language, a number of microprogram instructions, function characters and combinations in telecommunication messages, etc.

Electronic subversion efficiency could be sharply increased with the occurrence of electro-magnetic weapons. As a result of a combination of electronic impact tools and fire damage devices, a new form of technological subversion--electronic and fire weaponry subversive activities--is now emerging.

This sort of subversion is based on multipurpose utilization of electronic and fire weaponry impact on the most significant electronic systems in the enemy's forces so as to immediately destroy (block) the control units operating its rocket and fire weapon system, missile firing installations and air defense system. This can be achieved through passive and reflection jamming (being of masking, imitating, combined, protecting, aiming, sliding, etc. character) in a combination with selective high-precision attacks. Such subversions tend to imply a surprise effect and they are aimed at the enemy's unpreparedness to resist.

In the foreseeable future, a new form of subversive activities, such as aerospace attacks, may emerge, which would mean another technological breakthrough in the armed struggle. The use of the space as a "battlefield" environment in subversive purposes will inevitably lead to a situation when the most significant facilities and installations of tactical offensive and defensive forces will be within the reach of the enemy's aerospace intelligence and offensive weapons. This will make it much more complicated to arrange adequate protection of troops from such sort of subversive acts.

Mass display of sabotage and terrorist actions--not only on the ground but also in the air, in the space, on the sea and through air transmission means--requires us to give a new consideration to the character of a modern combat operation (action). In their substance, a new spatiotemporal measurement is emerging: an invisible, but a permanent front of countersabotage and antiterrorist struggle with its specific inherent features: the enemy's expanding capabilities in influencing all the elements of the operational order of battle, composition of forces, logistic installations and communication facilities, their increasing vulnerability.

These new operative and tactical conditions require new approaches to the development of the forms and methods of countersabotage and antiterrorist struggle in large-scale, regional, local wars and armed conflicts. With this purpose it would be expedient to establish a special governing body which could develop the concept of military training and resource arrangement and draft special documents, manuals and instructions related to the struggle against subversive and terrorist formations (STF) of the enemy.

We believe that the primary step in solving this urgent problem could be creation, within the RF Armed Forces, of a special Antiterrorist Center (ATC)--a sort of a "driving generator" in performing all the military training arrangements aimed at the struggle against the acts of sabotage and terrorism at wartime.

In fact, the idea of creating an antiterrorist center is not at all new. A similar center exists in the USA, and there is another one at the UN Security Council. In 2002, an antiterrorist center was established in the CIS (CIS ATC). It has been functioning rather successfully: in particular, it has been filing a specialized database on terrorist organizations, on their activities both in the countries of CIS and abroad. Under its aegis, a number of combined tactical maneuvers were held involving the CIS collective forces. In particular, such maneuvers were held in Central Asia, in Ukraine, in the territories of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.

As for the RF Armed Forces Antiterrorist Center creation, we believe that its functions should be somewhat wider than those of the CIS ATC. It should not only predict the political and military environment in the country and worldwide, reveal possible sabotage and terrorist threats, but it should also develop practical proposals as to how to counteract those. One of the ATC objectives involves the drafting and formulation of corresponding documents regulating how the internal defense system of the army field forces should look like both in the beginning and during the war; what resources should be trained and prepared for this purpose; what forms and methods of neutralizing sabotage and terrorist actions are to be applied; what should be the role and goals of combined armed forces (units) and formations of other power structures in special operations; what the system of their command and control should look like, and how the interaction and support of the armed forces (troops) should be organized.

Creation of the ATC and establishment of the interaction and support system with respect to various resources participating in the struggle against terrorist and subversive formations is a rather complicated process. Therefore we suggest that all the measures related to this problem should be divided into two groups. The first group could include: ATC structure determination, fixing the dates and procedures with respect to ATC creation, solution of principal control and management related issues; endorsement of subordination and the order of all-arms forces interaction; determination of the tasks to be given to combined troops, their units and divisions (fighter, search and detecting, attack and assault, blockade), as well as to the interacting groups involving Interior Ministry troops, combat units within the Frontier Service of the FSB and area defense units.

The second group of measures could include: bringing the countersabotage, fighter, attack and assault, search and detecting forces and groups to an adequate alert status; their shifting to the tactical employment battlefield; combat shakedown, force training completion; joint tactical maneuvers, command and staff exercises, staff trainings, computer games, demonstrations, scientific and practical conferences.

In our opinion, the structural base of the ATC, as an operational control authority, should consist of the Intelligence and Analytical Center and the Joint Operational Directorate. The latter, in turn, could include task forces represented by different armed services and interacting power structures, control units regulating hard-kill actions, warfare resources, means of radiation, chemical and biological protection, as well as engineering, technical and logistic support.

The main areas of ATC activities may include the following aspects: regulatory, scientific and theoretical, administrative, organizational, scientific and technical, supporting. As for the regulatory area, it should be focused on coordinating power structures' activities related to the development of military combat readiness and mobilization plans, program coordination, joint development and handling of combat exercises, combat-and-staff training exercises, military science conferences, war games and trainings. Scientific and theoretical activities of the ATC are supposed to include: investigation, generalization and analysis of countersabotage and antiterrorist actions in local wars and armed conflicts and elaboration of respective proposals and recommendations for commanders, staffs and armies; development of trends aimed at perfection and improvement of operative and tactical forms and methods of the struggle against subversive and terrorist formations (STF), combat planning and control techniques, control system and all-out support development; drafting of manuals, handbooks and instructions, soldiers' handling guides, education materials related to the given subjects. One of the organizational missions of ATC will involve determination of the composition and structure of the special units engaged in the fighting against terrorism and acts of sabotage. Such units are required to ensure prompt response to an occurring crisis situation during combat operations so as to prevent subversive and terrorist formations from landing into this or that area, localize and mitigate their actions, block them with subsequent encirclement, splitting and elimination. In fact, this is supposed to be some kind of a special army task force.

The general requirements regarding the army task force organization and establishment are reduced to the following: it is supposed to ensure that its maneuverable qualities are equal to those of the enemy's STFs; it must be in the position to apply various tactical methods in the struggle against STF, to resist modern means of destruction including space striking weapons, high-precision weapons, rocket-and-fire weapon systems, missile firing installations, missile fire units, weapons based on new physical principles, such as psychotropic, nonlethal and incendiary weapons. These special task force groups must integrate most of the service branches' fighting qualities: air and ground mobility of airborne troops, striking and maneuverable qualities of all-arms forces, striking and fire power potential of artillery and aviation forces, and during naval operations--fighting qualities of marine units. They must be formed primarily as multiple purpose troops, i.e. they should have the ability to fulfill their missions in all kinds of operations in large-scale, regional and local wars and in armed conflicts. Application of the special task force groups along with motorized rifle forces and armored units, and in an internal confrontation--in cooperation with the Interior Ministry troops and combat units within the Frontier Service of the FSB will essentially expand the range of their combat application.

The special task force groups, being "compact" structure-wise and on constant alert for immediate actions must have the ability to perform pre-emptive rapid airlifting and air-ground (air-sea) maneuvering in relation to the enemy's subversive and terrorist formations. Various destruction weapons and resources can be applied in a combat operation when fighting the STFs. The most maneuverable and quick response asset among those is combat aviation, in particular--SU-25 fighter aircraft, capable of making selective strikes. The most important thing is that upon receiving the target position data, this aircraft itself makes supplemental reconnaissance operations and then strikes out. However, its operational range is limited.

One of the irreplaceable means used to eliminate mobile small-sized subversive and terrorist groups (STG) are Mi-8 and Mi-24 attack helicopters. However, they unfortunately are not capable of performing full-scale search and reconnaissance operations against small-sized STGs located in settlements, forests, gorges and ravines. Therefore, there is an urgent necessity of creating new types of multipurpose helicopters equipped with all-weather, round-the-clock reconnaissance and target designation equipment. It is highly required that their armament capabilities and survivability level should be increased by adding the qualities possessed by battle helicopters and fighter helicopters.

To maintain the struggle against subversive and terrorist formations of the enemy it would be expedient to apply multiple mission (reconnaissance, electronic warfare) pilotless aircraft and lightweight off-aerodrome location aircraft ("mosquito aviation") capable of implementing a wide spectrum of missions. And when it is required to reveal and destroy the STF at the primary stage of their preparedness for actions, long-distance aircraft can be used as well--basically for hitting the airfields and units where the STFs are based.

Rocket troops and artillery units also possess highly effective weapons necessary for fighting the STFs. They primarily involve high-accuracy rocket systems, self-propelled artillery and multiple launch rocket systems. Nevertheless, to ensure more effective counteraction to subversive acts and terrorist attacks of the enemy the fighting potential of rocket troops and artillery units should be increased. This could be done both by increasing the numerical strength of rocket troops and artillery units in combined arms formations, and through qualitative improvement of artillery weapon systems, One of such ways is the creation of electronic-and-magnetic ammunition launchers and air-breathing shells for 122-mm howitzers for shooting within the range of up to 50-70 km, as well as guided missiles for 152-mm howitzers and 120-mm guns.

In addition to fire power weapons, countersabotage (antiterrorist) maneuvering could also involve all-arms reserves, army maneuverable groups, flame-throwing attack helicopter groups capable of advancing to the STF landing site within the shortest possible time. Skilful maneuvering will allow to grasp and keep the initiative in the struggle against the STFs, to upset their application plans, to build up efforts aimed at neutralizing their actions, to operate more actively in difficult situations.

While evaluating the fighting and maneuverable capabilities of the all-arms units and divisions, it should be noted that the existing organization and establishment, especially in battlefield operations, fails to entirely provide effective mission fulfillment in the struggle against the subversive and terrorist formations of the enemy. In particular, it is essential that the firing potential of the rifle battalion should be strengthened so that it could independently, in isolation from the main forces, fight the enemy's STFs. This can be achieved through the inclusion in its structure of the artillery and mortar batteries consisting of one 82-mm mortar launcher platoon, two 120-mm mortar launcher platoons and a separate self-propelled artillery platoon of 122-mm guns. Besides, it would be expedient to have a combat support company in the battalion. Such combat support company could include grenade launcher, flame, machine-gun and antiaircraft platoons, as well as a regular combat-engineer platoon. As far as shooting arms are concerned, it should be said that at this point infantry divisions have quite effective kinds of weapons.

So that a battalion could detect the enemy's STFs, it should have a well trained reconnaissance unit equipped with the most sophisticated technical devices capable of providing the commanders and firing divisions with the intelligence data. Besides, a regular air controller should be included in the battalion.

Snipers also tend to play a significant role in the struggle against the enemy's STFs. The tasks they can solve could be the following: they can prevent saboteurs from penetrating a military facility, destroy the emerging targets which can include snipers, radio operators, machine gunners, mortar gunners, grenadiers, flamethrower operators, sappers. Snipers can also be included in the enemy's subversive and terrorist formations; therefore the described conditions could also involve counter-sniper fighting.

As for counteracting the acts of electronic subversion, it should be said that their efficiency will depend on new radio electronic technologies development, in particular--on implementation of the large-scale radio electronic resource perfection program where significant attention should be given to the creation of comprehensive automated systems, including electronic intelligence and jamming devices, various adaptive systems self-adaptable to the modifying parameters of an electronic device being jammed, and the application of disposable jamming transmitters.

NOTE:

1. Lokalnye voiny. Istoria i sovremennost', Voenizdat Publishers, Moscow, 1981, p. 147.

Maj. Gen. I.N. VOROBYOV (Ret.)

Doctor of Military Sciences, professor

Col. V.A. KISELEV

Doctor of Military Sciences, professor