People are not enough, the Russian army changes tactics, it took more than three years to realize, no one else could do that
The open-source intelligence organization DeepState and the Telegram channel Mannerheims son jointly released an analysis stating that the Russian military is implementing a new infantry combat doctrine, with the core content being to reduce the number of frontline infantry, replacing some traditional infantry tasks with drones and ground robots.
This tactic reflects a real problem: after more than three years of high-intensity combat, the Russian military's manpower reserves have been exhausted.
According to this assessment, the new guidelines mainly have four key changes.
Firstly, large-scale infantry charges are almost no longer used. The scenes of thirty or forty people charging in a row at Ukrainian positions have disappeared. Instead, groups of 2 to 4 people are now operating separately, each carrying a drone for operations.
Secondly, the Russian military no longer pursues the occupation of a certain position, but instead uses unmanned systems for long-range strikes, or attempts to bypass the front lines from the flanks, infiltrating into the depth of Ukraine to find high-value targets such as command posts and artillery positions.
In addition, front-line soldiers rarely directly participate in rifle fire, and almost all fire support is handed over to FPV drones in the air and ground remote-controlled platforms.
The last change is that the Russian military's tactics no longer aim to exchange human waves for advances, but to save personnel to maintain the sustainability of the offensive, rather than risking many lives even if it means fighting slower.
Factually, this new approach is not entirely the result of the Russian military's own planning, but rather a gradual push by battlefield realities.
Since 2022, the Ukraine-Russia front line has stretched for thousands of miles, and the Russian military has repeatedly deployed mobilized forces in multiple directions, yet they have never achieved stable breakthroughs. While the front line remained stuck, the casualty numbers continued to rise.
By the second half of 2024, the Russian military had tried using FPV drones to attack positions several times and had tasted some benefits.
After that, frontline units began to spontaneously integrate technological resources, pushing unmanned systems into the operational process.
This official acknowledgment of the change in infantry tactics indicates that even the top leadership has realized that the method of relying on human waves can no longer be sustained. It took the Russian military three years to realize this, which is indeed quite slow.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1842108014922884/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.