Spetsnaz operations & weapons in Afghanistan War

[John Kettler]

This is a first rate piece on the topic, written by someone who quite clearly was Spetsnaz and is highly articulate. Am not sure where the article came from in the first place, and I'd love to read the earlier ones.

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Pocket+artillery+and+other+big+guns%3A+these+Soviet+special+forces+had...-a0268791324

Regards,

John Kettler

[ZPB II]

Great link, 'twas a good read. The MDZ sounds particularly nasty. I wonder about the 800m accuracy claim for the RPG-16, I am in no position to argue it but I am wondering whether in this instance he means accuracy when fired down from a hill or a mountain.

Although I found the plentiful typos caused by OCR to be rather funny. Hire instead of fire, oilier instead of other and so on.

[John Kettler]

ZBP II,

Glad you liked it. Have long been interested in Spetsnaz, and they were a professional concern, too, during my military aerospace days. I'd say the 800m range is for hitting an area target of fair extent. Here's a vid showing much more typical engagement geometry.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d08_1344348852

www.warfare.ru has a treasure trove of Russian goodies, but the RPG-16 is apparently so obsolete it's not in even the arms export catalog.

Regards,

John Kettler

[akd]

Am not sure where the article came from in the first

Shotgun News. It's right there at the top of the page.

[John Kettler]

akd,

And so, we see again the dangers of wee hour posts! I need to see whether I can find the other ones mentioned.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

ZBP II and akd,

Hurray for our side! The rest of them ARE available online, as seen here.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=shotgun+news,+spetsnaz&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Regards,

John Kettler

[ZPB II]

Ah, the links keep piling on! This will put a dent in my productivity.

ZBP II,

Have long been interested in Spetsnaz, and they were a professional concern, too, during my military aerospace days.

Regards,

John Kettler

I have a particular interest in them myself. When I was younger, I used to train a bit of aikijiujitsu or somesuch, and there was Systema training at the same gym. Every now and then instructors from Russia would come over and hold a training camp.

Several of the instructors were claimed to be ex-Spetsnaz from you name it. Alfa, Vympel, Special Border Guards and MVD. Veterans from Afghanistan and Chechnya. I don't think it was just marketing pep talk. I recognize some names and faces on the Internet. I've probably never been around people who simply ooze so much presence. They were extremely professional, stern, just and pretty easy-going but I could never shake off the feeling that I was in the presence of killers. It was simply something in the way they moved, spoke and conducted. They seemed like guys who got jobs done.

During my brief mandatory military stint, they also tried to teach and train us a bit about them, since, well. If the military is to train against a hypothetical opponent it might as well be Russia. It's kind of a hush-hush thing though. Not really talked about much in the media.

I was in armoured infantry so Spetsnaz wasn't the primary focus, as armoured infantry was trained on how to flank and strike at the weak points of enemy columns and formations, crashing the party while planting mines everywhere and riding off before a counterattack as normal or mechanized infantry absorbs the blow. Expected opposition was Border Guard or Mechanized Infantry divisions. But in the case there's Spetsnaz in the area, one should know possible frequency hopping ranges to jam with that fancy hightech...uhh...thing. Jamcannon, yes. That was it, the secret weapon.

If I'm not wrong, military police and signal corps and such might get pretty intimate training about the Spetsnaz since they'll be stationed at likely targets for them.