Soviet Tank Company Tactics, May 1976

This study of Soviet tank company tactics is written as a "how they fight" manual. Many of the concepts and methods used by the Soviets appear to the US or NATO military listener so alien that there is a temptation to say "this is unworkable". The listener should appreciate that the Soviet tank company commander has a vastly different task from his US or NATO equivalent. His task is to train and lead his company as directed by well-established principles set out in field service regulations, and as interpreted by his superiors. The company fights either as part of a battalion size unit, or with the close support of other tank, motorized rifle, and artillery units. The battalion is the basic unit of maneuver in the Soviet Ground Forces and a company is best regarded as a fire team.

While this report is somewhat dated, I believe the basic underlying tactics have been adopted by the Russian New Look reforms and help define Russian military modernization ambitions. Naturally the use of new technologies such as unmanned vehicles (both lethal and nonlethal), artificial intelligence, and network-centric warfare will complicate the battlespace. However, in the final analysis, somebody will have to get into a tank and wade into the fray, guns blasting. How the Soviets did that in the past - knowing what works and what doesn't - is bound to affect their approach to combat today.