Having just finished up the Elbrus Ring military mountaineering competition, the focus of Russia’s international military olympics is now on the tank biathlon. It stresses live fire over rough terrain giving marks for speed and accurate, rapid fire. “Participating tanks drive a three-lap route of 6–10 km. During the first lap, crews fire (the main gun) at targets positioned 1,800, 1,700 and 1,500 m distant. In the second lap, different targets imitating an anti-tank squad and an infantry unit are fired upon. These targets are at a distance of 600–700 m, and must be engaged with 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun. In the third lap the tank crews target an anti-tank gun and ATGM unit by use of the turret-mounted heavy machine gun at a distance of 1,200 m. One or more misses leads to an extra penalty lap of 500 m. On the final lap tanks have to go through various terrain obstacles; an obstacle missed or improperly traversed adds 10 seconds to the final timing.”
It is held
at the Alabino Proving Grounds just southwest of Moscow. 23 countries are reported to be sending tanks
and crew to compete this year (five years ago when this event started only four
competed). The US Army and NATO have
been invited in the past but have not accepted.
Iran
is sending an entry again this year. Two
years ago Iran took last, 12th place out of 12 contestants. Last year they did better placing seventh.
Russia has taken the gold medal every
year. That is fitting for the home team,
they undoubtedly get to practice on that particular course for months beforehand.
Plus they have the latest and greatest gear, for which the biathlon provides a perfect
marketing opportunity. Overseas sales are
a big part of these games.
The
Strong Europe Tank Challenge hosted by the German Heer and USAREUR just held at
Grafenwoehr is
somewhat similar. But at two years
junior it seems to have been started in reaction to the one in Russia. And it is smaller, only eight countries participating
vice the 23 at Alabino. This year there
were six NATO countries plus Sweden and the Ukraine in the competition. Germany won twice, Austria once – Leopards seem
to dominate the competition. And long in
the past the Canadian Army used to host a NATO-wide tank competition but that
hasn’t been done for two or three decades to my knowledge.
The Russians love their tanks, that's for sure. It's almost like America and cars.
ReplyDeleteThey do Andy. They also like combined arms. This tank biathlon is just the most visible part of their Military Olympics. They also have naval and aviation competitions as well as those for troops from SAM, artillery, infantry, engineers, airborne, special forces, and amphibious units. Plus field kitchens!?!
ReplyDeleteThe aviation competitions are supposedly similar to a mini Red Flag or Top Gun exercise.
The alpine competition on Mount Elbrus, Europe's highest mountain at 18,500 feet, would have even challenged Sir Edmund Hillary himself.
Tank competitions are a really expensive way to tell how good a single of your platoon is. But if you do well you can probably impress a lot of tank nerds :D
ReplyDeleteAt last years Strong Europe Tank challenge the polish team needed the austrian teams maintenance crew and equipment to keep their tanks running because they couldn't bring their own gear. After this years competition the austrian military announced that they will probably only send observers to next years competition because it is too expensive and too much effort.
And from what I read it looks like the russian competition is pretty much T72B only and if you are not willing to use the equipment provided you would need to spend a ton of money to keep a tank platoon running.
I read somewhere that the Strong Europe Tank Challenge was for platoons, not just singles. Have they stopped doing whole platoons because of expense?
DeleteYes, it is for tank platoons. Sorry my writing confused you :) What I wanted to say was that it is a lot of effort for a lot of countries to prepare a platoon for those competitions and it might not actually be worth it if this means that the capabilities of the rest tank force suffer because of this.
DeleteYou are right about the expense. We used to do similar competitions internally. Best infantry squad in a battalion, best mortar section, best 105 crew, best tank or AmTrac platoon. For awhile they competed at division or national level. But budgets got tight.
DeleteThis always strikes me as a sort of "fun but militarily useless" sort of thing. No tank crew functions as a biathlete any more than being a gold medalist in biathlon makes your ski troop invincible in combat.
ReplyDeleteIt does look like a hoot...tho it'd be more fun if the various outfits got to use their own vehicles rather than be restricted to the T-72 platform. Merkava vs T-72 vs Chieftan vs M1A2...now that'd be entertaining.
The successes of conscripts in such tournaments surely bolstered the respect for the (potential of) short-serving conscripts in such non-trivial military jobs.
DeleteThe German crews that won or nearly won in the early competitions had conscript drivers, gunners and loaders.
FDC -
ReplyDeleteIt builds morale back in the old days when we did it. And in peacetime it blows out the cobwebs and dust bunnies of apathy and tedium.
That is as long as the tasks were relevant and stayed current. And as long as savvy unit commanders didn't keep a stable of ringers trying to win regimental honors to boost their promotion chances in the manner of Captain Dana 'Dynamite' Holmes boxing team.
One could question some of the competitions' tests, though. Pistol shooting isn't really important for tankers.
DeleteIt does seem like a fun thing for individual crews. How often do you get to fling your tank around like a giant toy..?
ReplyDeleteOn day one, Chinese tankers came in first in the competition. Russians beat out all on day two. Serbs and Iranians came in second and third:
ReplyDeletehttp://tass.com/defense/1015274
Interesting about the Iranians. Neither side in the 1980s First Gulf War got much credit for the quality of their armored troops. Certainly the performance of the Republican Guard in the Second and Third wars seems to confirm to low rating they earned, but we have no subsequent data points for the Iranians. This suggests that at least some of their crew drill is at "high Second World" standards...
ReplyDeleteUnclear if the Iranian tank crews competing in Russia are from the Army or the IRGC. There are several armored formations in both. But the 92nd Armored is reported to be the premier armored unit in Iran by Jane's. Plus they use the T-72 which is the vehicle that all crews compete in at Alabino.
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/92nd_Armored_Division_(Iran)
Sometime in the future all or most Iranian armored units will be using the Karrar (Striker) main battle tank. 800 are being built locally. It appears to be a T-90MS, but supposedly they have also incorporated some elements of the M1 Abrams and the Chieftain.
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13951222000466
The CAT competition was last held around 1991(boy did Leopards ever steal the show). It looks like it's been sort of revived in the form of the Worthington Challenge, which appears broader than just tank, and is kind of international. The Americans have the Sullivan Cup, which is for individual crews and also has an international element, though neither to the extent of the Strong Europe competition.
ReplyDeleteI guess the competitions are a way of reinforcing basic skills. There's an anecdote/conclusion in this speech (https://www.army.mil/article/54013/feb_23_2011_vcsa_gen_chiarellis_remarks_at_the_ausa_ilw_winter_symposium) that preparation for the CAT competition led a company to excel at everything else in a subsequent brigade exercise. I'm not convinced that pure tank gunnery translates into combined arms tactical excellence, but it never hurts to excel in the basics.
@F - "it never hurts to excel in the basics"
DeleteI'm a believer!
The thing I like about these competitions is the relief from the drudgery of repetitive drills, whether for armor or infantry or artillery units. Drill and Kill we used to call it. These types of contests of skill are definitely worthwhile IMHO.
The problem w trying to come up w a FA equivalent is the issue of indirect fire. There's just nothing as fun as seeing the target blow up...but that's just not a realistic arty crew task.
DeleteWe do shoot a direct fire/direct lay fun mission at the end of a LFX, but that IS about the extent of the sort of mission you could make into something like this. Everything else is just a crew drill like any other.
One exception in my experience was shooting at the Schofield Barracks impact area in Hawaii. This thing was up on a mountainside within sight of the gunline, so you could see you rounds impact. The downside, tho, is that it was 1) half the size of a postage stamp, and 2) only about 3-5 klicks downrange. And you couldn't fire high-angle, IIRC. So the missions got boring quick, given that your safety fan was like 20 mils wide and 10 mils deep...
" I'm not convinced that pure tank gunnery translates into combined arms tactical excellence"
DeleteIt's far from just driving and gunnery. Look at the score card there:
https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2017/05/austria-wons-strong-europe-tank.html
I wouldn't mind getting a look at the Failed Assumptions Chart in General Chiarelli's notebook that was mentioned in the link above by F:
Delete"In fact, I carry a chart around in my notebook - I call it the Failed Assumptions chart. It lists all the assumptions made by senior Leaders since the start of this war. Nearly every one of them has proven untrue. Unless you're a psychic or a mind-reader, you cannot know what the future holds. And, to attempt to train for every possible scenario or contingency is futile, if not foolish."
We can all probably guess the failed assumptions!
DeleteOne other thought on competitions: given that "since the start of this war" tankers, gunners and so on have been re-rolled into quasi infantry, there's been a lot of skill fade. Competitions are a way of getting people back into the core skills. Of course, as Mike mentions above, that assumes that units and formations aren't picking ringers (a problem I remember reading about, albeit related more to annual certifications, in Victor Suvorov's book "Inside the Soviet Army").
I'd argue that the skill loss is about the senior NCOs which now need to do the training. It's doubtful if such competitions do much about that. I suppose TRADOC should rather gather the new and the best tactics and procedures from allied forces' tank forces and set up proper qualifying/refreshing courses for the generation of seniors NCOs who didn't grow into tanking full bloods as they joined the tank force after OIF.
DeleteChief, we had a lot of fun doing quick actions. Battery driving down the road when we get an incoming fire mission. Deploy battery, record guns and get round in the air. Best time I ever got as Gun Position officer was 58 seconds between "Fire Mission Battery .." and "Shot over".
ReplyDeleteYep. The US FA calls those "hipshoots", and they are a battery-level METL ("mission-essential task list") task. I don't recall our best time, but I don't think we got under a minute. With the GPS map spot, tho, I'll bet that's the standard.
DeleteF -
ReplyDeleteRegarding ringers, there are obvious ones. And then there are more subtle ringers. In the distant past at least one battalion entry in the 'Super Squad' competition were pampered by being given the following benefits that I witnessed:
1] unit leaders given advanced copies of the competition tasklist and location,
2] relieved from all training not specific to those tasks,
3] exempted from mess duty, 1st Sergeant's working parties, or other administrative responsibilities,
4] maintained at full strength when other squads were 10 to 20% under-strength
5] weak sisters moved out to other units,
etc, etc.
This probably goes on in many units. It is a path to full colonel for a battalion CO to have a winning team nationally, whether infantry, tanks, or whatever.
Even so, I'm still a fan of these competitions. Train the future trainers in small unit tactics and techniques is the way I look at it.
Israel is competing in the Russian Mil Olympics also. Not in the tank biathlon, but they sent teams for the 'Field Medicine Challenge' and the 'Field Kitchen Cook-Off'. And also to the Military Rally (whatever that is? - a KamAz truck race?)
ReplyDeleteThey may (or not) compete against Iran in the Field Medicine Challenge:
https://www.eurasiafuture.com/2018/08/03/russias-international-army-games-might-bring-iran-and-israel-together/