The joint Belarusian-Russian Zapad 2021 combined strategic exercise (sovmestnoe strategicheskoe uchenie), which lasted from September 10 to 16, witnessed numerous tests and experiments involving Russia’s Armed Forces—something that was entirely expected, since the annual strategic-operational military exercises naturally serve as the culmination of the combat training year. The Russian combined strategic exercises rotate every four years between four of the country’s five military districts (Western, Eastern, Central and Southern; excluding the newly added Northern Fleet Military District). Such exercises are used by the General Staff to assess a broad array of themes linked to military capability, combat readiness, strategic mobility and capacity to fight a wide range of conflict types. Unsurprisingly, given its prominence in exercises and combat operations, Zapad 2021 also featured further testing of the military’s network-centric warfare capability: in Russian parlance, this is essentially the Reconnaissance-Fire System (Razvedyvatelno-Ognevaya Sistema—ROS), which has been successfully combat tested in Ukraine and Syria. However, this year also included a new dynamic: the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for strike missions rather than mainly for reconnaissance purposes (Mil.ru, September 11).
Russia’s Armed Forces Enhance UAV Strike Capability – Jamestown
