Well, everyone is doing up organizations for minor
powers and Western-style forces. Most of the
organizations are recongizably US, UK, or Canadian, so first in a series of
articles on the ESU. I've got the Desant (Airborne) troops written up but I
left my notebook sitting around somewhere. All these will be
"inspired by" (on occasion, lifted whole) FM 100-60,
the US Army's OPFOR Organization Guide.
ESU Special Purpose Forces are still referred to with the old Russian
designation of Spentznaz. SPF are under the Main Intelligence Directorate of
the General Staff. Some brigades are reserved under the control of the General
Staff, others are assigned to major theater commands (Naval Fleets, Planetary
garissions, forces used in assault operations) in either brigade or battalion
strength. Special Purpose Forces normally infiltrate and strike strategic
targets.
They also perform intelligence-gathering operations in
their expected area of operations prior to any conflict. In fact, unlike
Western Special Forces, these troops are frequently heavily involved in
creating and maintaining intelligence nets.
Spentznaz Brigade: Headquarters
3-5 Spentznaz Battalions
Signal Battalion Support Battalion
Spentznaz Battalion: Battalion Headquarters 3 Spentznaz Companies Signal
Company Supply and Service Platoon
Independant SPF Battalion Spentznaz Company: Company Headquarters
3-5 Spentznaz Teams
SPF Brigade Spentznaz Company: Company Headquarters
9-10 Spentznaz Teams
Team:
Team Leader (Officer) KI-72, PM50
Assistant TL (Warrent Officer) KI-72, PM50
1-2xCommunications Specialists KI-72, PM50,
Long-distance Radio
1-2xWeapons Specialists RPG-30, PM50
1-2xDemolitions Specialists KI-72, PM50
0-4xReconaissance Specialists KI-72, PM50
RPG-30: Reloadable IAVR
PM50: 10mm Caseless Automatic Pistol, FP1, Imp d8,
Close Only, Close-Combat Firearm
Team composition is not fixed. The team is lightly equipped, typically with an
assault rifle, silenced pistol, a knife, and up to 8 hand grenades. Team
equipment typically includes a sniper rifle, directional mines, and
explosives. If needed for mission, they may recieve a laser target designator,
automatic grenade launchers, shoulder-fired SAMs,
manpack ATGMs, or encapsulated flamethrowers. At least one member is trained
as a medic.
> On Sun, May 12, 2002 at 02:58:13PM -0700, John Atkinson wrote:
> ESU Special Purpose Forces are still referred to with
I've always been taught the spelling "Spetsnaz", with the understanding that
it was short for SPETSialnaya NAZnacheniya, literally "Special Purpose".
(Given the nature of this list, we probably have someone who's either worked
with them or shot at them who'll be along to correct me in a minute...) (The
"ts" is a single letter in Cyrillic.)
I would generally expect Spetsnaz troops to be at the higher end of the
quality scale - certainly not yellow or green, and probably more oranges
than blues - depending on one's opinion of the ESU's ability to train
and retain expert soldiers, of course!
> --- Roger Burton West <roger@firedrake.org> wrote:
> I've always been taught the spelling "Spetsnaz",
I've never been too overly worried about spelling since it's all in that
Cyrillic gibberish anyway and any transliteration of any language is
approximate (for proof, compare the tranliterations produced by someone who
learned Greek in a classroom with those produced by a native speaker).
However, I'll stand corrected as far as the customary usage.:)
> I would generally expect Spetsnaz troops to be at
Well, Oranges. Reds would be truly rare due to the length of training
required. For instance, it takes nearly as long to go through the schools
required to produce a US Special Forces Soldier as a Russian (and probably ESU
as well) conscript's entire service commitment.
> At 17:01 2002-05-12 -0700, John Atkinson wrote:
Are/were the Spetsnaz conscripts? I would have thought they were
professionals!
(Mind you, all I know about Spetsnaz is what I dimly remember of what they
thought us when I was a conscript, more than 15 years ago.)
____
From: "John Atkinson" <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com>
> ESU Special Purpose Forces are still referred to with
Spetnatz IIRC.
[quoted original message omitted]
> --- Robin Paul <Robin.Paul@tesco.net> wrote:
> I'd have thought you of all people would have
Look, I'm having a hard enough time trying to memorize Greek, I'm not even
thinking about Cyrillic at this point.
> Other terms for special force types are Raydoviki,
I had understood Raydoviki to be a term associated with Air Assault brigades?
WTF are Vysotniki?
On Monday, May 13, 2002 7:36 PM, Alan and Carmel Brain
> [SMTP:aebrain@webone.com.au] wrote:
I'm Australian and I get that one. "Marks and Spencer".
On Sun, 12 May 2002 14:58:13 -0700 (PDT), John Atkinson
> <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Most of the
Speaking of Canadian, can anyone point me to the TO&E (actual or speculative)
for Canada's JTF-2?