February** Dynamic Incentive Program It was an unprecedented military exercise, in 1981, the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact alliance staged a real-world simulation of the conquest of Europe. The results of this exercise caused consternation in Western countries, led by the United States, and since then, the United States has changed its strategic plan to confront the Soviet Union by force.
So, what exactly is this exercise? How does it work? What changes have it brought to Western countries, led by the United States? Today, let's explore the full picture of the Soviet military exercises in 1981.
The confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union began shortly after the end of World War II, when the United States, together with Western capitalist countries, implemented a Cold War policy towards the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, and established NATO to counter the socialist camp dominated by the Soviet Union.
In the early years of the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the United States experienced fierce confrontation and conflict, and although both sides tried to reduce tensions during this period, they did not avoid large-scale disputes.
The period of reprieve, represented by Khrushchev's visit to the United States, did not last, and construction followed"Berlin Wall"The occurrence of the Cuban Missile Crisis made relations between the United States and the Soviet Union even more tense, and the two sides officially entered the Cold War stage.
From the mid-60s to the late 70s, the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union entered a new stage, which was referred to as the second phase of the US-Soviet struggle for hegemony. At this stage, the Soviet Union's military strength increased rapidly, the United States' offensive gradually weakened and turned into a defensive position, and the Soviet Union gradually gained an advantage in the Cold War pattern.
After Brezhnev came to power, the gap between the economic strength of the Soviet Union and the United States was greatly narrowed, and it even surpassed the United States in armaments. In particular, in terms of strategic missiles, more than 40% of the US stockpile.
In 1979, the Soviet Union spent three times as much on nuclear research as the United States. At the same time, at the end of the 70s, the Soviet Union had twice as many troops and five times as many tanks as the United States, formally implementing the strategy of competing with the United States for world hegemony.
The Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 marked the peak of its policy of world hegemony, and the United States suffered serious setbacks during this period, with heavy losses in the war of aggression against Vietnam.
During the Nixon administration, the global economic crisis took its toll on him. The United States has adjusted its strategy in global military deployment and has begun to be on the defensive of the US-Soviet struggle for hegemony. After Reagan** came to power, he resumed a tough confrontation against the Soviet Union, and the United States and the Soviet Union entered the third stage of the struggle for hegemony.
However, when Reagan tried to contain the Soviet Union through an arms race, the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries organized a military exercise called "West-81" to change U.S. tactics.
This was an exercise that shocked the world, and the Soviet top leadership decided to take a tough stance and organized an exercise of unprecedented scale because of the pressure of the Western countries led by the United States.
In 1981, Republican leader Ronald Reagan successfully entered the White House and became the first in the United States. After he took office, there was a major shift in US foreign policy, moving away from the moderate line of Carter and adopting a more hawkish attitude.
Reagan has repeatedly stated publicly that he wants to put certain pressure and constraints on the global expansion of the Soviet Union. The boycott of the Moscow Olympics in 1980 was also one of Reagan's important actions in the early days of his tenure.
He took an active part in it and pushed for this event to take place, putting a lot of pressure on Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. At this time, the USSR was at the height of its military power.
However, in the face of the tough attitude of the United States, the Soviet side also reacted quickly. They decided to act and counter the provocations of the United States. According to the instructions of the CPSU**, the Soviet army, in conjunction with the latest research results of the Frunze Military Academy, organized a large-scale military exercise codenamed "West-81".
The purpose of this military exercise is to demonstrate the level of military theory and equipment of the Soviet Union, and it is also a warning to the United States that the Soviet Union is the hegemon of the European theater.
The exercise, known as "a classic of the Soviet-style modern offensive", was supported by Marshal Ustinov, and the exercise adopted a big data command system and precision guidance, which were not yet mature at that time.
Marshal Ogarkov, as the commander-in-chief of the exercise, conducted an in-depth study of the performance of the US military in the Vietnam theater. He proposed modern information-based military technology with big data as the core, which promoted the process of military revolution and built an "ideal military command and control system."
This system requires close connections between divisions and regiments, even to every soldier, officer, and general, to provide them with the most accurate information to help them make the most appropriate decisions.
The purpose of the exercise was to test the ability of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries to conduct a strategic offensive in great depth under the conditions of nuclear war, and at the same time to help discover the shortcomings of the Soviet military and provide a factual basis for the future "five-year plan."
The exercises were carried out in the western part of the Soviet Union, in the eastern part of Poland, in the north and in part of the GDR, and about 1280,000 troops.
Nearly 4,000 well-equipped tanks, armored vehicles and infantry fighting vehicles, as well as two airborne divisions, two strategic rocket divisions and two army rocket artillery divisions, with a total of 400,000 people, participated in the military exercises, demonstrating the strong land combat strength of the Soviet army.
The importance of this exercise is self-evident, and in addition to Brezhnev, all military and political leaders from the Soviet Union, Poland and East Germany were present in person**, and even NATO countries were invited to send observers to observe it.
During this military exercise, the Soviet army demonstrated the strength of its modernized offensive. The coordinated operations of the Airborne Forces, the Strategic Rocket Forces, and the Army's rocket artillery, as well as the air-to-surface missile attacks of the Air Force's MiG-27 and Su-24 front-line bombers, greatly supported the landing operation.
The results of the exercise proved that the strength of the Soviet army could not be underestimated, and it ended in a "complete victory," which greatly shocked the US ** team and NATO countries. The exercise changed the strategic deployment of the United States and also gave the United States a new understanding of the strength of the Soviet army.
The Soviet army, with its strong land combat strength, brought a huge shock to the US ** team. As a result of this exercise, the United States has also completely changed its previous strategy of using military means against the Soviet Union to adopt a more rational and balanced diplomatic strategy.
In an intense military exercise, the combined forces of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact first inflicted devastating nuclear strikes on NATO military bases in West Germany, while at the same time using aviation to carry out surprise bombing of defensive positions in West Germany.
After the end of the first round of strikes, the tank units were the vanguard to quickly break through the West German defense line, and then the follow-up troops carried out a second attack on France, the Netherlands and other countries in the rear of West Germany to expand the results of the battlefield.
At the same time, the Soviet Union also deployed tactical nuclear missiles to attack the ports of France, Britain, the Netherlands and other NATO countries to prevent Britain and the United States from sending marine troops to support.
In this "West-81" military exercise, the Soviet army envisaged more than 140 nuclear strike tactics, each of which was equivalent to 100 tons to 10,000 tons of TNT equivalent.
In the course of the exercise, the first echelon of the Soviet tank army paid 30% of the battle losses and successfully tore a gap in the battlefield with a width of 10 kilometers and a depth of 5 kilometers.
During the exercise, Soviet airborne troops, supported by MiG-27 and Su-24 fighters, successfully carried out airborne landing at the Frankfurt airfield in West Germany, occupying key nodes of the nearby highway.
Shockingly, the Soviets came up with the secret of their tank corps** - the T-80 tank, which was equipped with powerful gas engine wheels and could reach the English Channel at speeds of up to 80 kilometers per hour, making it the king of land warfare.
At the same time, the combined fleet of the Soviet Naval Aviation carried out long-range missile strikes on the enemy and successfully landed in West Germany, which showed the ability of the Soviet Navy to carry out a large-scale amphibious landing on the NATO coastline.
On the eighth day of the exercise, the T-80 tank group had stormed the eastern part of Poland, which simulated France and Belgium, and easily took control of the major docks. Then, the air defense and shore defense units of the Soviet army successfully arrived and deployed their positions, successfully preventing the enemy's attempts to reinforce the European theater through the English Channel.
After the exercises, observer representatives from the United States and NATO countries expressed amazement at the precision of the Soviet Union's strikes, while expressing concern about the more than 140 tactical nuclear strikes carried out by the Soviet Union during the exercises.
The Soviet Union took only eight days to take full control of the English Channel during the exercise, forcing US-led NATO military experts to redeploy European defenses and counter-assault plans.
For this reason, after the end of this military exercise, the United States completely changed its strategic plan for an arms race with the Soviet Union, and changed it to a strategic plan of dragging down the Soviet Union by economic means and making the Soviet Union from within.
The United States also set up a special research group to study the military reform of the Soviet Union during this exercise, which it called the "Ogarkov Revolution."
Taking this as a reference, the United States put forward the concept of military operations dominated by modern informationization, and in the 1991 Gulf War, it carried out experiments on modernized new-type information operations, and this new-type military combat concept with information technology as the core was fully embodied.
In the economic competition with NATO, led by the United States, the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 due to internal politics. Although the socialist power no longer exists, the impact of the West-81 military exercise has lasted for 40 years.
It has led the development of modern military and is regarded as the starting point of modern information-based military operations. The military thinking and information-based strategic technology displayed in it are still worthy of our deep consideration and reference.