How the Russian Army Fights

How the Russian Army Fights

From Wavell Room Audio Reads by Wavell Room

February 4, 2026 · 17 min · Episode 53

About this episode

The episode discusses how the Russian Army fights in the war in Ukraine, highlighting its lack of a functioning tactical radio network and the implications of this deficiency.

Today, the British Army trains against a potential Russian enemy. Throughout the Cold War it trained against a possible confrontation with the Soviet Army and Warsaw Pact. In this respect nothing has changed. What has changed – self-evidently – is the Russian Army after three-and-a-half years of war in Ukraine. This article is about how the Russian Army fights in the war in Ukraine. It is not possible to say how it may fight in ten or twenty years. That caveat stated, insights can still be offered from what we observe today. No tactical radio network A first and fundamental point to understand about the Russian Army is that it lacks a functioning tactical radio network. Pre-war, the procurement of a modern, digital radio network was one of the biggest corruption scandals in the Russian MOD. Following the invasion, commentators quickly noticed the ubiquity of (insecure) walkie-talkies, as well as the general chaos of the invasion force. The reality is that just over 100 battalion tactical groups were sent over the border fielding three generations of radio systems connected in disparate, ad hoc nets (a British equivalent would be a force fielding Larkspur, Clansman and Bowman…

Topics covered

  • Russian Army
  • war in Ukraine
  • military tactics
  • Cold War
  • British Army training

Keywords

  • Russian Army
  • war in Ukraine
  • tactical radio network
  • military tactics
  • British Army

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: British Army, Russian MOD, Russian defence electronics industry

Places: Ukraine, Russia

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