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Comparative question here for anyone who might know. The Ukrainian units getting trained in Germany are receiving approximately five weeks of instruction, ramping from basic marksmanship and soldiering skills to conducting a battalion level combined arms exercise.
How long would a Western unit take to train through this set of skills?
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov
Same 6 month cycle for a USMC MEU. Its actually a 18 month cycle.
The first 6 months is filling the ranks of the units set to deploy. Conducting Company level training. Then Infantry Bn level training. Next 6 months is Learning to work with all the attachments, Tanks.Arty, AAVs that training cumulates with a 3 week Combined Arms Exercise at 29 Palms.
And thats with 70% of the force being careerist or on at least their 2d deployment and knowing the weapons and how we fight.
Everyone in the Corps does 2 weeks marksmanship training annually
US Army training cycle is similar to the Canadians & USMC. Pretty much the standard in Western armies. For the US Army you build up to predeployment rotation at a combat training center...NTC for armored, JRTS for Light & CMTC in Germany for USAREUR based units. The question regarding the Ukrainians is how experienced the officers and men were before they went into the training.
“Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
Mark Twain
as far as I can tell, the Ukrainian training cycle is all over the place.
the units that went earliest into Grafenwoehr will at least have had training time somewhere close to that six month period -- they finished up in mid-February, and likely have had additional training in western Ukraine since then.
on the complete other hand, there were the horror stories of TDF units getting thrown into Bakhmut during the near-collapse in late January with 3 days of training, with luckier units getting 2 weeks.
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov
In many ways one of the marvels of this war has been the way conscripts/TDF have done with varied levels of training.
Definitely. One of the small mercies is that at Bakhmut, those guys/gals were mostly fighting on the defense against even more sketchily trained prisoners and mobiks.
Once the counteroffensive kicks off, I sure hope they’re given time and space to get pulled out of line for some damn well deserved R&R and acquire longer training.
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov
"...I sure hope they’re given time and space to get pulled out of line..."
Hope so but a lot of those units will quite likely stay engaged so that they can fix as many Russian units in place as possible. Those that are in best shape may face a quick reconstitution and then be re-introduced as part of the offensive. Those who've been decimated will require reconstitution/re-fit regardless of circumstance.
"This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." Lester Bangs
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