How Russia Fights

A Compendium of Troika Observations on Russia's Special Military Operation

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Troika Compendium: Editor's Note

Acknowledgments

This project began as the vision of General Christopher Cavoli when he was the Commanding General, U.S. Army Europe and Africa (CG, USAREUR-AF). He realized that the U.S. Army Foreign Area Officers (FAOs) assigned to the European theater lacked the detailed understanding of the Russian Federation Armed Forces (RF AF) required to advise him and other senior warfighters. During the period from 1991 to 2014, when the United States considered Russia to be a strategic partner, FAO training had shifted its focus away from Russian military capabilities. To address this training gap, GEN Cavoli convened a team of retired Russian-speaking Army FAOs, with a combined total of more than 200 years’ experience working the Russian problem set. We named ourselves “the Troika,” a Russian word rich in history and symbolism. GEN Cavoli directed us to create a training course for FAOs focused on the RF AF at the operational and tactical levels. This course became the Russian Way of War (RWOW) Flagship.

After a successful pilot course in January 2021, GEN Cavoli tasked us to develop a one-day version of RWOW for his senior leaders, and a one-week version for staff officers, NCOs, and civilians, which we did. When Russia launched its “Special Military Operation” (SMO) against Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the Troika watched with rapt attention. We had just completed a flagship course, and our FAO students had planned a notional Russian invasion of Ukraine as part of a course exercise. Our curriculum was based on Russian taktika (doctrine), theory, professional military journals, exercises, and case studies of recent Russian operations in Chechnya, Ukraine, and Syria.

We were anxious to see how well our curriculum held up in a real Russian large-scale combat operation. In fact, it held up quite well. Many of our assumptions turned out to be correct. But there were some surprises, and some things we had overlooked.

The Troika commenced to update our curriculum in real time. On 25 February 2022, Day 2 of the SMO, we consolidated and organized 24 hours of hasty Troika-internal texts and emails summarizing our observations and sent them to GEN Cavoli via his Special Advisor for Russia. He responded with comments and enough questions to generate another set of “Troika Observations.”

He realized the daily Russian Way of War curriculum updates we began sending him in late February 2022 would be of use to his staff, subordinate units, and warfighters throughout the Joint Force. Thus the “Troika Observations,” currently distributed to more than 3,500 email addresses three times per week, were born.

In 2024, as Supreme Allied Commander Europe, GEN Cavoli encouraged us to go back through more than 2 years and several thousand pages of raw observations, analyze them, and produce a Compendium organized by U.S. Army Warfighting Functions.

The current CG of USAREUR-AF, General Christopher Donahue, enthusiastically supported the idea and suggested the title. Mr. Brendan McAloon, SES, served as our conduit to the command, as well as our Editor-in-Chief. He has read every Troika Observation for more than 3 years, helping us improve our often hastily written observations and ensure they were relevant to the warfighters. He also reviewed several drafts of this Compendium and helped us improve this final product.

How Russia Fights: A Compendium of Troika Observations on Russia’s Special Military Operation, First Edition was written under the auspices of the Emergent Threat, Training, and Readiness Capability (ET2RC) contract. The thrice-weekly Troika Observations and future editions of this Compendium will continue under the Service Solutions for Modernization, Analysis, Readiness Capability, Threat, and Training (SSMARTT) contract. The Troika Observations have always been a dialogue with warfighters in the field.

We benefit from their feedback, and their requests for information often become research topics for future observations. We see this Compendium in the same vein. We hope to receive feedback from the field, which we will incorporate into future editions.

We will also update future editions with observations and insights from 1 July 2024 and beyond. We encourage readers to provide feedback to this email address: troika.compendium.comments@bah.com.

A project as complex and extensive as this involves many hands, and appreciation is due to many contributors who made it possible. This is a partial acknowledgment of contributors; we will inevitably have omitted some people.

• Managing Editor and Co-Author: COL (Ret) Ted Donnelly
• Co-Author: BG (Ret) Kevin Ryan
• Co-Author: COL (Ret) Tom Butler
• Co-Author: COL (Ret) Jeff Hartman
• Co-Author: COL (Ret) Lee Gabel
• Copy/Technical Editor: Mary Ann Singlaub
• Graphic Design and Layout: MAJ (Ret) Sean Frerking

Mr. Trent Duncan played an integral role in developing the daily procedures for the Troika Observations in early spring 2022 and pushed out the initial versions. Since then, LTC (Ret) Greg Sarafian and COL (Ret) Ken Chance have distributed the reports to the field.