G) Mountain warfare ~ c and Qo OJ )> Other lonv Problems: ~ r m Foreign Perspectives On High-Altitude Combat en • = 0 = s -· = I .. i Foreign •CD = mountain-combat 1:1. veterans discuss .a. s The United States has been in a mountain war in Afghanistan ... movement and maneuver, for almost a decade. Other nations have different, extensive CD experience in training and conducting mountain combat. Les training and resupply Grau and Chuck Bartles gathered this experience in this book .0 . in the hope that it will benefit our mountain training community ~.... and assist in the preparation of brigades for mountain combat before they deploy to mountainous regions. - 0 l:r Lester W. Grau The Foreign Military Studies Office does foreign-language CaD Charles K. Bartles open-source research in military topics in a variety of areas. en Editors Les Grau and Chuck Bartles have done extensive work in Afghanistan, Russia, and Central and Southern Asia. ., :s:: en 0 Foreign Military Studies Office Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Report Documentation Page Form Approved OMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. 1. REPORT DATE 3. DATES COVERED 2011 2. REPORT TYPE 00-00-2011 to 00-00-2011 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER Mountain Warfare and Other Lofty Problems: Foreign Perspectives On 5b. GRANT NUMBER High-Altitude Combat 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d. PROJECT NUMBER 5e. TASK NUMBER 5f. WORK UNIT NUMBER 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION Foreign Military Studies Office,731 McClellan Avenue,Fort REPORT NUMBER Leavenworth,KS,66027 9. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 10. SPONSOR/MONITOR’S ACRONYM(S) 11. SPONSOR/MONITOR’S REPORT NUMBER(S) 12. DISTRIBUTION/AVAILABILITY STATEMENT Approved for public release; distribution unlimited 13. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 14. ABSTRACT 15. SUBJECT TERMS 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: 17. LIMITATION OF 18. NUMBER 19a. NAME OF ABSTRACT OF PAGES RESPONSIBLE PERSON a. REPORT b. ABSTRACT c. THIS PAGE Same as 225 unclassified unclassified unclassified Report (SAR) Standard Form 298 (Rev. 8-98) Prescribed by ANSI Std Z39-18 I / !54th Spclsnaz. Balla I I I ~#' ® t;:J'~)IhBd ~~4th _ _ c:>/3341h Spctsnaz . , Spetsnaz Balla lion c 1 Bitlllltion- ..._ Jt' ---·· 6 - MUJAilTDEEN Advanang Spetsnaz BattaiJon ...,_,..,.00 r:IIUNG POSITIONS: ~ ccH.iJ..~.,. / - Aitack - DShK Heavy Maclunc Gw1 "b ! - 6 - - Recoille.5S R10o Battalion oonunand pos1 Hdicoph:r L!Dlding Zone - 1\.lonar ~-Company 001runand post ...~ -\..-~ - HcliooplcrGun Ship firing l.mc ,-T -1 - MuJaludeen AMault Line in Lhe deft"lts~ IntroductIon I Mountain Warfare and other Lofty Problems II PassIng It on IntroductIon III Mountain Warfare and other Lofty Problems: Foreign Perspectiveson High-Altitude Combat Lester W. Grau & Charles K. Bartles Foreign Military Studies Office l Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Iv PassIng It on The views expressed in this book are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government. © 2011 United States Government, as represented by the Secretary of the Army. All rights reserved. The Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is an open source research organization of the U.S. Army. Founded as the Soviet Army Studies Office in 1986, it was an innovative program that brought together military specialists and civilian academics to focus on military and security topics derived from unclassified, foreign media. The results were unclassified articles and papers that provided new understandings and broad access to information from a base of expertise in the U.S. Army, Department of Defense, and foreign and U.S. defense communities and universities. Today FMSO maintains this research tradition of special insight and highly collaborative work. FMSO conducts unclassified research of foreign perspectives of defense and security issues that are understudied or unconsidered but that are important for understanding the environments in which the U.S. military operates. FMSO’s work today is still aimed at publication in unclassified journals and its research findings are taught in both military and civilian venues in the United States and around the world. FMSO is organized in the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command under the TRADOC G-2. Foreign Military Studies Office 731 McClellan Avenue Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027 [email protected] IntroductIon v The mountains are fountains of men as well as of rivers, of glaciers, of fertile soil. The great poets, philosophers, prophets, able men whose thought and deeds have moved the world, have come down from the mountains --- mountain-dwellers who have grown up strong there with the forest trees in Nature's workshops. --- John Muir, John of the Mountains, 1938 vI PassIng It on Contents Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi MOUNTAIN COMBAT 1 - Ground Combat at High Altitudes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Lester W. Grau, US Army (ret.) and LTC Hernán Vázquez, Argentine Army 2 - Mountain Warfare: The Need for Specialized Training. . . 15 Major Muhammad Asim Malik, Pakistan Army SMALL UNIT 3 - Forbidden Cross-Border Vendetta: Spetsnaz Strike into Pakistan during the Soviet-Afghan War . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 LTC Lester W. Grau, US Army (ret.), and Ali Ahmad Jalali 4 - Small Secrets of Great Mountains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 LTC Lester W. Grau, US Army (ret.), based on the work of Ikram Nazarov 5 - Flanking Detachment In The Mountains: A Soviet Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 LTC Lester W. Grau, US Army (ret.) and Major V. A. Selivanov, former Soviet Army 6 - Cave Warfare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Ikram Karimov, Mountaineer Trainer and Instructor, Uzbekistan LARGE UNIT 7 - The Campaign For The Caves: The Battles for Zhawar in the Soviet-Afghan War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 LTC Lester W. Grau, US Army (ret.), and Ali Ahmad Jalali RECONNAISSANCE 8 - Mountain Reconnaissance Russian Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 LTC Lester W. Grau, US Army (ret.), based on the work of Colonel Michael Panov, Russian Army ARTILLERY 9 - Moving Artillery Forward: A Concept for the Fight in Afghanistan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Major Joseph A. Jackson, US Army SMALL ARMS FIRE 10 - The Right Way To Shoot: How to Select Firing Positions and Firing Ready Positions in Mountainous Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Colonel Michael Panov, Russian Army 11 - It is Difficult --- But Possible and Necessary --- to Master the Skills and Techniques of Shooting in Mountains . . . 106 Colonel Michael Panov, Russian Army IntroductIon vII SHELTER 12 - So That Making Camp Makes You Stronger: Organizing Rest and Overnight Halts for Personnel in the Mountains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Colonel Michael Panov, Russian Army RUSSIAN ARMY TRAINING 13 - Along Slopes and Tracks: Training Method for Overcoming Mountain Obstacles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Colonel Michael Panov, Russian Army 14 - Forward, Up, and then Down: How to Use a Rope to Climb a Steep Mountain Slope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Colonel Michael Panov, Russian Army 15 - Don’t Let Me Down --- Belay: Training Method for Negotiating Mountain Obstacles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Colonel Michael Panov, Russian Army 16 - How to “Tame” a River: Getting Across Water Obstacles in the Mountains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Colonel Michael Panov, Russian Army 17 - Train to Win: Organizing and Conducting Physical Training For Soldiers in the Mountains . . . . . . 139 Colonel Michael Panov, Russian Army LOGISTICS 18 - Hydro-Meteorological Support of Military Transport Along Mountain Rivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Vladimir Shiryayev, Military Mountaineering Instructor, Tashkent 19 - What a Water Transport Company Should Be: The Need for Special Supply Delivery Transport Units in Mountain Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 Vladimir Shiryayev, Military Mountaineering Instructor, Tashkent COMMUNICATIONS 20 - Mountain Combat: Hard to Move, Hard to Shoot, Even Harder to Communicate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 LTC Lester W. Grau, US Army (ret.), Lieutenant Jason Falivene, USMC MEDICAL CONSIDERATIONS 21 - Medical Implications of High Altitude Combat . . . . . . . . 176 LTC Lester W. Grau, US Army (ret.), and William A. Jorgensen, DO MC USAR AVIATION 22 - Helicopter Landings in the Mountains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 LTC Lester W. Grau, US Army (ret.), CW4 Anthony Reed, US Army, and CW3 James W. Grau, US Army, based on the work of COL D.B. Zipir, Russian Army Conclusion - Further Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211