In the Renaissance in culture, rational, philosophical and scientific ideas again come to the fore, as in the era of antiquity, from the point of view of which medieval concepts begin to be rethought. Another important feature of the Renaissance culture is a new understanding of man. The Renaissance man no longer recognizes himself as a creature of God, but as a free master, placed in the center of the world, who, by his will and desire, can become either a lower or a higher being. Although a person recognizes his Divine origin, he himself feels himself a creator.
Both of these features of the Renaissance culture also lead to a new understanding of nature, science and human action. Natural laws gradually take the place of Divine laws, hidden natural processes take the place of hidden Divine forces, processes and energies, and created and creative nature turns into the concept of nature as a source of hidden natural processes that obey the laws of nature. Science and knowledge are now understood not only as describing nature, but also as revealing and establishing its laws. In this case, the identification of the laws of nature is only partly their description, more importantly, the identification of the laws of nature presupposes their constitution. In the concept of the law of nature, ideas of creation, as well as similarities between the natural and the human (nature is fundamentally cognizable, its processes can serve man) are visible.
Finally, a necessary condition for human activity aimed at using the forces and energies of nature is a preliminary knowledge of the "laws of nature." Another necessary condition is the definition of human triggering actions, so to speak, releasing, triggering the processes of nature. However, the Renaissance only creates the preconditions for the formation of science in its modern sense, and its worldview foundations and methodological principles are formulated in the works of the philosophers of the New Age. F. Bacon declares nature to be the main object of the new science and a condition for practical (engineering) action producing a "new nature", a source of natural processes, however, caused (launched) by human practical actions. From this period, an understanding of nature begins to form as an endless reservoir of materials, forces, energies that a person can use, provided that he describes the laws of nature in science. This is how the foundations for the formation of an engineering attitude to the world are created.
The main components of engineering activity are design and design. Design is a type of engineering work that is carried out in various areas of human activity: in the design of technical systems, design, clothing modeling, etc. In engineering, design is an obligatory part of the design process and is associated with the development of the design of a technical system, which then materializes during manufacturing in production . Design includes the analysis and synthesis of various design options, their calculations, the execution of drawings, etc. The development of design options is usually associated with the formulation and solution of problems of technical creativity. At the level of design, the implementation of a technical idea takes place within the framework of experimental design, which is associated with the formulation and solution of problems of technical creativity. During the design process, a drawing of a technical product or system is created, specific technical characteristics are calculated, and specific implementation conditions are fixed (material nature, performance, environmental friendliness, economic efficiency, etc.). The result of design development is a technical product, a finished design. Design is combined with the development of appropriate technological conditions, i.e. methods and technical conditions for the implementation of a particular model. Therefore, design is associated with technology, which reveals the mechanism for organizing the process for the production of a particular product. Design - the activity of a person or organization to create a project, that is, a prototype, a prototype of a proposed or possible object, state; a set of documentation designed to create a specific object, its operation, repair and liquidation, as well as to verify or reproduce intermediate and final solutions on the basis of which this object was developed.
Specialized knowledge was required for engineering activities. At first, it was knowledge of two kinds - natural science (selected or specially built) and actually technological (description of structures, technological operations, etc.). As long as it was about individual inventions, there were no problems. However, starting from the 18th century, industrial production and the need to replicate and modify invented engineering devices (steam boilers and spinning machines, machine tools, engines for steamships and steam locomotives, etc.) took shape. The amount of calculations and design increases dramatically due to the fact that more and more often an engineer is dealing not only with the development of a fundamentally new engineering object (i.e. invention), but also with the creation of a similar (modified) product (for example, a machine of the same class, but with other characteristics - different power, speed, dimensions, weight, design, etc.). In other words, the engineer is now busy both creating new engineering objects and developing a whole class of engineering objects similar to those invented. In a cognitive sense, this meant the emergence of not only new problems due to the increased need for calculations and design, but also new opportunities. The development of the field of homogeneous engineering objects made it possible to reduce one case to another, one group of knowledge to another. If the first samples of the invented object were described using the knowledge of a certain natural science, then all subsequent, modified ones were reduced to the first samples. As a result, certain groups of natural science knowledge and schemes of engineering objects begin to stand out (reflect) - those that are combined by the reduction procedure itself. In fact, these were the first knowledge and objects of technical sciences, but not yet existing in their own form: knowledge in the form of grouped natural science knowledge participating in the information, and objects in the form of diagrams of an engineering object, to which such groups of natural science knowledge belonged. Two other processes were superimposed on this process: ontologization and mathematization.
Ontologization is a step-by-step process of schematization of engineering devices, during which these objects were divided into separate parts and each was replaced by an "idealized representation" (scheme, model). For example, in the process of invention, calculations and design of machines (lifting, steam, spinning, mills, clocks, machine tools, etc.) by the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, they were divided, on the one hand, into large parts (for example, J. Christian singled out the engine, transmission mechanism, tool) in the car), and on the other hand, into smaller ones (the so-called "simple machines" - an inclined plane, block, screw, lever, etc.). Such idealized representations were introduced so that, on the one hand, mathematical knowledge could be applied to an engineering object, and, on the other hand, natural science knowledge. In relation to an engineering object, such representations were schematic descriptions of its structure (or the structure of its elements), in relation to natural science and mathematics, they specified certain types of ideal objects (geometric figures, vectors, algebraic equations, etc.; motion of a body along an inclined planes, addition of forces and planes, body rotation, etc.).
The replacement of an engineering object with mathematical models was necessary both in itself as a necessary condition for the invention, design and calculation, and as a stage in the construction of the ideal objects of natural science necessary for these procedures.
Overlapping each other, the three main processes described here (information, ontologization and mathematization) lead to the formation of the first ideal objects and theoretical knowledge of technical science.
The further development of technical science took place under the influence of several factors. One factor is the reduction of all new cases (i.e. homogeneous objects of engineering activity) to those already studied in technical science. Such a reduction presupposes the transformation of objects studied in technical science, the acquisition of new knowledge (relations) about them. Almost from the first steps in the formation of technical science, the ideal of organization of fundamental science was extended to it. In accordance with this ideal, the knowledge of relations was treated as laws or theorems, and the procedures for obtaining it were treated as proofs. Carrying out the proofs involved not only the reduction of new ideal objects to the old ones already described in the theory, but also the division of knowledge acquisition procedures into compact, visible parts, which always entails the allocation of intermediate knowledge. Such knowledge and objects, resulting from the splitting of long and cumbersome proofs into simpler (clearer ones), formed the second group of knowledge of technical science (in the theory itself, of course, they did not separate into separate groups, but alternated with others). The third group included knowledge that made it possible to replace cumbersome methods and procedures for obtaining relations between the parameters of an engineering object with simple and elegant procedures. For example, in some cases, cumbersome transformation procedures and information obtained in two layers are greatly simplified after the original object is replaced first with the help of equations of mathematical analysis, then in graph theory, and the transformations are carried out in each of the layers. It is characteristic that the successive substitution of the object of technical science in two or more different languages leads to the fact that the corresponding divisions and characteristics of such languages (more precisely, their ontological representations) are projected onto the object. As a result, several types of characteristics are “fused” (through the mechanism of reflection and awareness) in the ideal object of technical theory: conductors, resistances, capacitances and inductances, and all these elements are interconnected in a certain way); b) characteristics directly or indirectly transferred from fundamental science (knowledge of currents, voltages, electric and magnetic fields, as well as the laws connecting them); c) characteristics taken from the mathematical language of the first, second. .., the nth layer (for example, in the theory of electrical engineering one speaks of the most general interpretation of the Kirchhoff equations, given in the language of graph theory). All these characteristics in the technical theory are so modified and rethought (some incompatible ones are omitted, others are changed, others are attributed, added from the outside) that a fundamentally new object arises - the actually ideal object of technical science, which in its structure recreated in a compressed form all of the listed types characteristics. The second process that significantly influenced the formation and development of technical science is the process of mathematization. From a certain stage in the development of technical science, researchers move from the use of individual mathematical knowledge or fragments of mathematical theories to the use of entire mathematical apparatuses (languages) in technical science. They were driven to this by the need to carry out, in the course of invention and design, not only analysis, but also the synthesis of individual processes and the structural elements that provide them. In addition, they sought to explore the entire field of engineering possibilities, i.e. we tried to understand what other characteristics and relations of an engineering object can be obtained, what calculations can, in principle, be made. During the analysis, the research engineer seeks to gain knowledge about engineering objects, describe their structure, functioning, individual processes, dependent and independent parameters, relationships and connections between them. In the process of synthesis, on the basis of the analysis performed, he constructs and conducts the calculation (however, the operations of synthesis and analysis alternate, defining each other).
What are the conditions for the use of mathematical apparatus in the technical sciences? First of all, for this it is necessary to introduce the ideal objects of technical sciences into the ontology of the corresponding mathematical language, i.e. represent them as consisting of elements, relations and operations characteristic of objects of mathematics of interest to the engineer. But, as a rule, the ideal objects of technical science differed significantly from the objects of the chosen mathematical apparatus. Therefore, a long process of further schematization of engineering objects and ontologization begins, ending with the construction of such new ideal objects of technical science that can already be introduced into the ontology of a certain mathematics. From this moment, the research engineer gets the opportunity to: a) successfully solve the problems of synthesis-analysis, b) explore the entire area of engineering objects under study for theoretically possible cases, c) reach the theory of ideal engineering devices (for example, the theory of an ideal steam engine, the theory of mechanisms , the theory of radio engineering devices, etc.). The theory of an ideal engineering device is the construction and description (analysis) of a model of engineering objects of a certain class (we called them homogeneous), made, so to speak, in the language of ideal objects of the corresponding technical theory. An ideal device is a construction that a researcher creates from the elements and relations of ideal objects of technical science, but which is precisely a model of engineering objects of a certain class, since it imitates the main processes and constructive formations of these engineering devices. In other words, not just independent ideal objects appear in technical science, but also independent objects of study of a quasi-natural nature. The construction of such model structures greatly facilitates engineering activities, since the research engineer can now analyze and study the main processes and conditions that determine the operation of the engineering object he creates (in particular, the ideal cases themselves).
If we now briefly summarize the considered stage in the formation of technical sciences of the classical type, we can note the following. The stimulus for the emergence of technical sciences is the emergence as a result of the development of industrial production of areas of homogeneous engineering objects and the application of the knowledge of natural sciences in the course of inventions, design and calculations. The processes of information, ontologization and mathematization determine the formation of the first ideal objects and theoretical knowledge of technical science, the creation of the first technical theories. The desire to apply not individual mathematical knowledge, but entirely certain mathematicians, to explore homogeneous areas of engineering objects, to create engineering devices, so to speak, for the future leads to the next stage of formation. New ideal objects of technical sciences are being created, which can already be introduced into mathematical ontology; on their basis, systems of technical knowledge are developed and, finally, the theory of the "ideal engineering device" is created. The latter means the appearance in the technical sciences of a specific quasi-natural object of study, i.e. technical science finally becomes independent.
The last stage in the formation of technical science is connected with the conscious organization and construction of the theory of this science. By extending the logical principles of scientific character developed by the philosophy and methodology of sciences to the technical sciences, researchers identify in the technical sciences the initial principles and knowledge (the equivalent of the laws and initial provisions of fundamental science), derive secondary knowledge and provisions from them, and organize all knowledge into a system. However, unlike natural science, technical science also includes calculations, descriptions of technical devices, and methodological instructions. The orientation of representatives of technical science towards engineering forces them to indicate the "context" in which the provisions of technical science can be used. Calculations, descriptions of technical devices, methodological instructions just define this context.
Technical sciences were formed in close interaction with the development engineering education. Let's consider this process on the example of Russia.
Technical education in Russia was initiated by the Engineering (1700) and Mathematical and Navigation Schools (1701). The teaching methodology was more of a craft apprenticeship: practical engineers explained to individual students or small groups of students how to build one or another type of structure or machine, how to carry out practically one or another type of engineering activity. New theoretical information was communicated only in the course of such explanations, the textbooks were descriptive. At the same time, the profession of an engineer became more complicated and the practice made new demands on the training of qualified engineering personnel.
Only after the founding by G. Monge in 1794 of the Paris Polytechnic School, which from the very beginning of its foundation was oriented towards high theoretical training of students, did the situation in engineering education change. Many engineering educational institutions in Germany, Spain, Sweden, and the USA were built on the model of this school. In Russia, on its model, in 1809 the Institute of the Corps of Railway Engineers was created, the head of which was appointed Monge's student A.A. Betancourt. He developed a project, in accordance with which schools were established for the training of secondary technical personnel: a military construction school and a school for conductors of communications in St. Petersburg. Later (in 1884), this idea was developed and implemented by the outstanding Russian scientist, member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, I.A. technicians (the closest assistants to engineers), and schools for craftsmen, factory and factory workers. By the end of the 19th century, the scientific training of engineers, their special, specifically higher technical education, became urgently needed. By this time, many trade, secondary technical schools were transformed into higher technical schools and institutes, in which much attention was paid to the theoretical training of future engineers.
In addition to educational institutions, the dissemination of technical knowledge was aimed at various technical societies. For example, the Russian Technical Society, formed in 1866, in accordance with its charter, had the goal of promoting the development of technology and the technical industry in Russia both "through readings, meetings and public lectures on technical subjects" and through "petitions to the government for adoption measures that may have a beneficial effect on the development of the technical industry.
Questions for control and self-examination:
1. What are the reasons for the emergence and separation of technical sciences?
2. Describe the main characteristics of the classical technical sciences.
3. How is the formation and development of technical sciences related to engineering education?
The state should not only act with great foresight, but also be able to wait patiently
It would seem that the young Soviet branch of science could in no way compete with the German industrial institutions, which had a powerful material base, excellent scientists and strong traditions. German concerns have long maintained large research institutions. Here they well remembered the statement of Professor P. Thyssen: “Research is the foundation of technical superiority over the enemy. Research is the basis for worldwide competition." However, it is not enough to have power - you still need to use it correctly.
The People's Commissariat of the tank industry of the USSR was able to fully utilize its modest scientific resources. All research institutions and organizations that could bring at least some benefit were involved in solving the pressing problems of tank building.
It should be noted that this was facilitated by the entire system of Soviet applied science, originally created to serve the interests of not individual firms and factories, but at least the industry. By the way, such a system does not necessarily stem from the socialist system: the first industry-wide scientific structure appeared in Sweden in 1747 as part of the so-called Iron Office. By the way, it still operates today under the name "Association of Steel Producers of the Scandinavian Countries."
Departmental institutions of the NKTP
The People's Commissariat of the tank industry of the war years consisted of two main research institutions: the "armor" institute TsNII-48 and the design and technology institute 8GSPI.
NII-48 (director - A. S. Zavyalov) became part of the newly formed NKTP in the fall of 1941 and was immediately evacuated to Sverdlovsk, closer to the new tank factories. In accordance with the regulations approved on July 15, 1942, it became officially known as the State Central Research Institute of the NKTP of the USSR (TsNII-48). His list of tasks included:
"a) development and introduction into production of new types of armor and armor, structural and tool steel grades, non-ferrous and various special alloys in order to reduce the scarce or potentially scarce alloying elements contained in them, improve the quality of products manufactured by NKTP plants, and increase productivity the latter;
b) development and implementation of rational wartime metallurgical technology in the industries existing at the NKTP factories and armored factories of other people's commissariats, in order to maximize the output of products, improve their quality, increase the productivity of factories and reduce the consumption rates of metal, raw materials and materials;
Collage by Andrey Sedykh
c) technological assistance to factories in mastering new technologies or equipment for them, as well as working methods in order to overcome bottlenecks and production difficulties that arise at factories;
d) assistance in improving the technical qualifications of workers at NKTP factories by transferring to them the theoretical and practical experience accumulated in the USSR and abroad in armor production and other industries of the profile of NKTP factories;
e) organization of interfactory exchange of advanced technical experience of factories;
f) development of the theory and new ways of using armor protection for the armament of the Red Army;
g) coordination of all research work carried out in the NKTP system on issues of armor, metal science, metallurgy, hot working and welding of metals and alloys;
h) comprehensive technical assistance to design bureaus and other organizations and enterprises of other people's commissariats on all issues of armored production.
A clear idea of the scope of NII-48's activities is provided by its annual reports. So, in 1943 alone, proposals were developed and partially implemented in practice to reduce the number of consumed rolled profile sizes by 2.5 times. The technical processes for forging and stamping parts of the T-34 tank were also unified for all plants, the technical conditions for their heat treatment were revised, the processes for welding armored hulls "thirty-fours" and steel casting were unified, a chemical-thermal method for sharpening cutters was created, casting of tank turrets into a chill mold was introduced at UZTM, new grades of armor steel: 68L for cast parts T-34, an improved version of 8C for rolled armor, I-3 - steel with high hardness in a highly tempered state. At the Ural Tank Plant, employees of NII-48 worked out and introduced into production an improved brand of high-speed steel I-323. To this it is necessary to add surveys of defeats of domestic and enemy armored vehicles, which have become regular, both at repair plants and directly on the battlefield. The received reports and recommendations were immediately brought to the attention of all the chief designers of combat vehicles.
Or, for example, information of a different kind: during January-October 1944, at meetings of the Technical Council of the NKTP (where representatives of all factories were invited), the following reports of TsNII-48 were discussed:
"Unified technological processes for the manufacture of castings from iron, steel and non-ferrous metals."
"Documentation on the technology of forging - stamping".
"Influence of strain rate on metal penetration resistance".
"Modern Types of Anti-tank Artillery and the Development of Tank Armor".
"High-tempered armor of high hardness".
"Technological properties of low-alloyed high-speed steel P823 and the results of its implementation in the production of plant No. 183".
"Improving the strength of steel due to intensifiers (boron-containing additives, zirconium, etc.)".
"Improving the strength of steel for heavily loaded gears".
"Improving the fatigue strength of crankshafts made from steel grade 18KhNMA".
"Normals of chemical composition and mechanical properties of steel grades used in tank building".
And so - throughout the war years. The workload and pace are unbelievable, given that at the end of 1943, TsNII-48 had only 236 employees, including janitors and technicians. True, among them were 2 academicians, 1 corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 4 doctors and 10 candidates of sciences.
The 8th State Union Design Institute of the Tank Industry (director - A. I. Solin) was evacuated to Chelyabinsk at the end of 1941. In the first period of the war, all the forces of the 8GSPI were directed to fulfill the tasks of the People's Commissariat for the deployment and commissioning of evacuated tank and engine factories, as well as the development of simplified wartime technologies.
By the middle of 1942, other tasks came to the fore: the unification of technological processes (primarily machining and assembly) and the provision of various scientific and technical assistance to enterprises. So, at the Ural Tank Plant, a team of scientists and designers 8GSPI in the summer and autumn was engaged in a comprehensive calculation of the plant's capacity, theoretical calculations of the tank's transmission, reduction in the range of ferrous metals used, improvement in the design and manufacturing technology of 26 machine parts, unification of cutting tools. The Central Bureau of Standardization, which operated as part of the 8GSPI, created and implemented directly at enterprises standards in the field of drawing facilities, parts and assemblies of tanks, organization of control and measuring facilities, unification of tools, fixtures, dies, technological documentation. Thanks to the help of the bureau, the thirty-four manufacturers managed to achieve complete interchangeability in terms of components: final drive, final clutch, gearbox, main clutch, drive wheel, road wheels with external and internal shock absorption, sloth. The introduction of the developments of the bureau made it possible, according to estimates in 1944, to reduce the labor intensity in the industry by 0.5 million machine hours per year. The quality of Soviet tanks and self-propelled guns was largely predetermined by technical control standards, also drawn up by employees of the 8GSPI.
A separate and important area of work of the 8GSPI is the creation of documentation for the army repairmen and repair plants of the NKTP for the restoration of tanks and engines of all types, including captured ones and those supplied by the Allies. During 1942 alone, technical conditions appeared for the overhaul and military repairs of the KV, T-34, T-60 and T-70 tanks and the V-2-34, V-2KV and GAZ-202 engines, as well as albums of drawings of devices for dismantling and installation of T-34 and KV units in the field.
Involved technological research institutes and laboratories
In addition to the main institutions, scientists from many design and technological institutions that previously operated in other sectors of the national economy worked for the tank industry.
It is known that the main part of the staff of the central laboratory of plant No. 183 was made up of employees of the Kharkov Institute of Metals, which was evacuated along with the enterprise in 1941. At one time, in 1928, this scientific institution was established as a branch of the Leningrad All-Union Institute of Metals of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR. The latter has been conducting its own since 1914 and was originally called the Central Scientific and Technical Laboratory of the Military Department. In September 1930, the Kharkov Institute of Metals became independent, but retained its former research topics: heat power engineering of metallurgical furnaces, foundry technology, hot and cold working and welding, physical and mechanical properties of metals.
The State Allied Research Laboratory of Cutting Tools and Electric Welding named after Ignatiev (LARIG) was located on the site of plant No. 183 in accordance with the order of the NKTP dated December 26, 1941, and retained the status of an independent institution. The duties of the laboratory included the provision of technical assistance to all enterprises in the industry in the design, manufacture and repair of cutting tools, as well as the development of electric welding machines.
The first major result of the work of LARIG was obtained in July 1942: at plant No. 183, the introduction of boring multi-cutter blocks developed in the laboratory began. At the end of the year, scientists, using new cutters of their own design and changing their modes of operation, achieved a significant increase in the productivity of carousel machines that processed the drive wheels of the tank. Thus, the "bottleneck" that limited the tank conveyor was eliminated.
During the same 1942, LARIG completed the work begun before the war on the introduction of cast cutter holders instead of the generally accepted forged ones. This reduced the cost of the tool and unloaded the forging industry. It turned out that cast holders, although inferior in mechanical strength to forged ones, served no worse than the latter. By the end of the year, the laboratory introduced shortened taps into production. This project also began before the war, and together with the 8GSPI Institute.
At another NKTP enterprise, Uralmashzavod, ENIMS operated during the war years, that is, the Experimental Scientific Institute of Metal-cutting Machine Tools. Its employees developed, and UZTM manufactured a number of unique machine tools and entire automatic lines used throughout the people's commissariat.
So, in the spring of 1942, at the Ural Tank Plant No. 183, the ENIMS brigade “set up” the production of rollers with internal shock absorption. She created the technological process and working drawings for three fixtures and 14 positions of cutting and auxiliary tools. In addition, projects for a multi-spindle drilling head and modernization of the ZHOR rotary machine were completed. An additional task for ENIMS was the development and manufacture of eight special machines for turning wheels.
The same thing happened in the processing of balancers. The ENIMS team was engaged in both the technological process as a whole and the creation of a special tool. In addition, the institute took over the design and manufacture of two modular boring machines: one multi-spindle and one multi-position. By the end of 1942, both were made.
Academic and university science
The most famous academic institution that worked for the tank industry is the Kyiv Institute of Electric Welding of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, headed by Academician E. O. Paton. During 1942–1943, the institute, together with employees of the armored hull department of plant No. 183, created a whole range of machine guns of various types and purposes. In 1945, UTZ used the following auto-welding machines:
Universal type for welding straight longitudinal seams;
- universal self-propelled carts;
-simplified specialized carts;
- installations for welding of circular seams at a motionless product;
- installations with a carousel for product rotation when welding circular seams;
- self-propelled units with a common drive for feeding the electrode wire and moving the head for welding seams on bulky structures.
In 1945, automatic weapons accounted for 23 percent of the welding work (by weight of weld metal) on the hull and 30 percent on the turret of the T-34 tank. The use of automatic machines made it possible already in 1942 to release 60 qualified welders at only one plant No. 183, and in 1945 - 140. A very important circumstance: the high quality of the seam in automatic welding eliminated the negative consequences of refusing to machine the edges of armor parts. Throughout the war, as the instruction for the operation of automatic welding machines at the enterprises of the industry, the “Guidelines for Automatic Welding of Armored Structures” compiled by employees of the Institute of Electric Welding of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR in 1942 were used.
The activities of the institute were not limited to automatic welding. Its employees introduced a method of repairing cracks in tank tracks using welding with austenite electrodes, a device for cutting round holes in armor plates. The scientists also developed a scheme for the in-line production of high-quality MD electrodes and a technology for drying them on a conveyor.
Much less known are the results of work at the NKTP of the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology. Throughout the war, he continued to study the problems of the interaction of the projectile and armor, created various options for constructive armor barriers and multilayer armor. It is known that prototypes were manufactured and fired at Uralmash.
A very interesting story is connected with Bauman Moscow State Technical University. At the beginning of 1942, the leadership of the NKTP became interested in a cutting tool with rational sharpening angles, created in the course of many years of work by scientists from this famous Russian university. It was known that such a tool had already been used at the factories of the People's Commissariat of Arms.
To begin with, an attempt was made to obtain information about the innovation directly from the People's Commissariat of Armaments, but, apparently, without much success. As a result, scientists from the Department of Theory of Machining and Tools of the Moscow State Technical University headed by Professor I.M. In the summer and autumn of 1943, quite successful experiments were carried out, and on November 12, an order was issued by the NKTP for the widespread introduction of such a tool and the dispatch of MVTU employees to factories No. 183 and No. tool with rational geometry.
The project turned out to be more than successful: cutters, drills and milling cutters had 1.6-5 times longer durability and allowed to increase machine productivity by 25-30 percent. Simultaneously with rational geometry, MVTU scientists proposed a system of chip breakers for cutters. With their help, plant No. 183 at least partially solved the problems with cleaning and further disposal of chips.
By the end of the war, scientists of the cutting department of the Moscow State Technical University. Bauman compiled a special manual called "Guidelines on the geometry of the cutting tool." By order of the People's Commissariat, they were approved "... as mandatory in the design of special cutting tools at the NKTP factories and in the further development of new 8GPI normals" and sent to all enterprises and institutions of the industry.
Another interesting technology - surface hardening of steel parts using high-frequency currents - was introduced at the enterprises of the tank industry by employees of the laboratory of electrothermy of the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute, headed by Professor V.P. Vologdin. At the beginning of 1942, the laboratory staff consisted of only 19 people, and 9 of them operated at the Chelyabinsk Kirov Plant. The most massive parts were chosen as the object of processing - final drive gears, cylinder liners and piston pins of the V-2 diesel engine. Once mastered, the new technology freed up to 70 percent of CHKZ thermal furnaces, and the operation time decreased from tens of hours to tens of minutes.
At Tagil Plant No. 183, HDTV hardening technology was introduced in 1944. At first, three parts were subjected to surface hardening - the trunnion of the gun, the main friction clutch and the axle of the drive wheel roller.
The list of research institutes and laboratories that created technologies for the tank industry of the USSR is not exhausted by the examples given. But what has been said is enough to understand: during the war years, the NKTP turned into the largest scientific and production association in our country.
Swan, crayfish and pike in the German version
In contrast to the USSR, German industrial science was divided into cramped corporate cells and cut off from university science by an iron curtain. In any case, this is what a large group of scientific and technical leaders of the former Third Reich claims in the review “The Rise and Decline of German Science” compiled after the end of the war. Let us quote a rather extensive quotation: “The research organization of industry was independent, did not need the help of any ministry, state research council or other departments ... This organization worked for itself and at the same time behind closed doors. The consequence was that a researcher from any higher educational institution not only knew nothing, but did not even suspect about those discoveries and improvements that were being made in industrial laboratories. This happened because it was beneficial for any concern, for reasons of competition, to keep the inventions of their scientists secret. As a result, knowledge did not flow into a large common cauldron and could only bring partial success for a common cause. The Minister of Armaments and Military Production A. Speer tried to unite industrialists in the system of branch "committees" and "centers", to establish technological interaction between factories, but he could not completely solve the problem. Corporate interests were above all.
If branch institutes worked for concerns, then German university science in the first period of the Second World War was generally out of work. Based on the strategy of a lightning war, the leadership of the Reich considered it possible to complete it with the one with which the troops entered the battle. Consequently, all studies that did not promise results in the shortest possible time (no more than a year) were declared unnecessary and curtailed. We read further the review “The Rise and Decline of German Science”: “Scientists were assigned to the category of human resources from which replenishment for the front was scooped ... As a result, despite the objections of the arms department and various other authorities, several thousand highly qualified scientists from universities, higher technical educational institutions and various research institutes, including indispensable specialists in research in the field of high frequencies, nuclear physics, chemistry, engine building, etc., were drafted into the army at the beginning of the war and were used in lower positions and even as a soldier." Major defeats and the appearance on the battlefield of new types of weapons (Soviet T-34 tanks, British radars, American long-range bombers, etc.) forced Hitler and his entourage to moderate their rejection of intellectuals: 10 thousand scientists, engineers and technicians were withdrawn from the front . Among them were even 100 humanitarians. J. Goebbels had to issue a special directive on the prohibition of attacks against scientists in the press, on radio, in cinema and theater.
But it was too late: due to the loss of pace, the results of research and new developments, sometimes promising, did not have time to get into the troops. Let us give the general conclusion of the same review “The Rise and Decline of German Science”: “Science and technology are incompatible with improvisation. A state that wants to receive the real fruits of science and technology must not only act with great foresight and skill, but also be able to patiently wait for these fruits.
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Topic 1-1
d) No true statement
a) Air Force, Navy, SV
b) Aerospace Defense, Navy, SV
c) VKS, Navy, SV
d) Airborne Forces, Navy, SV
b) Air Force Tactics Theory
c) Air Force practice theory
d) military doctrine of the RF Armed Forces
a) strategy
b) operational art
c) military art
d) tactics
a) strategy
b) operational art
c) military art
d) tactics
a) strategy
b) operational art
c) military art
d) tactics
a) strategy
b) operational art
c) military art
d) tactics
a) internal
b) large scale
c) regional
d) external
e) interstate
f) local
b) according to the means used
c) by scale
a) an armed incident
b) local war
c) armed conflict
d) armed action
a) local
b) regional
c) large scale
What kind of war is being waged by groupings of troops (forces) deployed in the conflict area, with their reinforcement, if necessary, due to the transfer of troops from other directions?
a) local
b) regional
c) large scale
Which of the following parameters does NOT determine the nature of modern wars?
a) military-political goals
b) the method of conducting armed struggle
c) the military-strategic nature of the war
d) the scale of hostilities
What stage in the development of Air Force tactics does the description refer to: World War II and the period until the early 1960s. - the formation of the principles of combat use, the development of air combat tactics and air strikes?
Topic 1-1
1. Choose the correct definition:
a) Operational art (intermediate area of Martial Art) - explores the tasks of formations and units
b) Tactics (the highest area of Martial Art) - determines the goals and objectives of conducting operations (combat actions), time, scale, indicators of operations
c) Military strategy (the lowest area of Martial Art) - determines the role and place of each kind of wax in battle and, based on combat properties and capabilities, establishes the order and methods of combat use
d) No true statement
2. Select the types of troops that are part of the RF Armed Forces:
a) Air Force, Navy, SV
b) Aerospace Defense, Navy, SV
c) VKS, Navy, SV
d) Airborne Forces, Navy, SV
3. Choose the correct components of "Air Force Tactics":
a) Air Force Tactics and Land Forces Tactics Theory
b) Air Force Tactics Theory
c) Air Force practice theory
d) Air Force Tactics Theory and Air Force Practice Theory
4. Choose what the theory of practice of the Air Force studies:
a) laws and principles of military operations
b) forms and methods of tactical use of aviation
c) prospects for the development of enemy ground equipment
d) military doctrine of the RF Armed Forces
5. Choose what the Military Doctrine of the Russian Federation defines:
a) military-political, military-strategic, military-economic foundations for ensuring the security of the Russian Federation
b) military-political, military-tactical, military-economic foundations for ensuring the security of the Russian Federation
c) military-tactical, military-strategic, military-economic foundations for ensuring the security of the Russian Federation
d) military-political, military-strategic, military-tactical foundations for ensuring the security of the Russian Federation
6. Choose what determines Air Force tactics:
a) solves the problem of determining the activities of commanders and staffs during the conduct of hostilities
b) determines the content, nature and patterns of combat, develops methods (forms) of preparing and conducting combat
c) determines the role and place of each kind of wax in battle and, based on the combat properties and capabilities, establishes the order and methods of combat use
d) there is no correct answer
7. The theory and practice of preparing and conducting military operations on land, at sea, in the air and in near-Earth space is ...
a) strategy
b) operational art
c) military art
d) tactics
8. An integral part of military art, its highest area, covering the theory and practice of ensuring the country's military security, including preventing war, preparing the country and the Armed Forces to repel aggression, planning and conducting strategic operations and war in general - this is ...
a) strategy
b) operational art
c) military art
d) tactics
9. An integral part of military art, the theory and practice of preparing and conducting military operations of an operational scale (operations, battles) by associations of the branches of the Armed Forces is ...
a) strategy
b) operational art
c) military art
d) tactics
10. An integral part of military art, covering the theory and practice of preparing and conducting combat by subunits, units and formations of various types of the Armed Forces, military branches and special forces is ...
a) strategy
b) operational art
c) military art
d) tactics
11. Select the full list of types of military conflicts when classifying wars by scale:
a) internal
b) large scale
c) regional
d) external
e) interstate
f) local
By what type are modern wars with the use of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction classified?
a) for military-political purposes
b) according to the means used
c) by scale
13. Border conflict is a special form:
a) an armed incident
b) local war
c) armed conflict
d) armed action
14. What kind of war can be the result of an escalation of a local war or an armed conflict and be waged with the participation of two or more states (groups of states) of one region?
a) local
b) regional
c) large scale
: general foundations (general theory) of military science, theory of military art, construction of the Armed Forces, military training and education, weapons, control of the Armed Forces, military economy and rear, types and branches of the Armed Forces, as well as the relevant sections of military history. Each of the constituent parts of military science has its own structure, in which, in addition to the foundations of the corresponding branch of knowledge, several sections (particular theories) can be distinguished.
General Basics(general theory) of military science include the logical-methodological and general theoretical problems of military science: the subject, structure, tasks, internal and external relationships of military science; definition of the system of its categories and methods; study of the laws and patterns of armed struggle, the construction of the Armed Forces, and other phenomena and processes. The new tasks of military science can include: development of the concept of non-traditional wars and armed conflicts, forms and methods of information confrontation; tactical and technical justification of the requirements for fundamentally new types of weapons; scientific support for the development of automated control systems for troops (forces) built on the basis of computer networks; further development of the theory of military art; increasing the effectiveness of military training based on the comprehensive computerization of the educational process in military universities and combat training of troops; improvement of forms and methods of comprehensive provision of troops; optimization of forms and methods of military scientific research, development of military systemology, military futurology and other new branches of military science; improvement of the methodology of military science.
One of the most important tasks of military science in modern conditions is the development of a theory of interaction between troops. As you know, since ancient times, armed struggle simultaneously covers all the spheres of hostilities mastered by a certain time. Already in the wars of the era of slavery, it was not only on land, but also at sea. Later it began to be carried out also in the air, and then under water. The interrelation and mutual influence of actions in various spheres has always determined success in armed struggle. This influence is especially significant in modern conditions in connection with integration trends in the creation and use of reconnaissance, destruction and control of troops and weapons and the emergence of a new theater of military operations - space. A separate chapter of this book is devoted to the theory of troop interaction.
Theory of military art- part of military science; includes theories of strategy, operational art and tactics. The theory of strategy explores the military-strategic nature of war, the laws, principles, and methods of armed struggle on a strategic scale. The theory of operational art studies the nature, regularities, principles and methods of preparing and conducting combined arms (common fleet) joint and independent operations (combat operations) of formations of types of the Armed Forces. The theory of tactics deals with the preparation and conduct of combat by subunits, units, and formations on land, sea, and in the air. It includes the theory of tactics of combined arms combat and the theory of tactics of types and types of armed forces with the maximum use of the capabilities of new means of armed struggle.
Aircraft construction theory- the most important component of military science. It explores the problems of maintaining the troops and forces of the fleet in combat readiness for the performance of combat missions and for mobilization; determination and improvement of the most expedient organizational structure of the Armed Forces; defines and substantiates the principles and methods of manning the Armed Forces, their technical equipment, training of reserves; develops systems for the training of military personnel and their military service; prepares recommendations on the organization of military service and
quartering of troops (forces) in peacetime and wartime, etc.
Theory of military training and education develops forms and methods of operational and combat training, the formation of high morale and combat qualities among soldiers, their military education in the process of combat training, military service, strengthening military discipline, coordinating subunits, units (ships) and formations in order to ensure their high combat capability and combat readiness .
Armament theory develops scientifically substantiated conclusions and recommendations for pursuing a unified military-technical policy in the Armed Forces.
Aircraft control theory explores the laws, principles and methods of work of the command (commanders, chiefs), headquarters and other control bodies to maintain constant combat readiness of troops (forces), to prepare and conduct operations and combat operations, to lead troops (forces) in the performance of assigned tasks, as well as on the management of combat training, life and activities of troops (forces) in peacetime and wartime.
Theory of the military economy and logistics of the Armed Forces explores the methods of accumulating and using the material resources necessary to ensure the activities of the Armed Forces and the conduct of a predicted war, the military aspects of switching the country to wartime, ways to increase the stability of the country's economic and economic complex during the war.
Theory of types and genera of the sun explores the basics of their preparation and application.
military history within the boundaries of the subject of military science, studies the history of wars, the history of military thought, military art, the history of the construction of the Armed Forces, weapons and other areas of military affairs.
Military science is also connected with the social, natural and technical sciences, which leads to the identification of military problems in them and the formation of special branches of knowledge aimed at solving problems in the interests of strengthening the country's defense. In the field of social sciences, the theory of military law, military psychology, military pedagogy, etc. are of great importance for the Armed Forces. The development of military issues in the field of natural sciences has led to the emergence of such military special sciences as military geography, military cartography, military geodesy, military topography, military hydrometeorology, military navigation, military medicine, etc. In the field of technical sciences, branches of knowledge have emerged that are called military-technical sciences. Being inherently, like all technical sciences, applied, they explore technical problems that are directly or indirectly related to military needs. This includes theories of military communications, military radio electronics, military cybernetics, ballistics, shooting, bombing, etc. Military science and military sections of knowledge (problematics) of other sciences can be considered as an interconnected system of knowledge.
On fig. 36 shows the structure of military science developed by General of the Army M.A. Gareev.
“The study of such a complex socio-political phenomenon as war requires the unification of the efforts of various sciences, not only military ones,” says General of the Army Gareev. - Just as there is not and cannot be one science that would study all aspects and phenomena of nature and society, so there is not even one science of war. This is the pattern of development: the wider and more complex the object of study becomes, the more sciences study it.
Thus, the object of study of military science is war, but such questions as, for example, the essence and origin of war cannot be attributed to the subject of military science. By studying only wars, it is impossible to answer the question of why they occurred. The sources of wars were revealed as a result of studying the economic structure of society. But this is the subject of political economy, not military science... Military science cannot fully study the methods of preparing and conducting armed struggle without a deep knowledge of the economic and political essence of war, as well as without knowledge of the laws of dialectics, but it does not study them directly, but relies on consideration of these issues on the provisions and conclusions of other sciences. Knowing certain phenomena, taking into account and using the results of cognition of other sciences is not the same thing ... For example, the interests of the country's defense require that all social, natural and technical sciences, along with other tasks inherent in them, deal with issues of strengthening the country's defense capability. For this is the business of the state and the people. Consequently, the opinion that military science should be engaged in the study of war as a whole or the preparation of the entire country for war is methodologically untenable and, moreover, does not contribute to the joint comprehensive study of war with the involvement of other branches of science, does not orient them towards solving the problems of strengthening the country's defense capability. . At the same time, a systematic approach to the study of war and the army, through the joint efforts of many sciences, will make it possible to cognize them, form a coherent system of categories, create a more vital theory and formulate specific principles for practical activities.
Retired Major General I.N. Vorobyov Doctor of Military Sciences, Professor
Colonel V.A. Kiselev Doctor of Military Sciences, Professor
In recent years, the journal Military Thought has published a number of articles on questions of military science. Attention is drawn to the conclusion made by Professor Major General S.A. Tyushkevich that "the state of our military science does not fully meet modern requirements ...". The military philosopher G.P. Belokonev expressed his agreement with this conclusion in the article "Philosophy and Military Science". Unfortunately, the authors did not adequately substantiate their thesis, and most importantly, they did not put forward constructive proposals on what should be done to solve this problem. While agreeing in principle with the opinion of the authors, we would like to express our opinions on this issue.
The main reason that Russian military science, starting from the 90s of the last century, began to decline and lose its prestige as the most advanced military science in the world, was that military development in the country, military service, military history, and Also, the methodological basis of military science - dialectical materialism - was subjected to the sharpest ideological abstractionism, and in a number of cases - falsification. The centuries-old traditions of the Russian state were simply ignored during the implementation of the military reform. The negative consequences of such a policy were not long in affecting a sharp decline in the combat effectiveness of the Armed Forces, a reduction in the financing of the military budget, and a decrease in the prestige of military service. This had the most tangible impact on the conduct of two Chechen military campaigns.
Under present conditions, military science is in the stage of "catching up development." We are now talking about its revival, increasing its role and place in the system of other social sciences, clearly defining tasks in ensuring the defense security of the state and preparing the Armed Forces for armed struggle, developing new forms and methods of waging it.
It is important to pay attention to the fact that recently the military leadership of the country has been striving to raise the status of military science, to intensify the research, theoretical activities of scientific organizations of the Ministry of Defense and to ensure proactive scientific and practical study of the most important problems in the field of military and military-technical policy in the interests of strengthening national defense states.
Former Minister of Defense, now First Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation S.B. Ivanov, speaking on January 24, 2004 at the military scientific conference of the Academy of Military Sciences, emphasized that “the further development of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the creation of a professional army of the 21st century is impossible without military science standing at the height of the most modern requirements. Further, S. B. Ivanov stated: “We must admit that, to date, military science has not revealed a clear generalized type of modern war and armed conflict ... The task of military science today is to reveal their general patterns, so that reasonable forecasting of the nature of future wars and effective planning".
It is positive that military science is becoming a state priority. At the same time, it is important that this be supported by the allocation of the necessary financial resources to strengthen the military-industrial complex, the conduct of promising research work, the training of military scientific personnel and the publication of works on general theoretical and methodological
problems of military science, including foreign publications on military topics.
At the present stage, military science faces ever more complex tasks. This is due to the fact that the main object of her research - war, like a chameleon, is increasingly changing its strategic appearance, and therefore becomes difficult to predict. Recently, the term "wrong" wars has even flashed in the press, as opposed to the established views on "classical" wars. Yes, indeed, if we take the two wars against Iraq (1991 and 2003), then by their nature, the methods of warfare, the types of weapons used, they do not fit into the prevailing stereotypes. It turns out that military practice has begun to outstrip military theory, and military science is beginning to lose its main function as a "searchlight" of military events, which, of course, cannot be reconciled with.
Life, the practice of military construction urgently demand from military science that it squeeze out sufficiently accurate and substantiated forecasts in the range of 15-20 or more years ahead, answer questions about what an armed struggle, operation, battle can be technologically; how the content of military-political, military-economic and military-technical factors, their influence on the forms and methods of military operations will change; what requirements must be met by the composition, organization and technical equipment of the Armed Forces, the forms and methods of command and control of troops in peacetime and wartime; how it is necessary to prepare the population and mobilization resources for war.
Military historical experience has shown that military science could rise in its development to a qualitatively new level, develop correct long-term guidelines for military development, military doctrine, and not only keep up with scientific and technological progress, but even outpace it when it relied on time-tested philosophical and methodological basis - dialectical materialism. In this regard, it is appropriate to cite the judgment of A.A. Svechin: “Dialectics cannot be expelled from the everyday life of strategic thought, since it constitutes its essence.”
It is precisely by relying on dialectical principles, the system of learned laws and regularities inherent in war, that military science is able to "look" far ahead, to play the role of a "seer" in military construction. Now, when more and more new concepts appear, the so-called non-contact, remote, robotic, aerospace, situational, transcontinental wars, the creative function of military science is especially important. The emergence of new views on the nature of the armed struggle of the future at the present stage is naturally inevitable, just as on the eve of World War II, new theories of air warfare (Duai), mechanized wars by small professional armies (Fuller, Mitchell, Seeckt, de Gaulle), which, although not justified suddenly, but foreshadowed the coming changes in the methods of warfare. In part, they were adopted by the "armament" of the Nazi army.
The great seer K.E. Tsiolkovsky wrote: “Performance is preceded by thought, accurate calculation by fantasy.” Nowadays, it no longer seems like a fantastic embodiment of such technical “super projects” as the transmission of energy without wires; control of gravitational systems, and consequently, the creation of gravitational weapons; the creation of an engine made of ceramics, “cybernetic” organisms, a train “floating” through the air; the search for psychotropic devices that allow "control" of thoughts, acoustic generators that disrupt brain function; powerful microwave energy emitters to detonate ammunition before use; combustion inhibitors; chemicals that make metal brittle; microbes that turn fuel into jelly; "sucking" foam, non-lethal weapons, etc.
To assess how these and many other technological discoveries will affect the development of forms and methods of military operations is the primary task of futurological forecasts. Extrapolating the directions of the development of armed struggle, the following leading trends can be distinguished: further integration of the combat use of the types of armed forces in all spatial spheres - on continents, seas, oceans, under water, in the ether, near-Earth airspace, near, middle and far space; complication of conditions, methods of unleashing and waging both large-scale and local wars and armed conflicts with and without the use of weapons with unlimited strategic capabilities; the likelihood of conducting fleeting, but extremely tense, decisive and dynamic military operations; strengthening the role of information confrontation; further aggravation of the contradictions between the means of attack and defense; transformation of power and non-power forms of struggle with the transfer of the center of gravity to non-traditional types using the strategy of "indirect actions".
The military science of the 21st century should be a science of divination, unacceptable to dogmas, immutable canons, and at the same time relying on the experience acquired by previous generations, developed methodological principles, such as the purposefulness and non-stereotyping of the search; logical sequence of research; consistency; perspective; reasoning of the received results; objectivity of conclusions; historicity.
In general terms, the goal of predictive research is to determine the fundamental guidelines for transformative military-theoretical and practical activities, the formation of an asymmetric military policy, the planning of advanced military development, and the development of new concepts for the use of armed forces based on new high technologies. The transition from the mechanized wars of the industrial society to the intellectual, information wars of the technological era implies the need to develop a new strategy, new operational art and new tactics for the future using electromagnetic (super EMP, laser weapons, radiation of a certain frequency affecting the human nervous system), acoustic, gravitational and other types of weapons, including those based on new physical principles. The effectiveness of forecasting the armed struggle of the technological era depends on the depth of revealing its new patterns, the ability to use them correctly, to model them, on the completeness of the disclosure of new factors influencing the forms and methods of conducting non-contact, remote warfare, identifying their relationship, extrapolating trends, applying correlative analysis.
The gradual evolutionary process of the technologization of armed struggle, characteristic of the past, is now giving way to not just a rapid, but an abrupt renewal of its material basis. But if the base is modernized radically and in the shortest possible time, then the superstructure - the forms and methods of military operations - should also undergo corresponding transformations. In practice, this means the possibility of the emergence of non-standard - gravitational, robotic, cybernetic, space and other wars. Thus, the appearance on the “chessboard” of strategy of such a revolutionary factor as space radically changes the idea of future armed clashes without the participation of mass land armies.
The hypothesis is that the use of third-generation combat orbital systems capable of hitting objects not only in space, but also from space using the entire arsenal of "star wars" - from combat space stations (platforms) to aerospace aircraft and reusable spacecraft gives reason to expect in the future the appearance in near-Earth airspace of space operations to destroy means of nuclear attack in flight, to block outer space, to destroy orbital and ground-based space constellations, to seize and hold important areas of near-Earth space, and to suppress the radio engineering systems of orbital ground constellations. The ability of space weapons to hit basic military facilities anywhere on the planet gives armed confrontation a volume-global character. This means that there will be no inaccessible places in the location of the warring parties for space and other means of destruction, which means that the concepts of front and rear, operational lines and flanks will lose their former meaning.
It follows logically from the above that to create a model of an operation of the future means to create a physical, mental or combined analogue of such an operation that would reflect the experience of the past and new patterns of military operations, taking into account the development of weapons and military equipment.
Nowadays, more and more attention is paid to the study of methods of information confrontation, which is expected to develop into an independent form of struggle along with economic, political, ideological, diplomatic, armed and other forms of struggle. Based on the experience of local wars, since the 1980s, the United States has been making intensive efforts to improve information technology. Thus, out of 22 strategic-level critical technologies determined for the future, 12, i.e. more than half relate directly to computer science. It is characteristic that the total share of expenditures in the budget of the US Department of Defense for control, communications, intelligence, electronic warfare and computerization systems reached 20% in the 90s of the last century against 7% in the 80s and continues to grow.
The principles of conducting information confrontation are: secrecy, sophistication; systematic; activity; variety of methods; credibility; selectivity; knowledge of the enemy's psychology, reflective control of his behavior; preemption of the enemy. The components of such a struggle can be: information blockade, counterintelligence activities, electronic suppression of enemy combat control systems; conducting an electronic fire information and strike operation; a combination of fire, electronic and massive information and psychological impact on the enemy.
In the United States, information confrontation is considered as one of the methods of conducting the so-called "controlled war" (R.Kann), when the strongest side, through informational influence, dictates its will to the enemy without the use of weapons. Forceful actions in such a confrontation are envisaged at the final phase of actions, if the political, diplomatic and other possibilities of "bloodless crushing" of the enemy state are exhausted. What is new in conducting a complex information and strike operation, based on the experience of local wars, is that the massive use of the latest electronic equipment, setting up radio curtains, radio interference, creating a false electronic environment, simulating false radio networks, radio blockade of channels for collecting and processing enemy information are combined with air-ground operations, the launch of sea-based cruise missiles, the actions of reconnaissance-strike and reconnaissance-fire systems, remote-controlled and manned vehicles.
The predictability of military science largely depends on the improvement of research methods that make it possible to extract, systematize and analyze knowledge, make generalizations, conclusions, conclusions and verify their truth. However, it should be noted that the methods developed to date impose fundamental limitations on the possibility of forecasting both in the time range and in the range of forecasting objects. The point is that all the factors influencing the armed struggle are amenable to predictive assessments. Hence, the maximum possible lead time for predicting a given accuracy in warfare is still small. The deviation of the forecast from the actual state of the object can be quite significant. Based on this, it is important to improve the methodology of military scientific research, which would ensure the interconnection and subordination of forecasts of various levels of the hierarchy of the forecasting object (wars, operations, battles, battles), the continuity of the research process, the consistency of various types of forecasts; identifying emerging contradictions and ways to resolve them, correcting the results of the forecast.
The arsenal of modern methods for studying military science is extensive - these are, first of all, general scientific methods: intuitive-logical, logical, historical, heuristic, extrapolation, system analysis, mathematical modeling, empirical, probability theory, factor analysis, the "tree of goals" method, etc. The peculiarity of the human intellect, as noted by N. Wiener, is that the human brain has the ability to "operate" with vaguely defined concepts. This gives him the opportunity to solve logical problems in terms of complexity, to create, to foresee, to discover something new. Great hopes were once placed on the use of cybernetic and mathematical modeling methods, the use of electronic computers for collecting, processing and analyzing information in the process of forecasting. However, the hopes were justified only partially.
And yet, despite certain prognostic shifts, the "barrier of uncertainty" in military affairs could not be overcome with the help of new methods. The greatest success in forecasting has been achieved in those areas that are relatively easy to quantify (development of weapons systems, determination of the combat potential of groupings of troops, military-economic capabilities of the parties, calculation of the balance of forces, etc.) and, conversely, where it is necessary to operate with qualitative indicators and concepts, which constitute the core of warfare forecasting, the “far-sightedness” of military theory is still limited.
Their own specific methods of researching military science need to be improved, such as research and experimental military, aviation and naval exercises, research command and staff exercises, military games and maneuvers, which are carried out to solve problems of strategy, operational art and tactics, questions of the development of the armed forces, improving combat and mobilization readiness, organizational structure, equipping troops with weapons and military equipment. Scientific and methodological improvement of ongoing exercises and military games using computer technology is one of the important areas of predictive research. Many unresolved problems arise before military science in the field of developing the theory of building up the Armed Forces, maintaining them in readiness to ensure reliable protection of the state from any aggression. The sharp deterioration of the geostrategic position of the state after the collapse of the USSR, the unsettled land border in many directions and, at the same time, the reduction to a minimum of the Armed Forces, especially the Ground Forces, require the development of new approaches in determining the organizational structure of formations, formations and units, the system of organization and methods of manning, organization and services, creating the necessary stocks of material resources. We believe that the main thing on which the system of construction of the Armed Forces should be based is on the principle of strategic mobility, their ability, in the presence of limited opportunities, to flexibly respond to emerging crises by quickly maneuvering forces and means to threatened areas.
Solving the problems of military science is also inextricably linked with the development of theories of military training and indoctrination, the theory of military economics, the theory of weapons, the theory of command and control of the Armed Forces, the theory of types and logistics of the Armed Forces, which have accumulated many unresolved issues related to changes in the ideology and policy of the state. Within the framework of the article, it is not possible even to briefly touch on these issues, especially since a detachment of highly qualified military scientists of the Academy of Military Sciences, headed by the president of the academy, General of the Army M.A. Gareev, is working on their solution. I would like to note that the recommendations of military scientists, mostly honored veterans of the Armed Forces, do not remain "a voice crying in the desert", and be heard by the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, so that we do not return to the memorable times of the 30s of the last century, when military theory was developing in itself, and the practice of military construction in itself. We must honor military history and draw instructive lessons from it. It is known that the present stands firmly on the shoulders of the past. Of course, history is not able to provide answers to the problems of today, it cannot open the veil of the future, but historical experience is able to inspire creative thought, prompt reflection, expand knowledge, general outlook, and warn against possible mistakes. Today, military science is faced with the task of protecting our military history from falsifications and unfounded attacks. There are especially many ill-wishers inside the country in order to discredit the holy of holies - the feat of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, to debunk the military activities of Soviet military leaders.
Russia, perhaps like no other country in the world, has a rich military history. The unprecedented exploits of our ancestors, who throughout the thousand-year history of Russia had to fight for the preservation and establishment of their statehood, are now hushed up, and even distorted in history textbooks in secondary schools.
It is striking that on the ideological front, our state is now taking a defensive position, as if justifying itself for the fact that the Soviet Armed Forces had to liberate the peoples of Eastern Europe and the Baltic States from the fascist yoke in World War II, and after the war to fight Bandera in Western Ukraine, "forest brothers" in the Baltics.
One of the authors of the article had to start his military service before the war, being a cadet of the newly created in 1940. in Estonia of the Tallinn Military Infantry School, and subsequently during the war to participate in hostilities - to liberate the Baltic States in 1944-1945. from the fascist invaders. I must testify with what kindness, one might say frugality, we, Soviet soldiers, treated the local population - Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians during the war. And now it becomes extremely unfair and insulting with what black ingratitude the leadership of the Baltic states responds, calling us, the soldiers-liberators, occupiers and equating them with the fascist executioners - the SS. The actions of the Estonian authorities over the monument - the "bronze" Soviet soldier - can only be called a desecration of the fallen Soviet soldiers.
In conclusion, the article would like to express the pain for the current state of our military science. For more than a decade, military-theoretical works, textbooks and teaching aids on tactics, which are so necessary not only for military students and cadets of military educational institutions, but also for students of civilian universities, students of general education schools, ROSTO organizations, have not been published. The experience of combat and operational training does not become available even to military academies and military schools, since combat training information bulletins are not published, as in the old days. For many years, the works of military classics and modern foreign military scientists have not been published. One cannot fail to mention that candidates and doctors of military sciences do not have any privileges and are dismissed from military service, like all officers of the Armed Forces, upon reaching the so-called "limit" age. And it is especially bitter and insulting that such libels on our country, the army and navy as the "Icebreaker" of the traitor Rezun fill the shelves of bookstores in millions of copies. We regard this as one of the manifestations of information confrontation.
