Tactical Nuclear Weapons and NATO.pdf - Program on Strategic ...

eadiness, their capacity to engage in combined arms
combat in an air/l<strong>and</strong> battle, <strong>and</strong> their logistical support
for sustained combat actions. He also noted that,
while the scenario dealt with a wide range of combat
actions, including anti-piracy <strong>and</strong> counterterrorism,
the senior military leadership, including the Chief of
the General Staff, General Nikolai Makarov, emphasized
that the opponent was hypothetical <strong>and</strong> the exercise
was not aimed against “any one country or bloc.”
McDermott, however, concluded that the actual objective
of the exercise was a test of the defenses of Siberia
<strong>and</strong> the Far East from attack by the PLA. McDermott
spoke of the very threat about which the Russian political
<strong>and</strong> military elite could not speak openly. 53 To
underst<strong>and</strong> this reticence one needs to underst<strong>and</strong> the
political-military context of this exercise.
Anyone who has been involved in the construction
of a scenario for a war game or exercise knows
that the creation of the documents for conduct of such
operational-strategic exercise includes a road to war,
which portrays the emergence of a conflict between the
contending sides. They are usually labeled “red” <strong>and</strong>
“blue” forces in the case of Russian war games—with
“blue” being the color associated with the aggressor
forces against which Russian “red” forces defend. In
the case of the current Vostok-2010, the Russian forces
involved in the exercise are facing a “hypothetical opponent”
(uslovnyiprotivnik). At a press conference at
the start of the exercise, General Makarov stated that
this exercise is not directed against any country or
military alliance:
First I would note that this particular exercise, like last
year’s, is not directed against any concrete nation or
military-political bloc. It has a strictly defense orien-
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