Despite the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian Armed Forces have vigorously pursued the summer combat training schedule throughout the country’s five military districts (MDs). International attention was sparked by Russia’s recent air-defense and naval exercises—especially the large maritime war games in the Baltic Sea, which prompted the Baltic States to go on alert. However, a less well publicized military exercise, staged in August in the Central MD, offers insights into the utility of Moscow’s military experimentation in Syria, as well as its application to the role of combined-arms units in future operations.

These experiments in the Central MD suggest that not only is the General Staff actively learning from the experience gained in Syria, but it is also building those lessons into the exercise planning efforts to achieve greater force integration. This is clearly concentrated on enhancing the accuracy of firepower. However, judging by the content and emphasis of the last month’s drills in central Russia, the concept of multi-domain operations seems to be gaining traction…

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