CINC – Commander in Chief.
CP/OP – Command Post/Observation Post [komandno-nablyudatel’nyi punkt].
DAG – Division Artillery Group [divizionnaya artilleriyskaya gruppa]. A temporary group of three to five artillery battalions under the control of the Division Chief of Rocket Troops and Artillery for a particular mission.
FAC – Forward Air Controller [gruppa boevogo upravlenie]. An airman or soldier who requests, coordinates, and adjusts aviation strikes in support of the ground force. He can be on the ground or flying above the battlefield.
FDC – Fire Direction Center [punkt upravleniya ognyem].
FSC/FO – Fire Support Coordinator or Forward Observer [artilleyskiy korrektirovshchik]. A soldier who requests, coordinates, and adjusts artillery fire in support of the ground force.
FSE – Forward Security Element [golovnaya pokhodnaya zastava]. A reinforced company-sized element that normally moves in front of the battalion during a road march.
Full-field – An exhaustive inspection by a higher headquarters layout of forces field gear and personnel with everything laid out on tarps in front of the vehicles [smotr].
KHAD – Secret police of the Afghan government patterned after the Soviet KGB.
KIA – Killed in Action.
Kyarizy – An Afghanistan system of underground tunnels used for the collection of ground water and for carrying water for surface irrigation. The mujahideen used them for shelter and ambush.
Launch-bomb – A 122mm rocket, used in the BM-21 MRLS system. This rocket can be fired individually from a homemade tripod or two crossed sticks. It is inaccurate, but when it connects with a target, it is devastating.
LOC – Lines of Communications [put’ soobshchenniya].
LZ – Landing Zone [ploshchadka prizemleniya].
MEDEVAC – Medical Evacuation [meditsinskaya evakuatsiya].
MIA – Missing in Action.
MRD – Motorized Rifle Division [motostrelkovaya diviziya]. The Soviet equivalent to a western mechanized division.
MRR – Motorized Rifle Regiment [motostrelkovyy polk].
MRB – Motorized Rifle Battalion [motostrelkovyy batal’on].
MRC – Motorized Rifle Company [motostrelkovaya rota].
MRP – Motorized Rifle Platoon [motostrelkovyy vzvod].
MRLS – Multiple Rocket Launcher System [reaktivnaya artilleriya]. A truck-mounted rocket artillery system capable of firing a salvo of rockets at a target.
MRS – Motorized Rifle Squad [motostrelkovoe otdelenie].
Mujahideen – Afghan resistance [holy warrior].
OKSVA – Limited Contingent of Soviet Forces in Afghanistan [ogranichennogo kontingenta sovetskikh voysk v Afganistane].
POL – Petroleum, oil and lubricants [goryuche-smazochnye materialy].
PX – Post Exchange [voyentorg]. A store for soldiers where they can buy non-issue items.
RAG – Regimental Artillery Group [polkovaya artilleriyskaya gruppa]. A temporary group of two to five artillery battalions under the control of the Regimental Chief of Rocket Troops and Artillery for a particular mission.
RDM – Remotely Delivered Mines [sredst distantsionnogo minirovaniya]. Mines which can be emplaced by aviation, artillery or MRLS fire. Similar to the US FASCAM (Family of Scatterable Mines).
Recon – Reconnaissance [razvedka].
RTO – Radio-Telephone Operator [svyazist].
Sarandoy – Afghan Ministry of the Interior armed police [Defenders of the Revolution].
Subunit – Soviet term for a battalion, company, battery, platoon or squad [podrazdelenie].
SOP – Standard Operations Procedures [poryadok deystviy].
SP – Self-Propelled [samokhodnaya], as in self-propelled artillery.
SPETSNAZ – Troops of Special Designation. For this book, Soviet forces trained for long-range reconnaissance, commando and special forces type combat.
TCP – Traffic Control Point.
TO&E – Table of Organization and Equipment [shtat]. An official document specifying the number of personnel by military specialty, the types of weapons and the type of equipment that an organization should have assigned.
unit – A regiment or independent battalion with its own colors [chast].
WIA – Wounded in Action.
ZSU-23-4 – Self-propelled air defense weapon which fires four 23mm machine guns simultaneously.
About the Authors
The Frunze Military Academy is a ground forces command and staff college located in Moscow on Proyezd Devich’yevo Polya near the Novodevichiy Monastery. It trains select captains and majors over a three year course of instruction. It has chairs of operational-tactical disciplines, history of war and military art, foreign languages and scientific research sections. It primarily trains ground forces officers in combined arms warfare, but has representatives from all branches and services. World-famous military historians are included in its faculty.
Lester W. Grau is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel. He served as an infantry officer and a Soviet Foreign Area Officer (FAO) throughout his career. He fought in Vietnam. In 1981, he completed one year of Russian language training at the Defense Language Institute at Monterey, California and then graduated from the U.S. Army Russian Institute (USARI) in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany in 1983. USARI was a two-year post-graduate school which dealt with all aspects of the then Soviet Union and all classes were taught in Russian. He has served in Moscow and traveled extensively in the former Warsaw Pact and former Soviet Union and continues that travel today. Since 1983, his work has exclusively been in the area of Russian and Soviet tactics and operations. As a combat infantryman, he finds it fascinating to compare and contrast how both the US and USSR fought and fight. Mr. Grau currently works at the Foreign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth where he continues to work on operational and tactical issues.
Map Symbols
Maps of Afghanistan
Afghanistan.
North-East Afghanistan.
South-West Afghanistan.
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