The Russian command culture differs fundamentally from the Western one. It is officer-based and strongly hierarchical:
- Officers — down to lieutenants — have full command. The culture revolves around the officer, not the NCO.
- Non-commissioned officers (NCOs) are specialists with little command responsibility — unlike the Western "backbone" model.
- Conscripts form the bulk of the troops.
- Execution of the order is central: no back-briefs, no bottom-up feedback. "Drills and skills" — drilled, repeatable procedures.
Mission planning reflects this:
- The commander sets the Courses of Action (COAs) and decisions; the staff validates and tasks subordinate units.
- Work is done with redundancy: no single points of failure.
- Planning is time-bound — maximum ± 6 hours — and deliberately "just enough": fast enough to break the NATO OODA loop.
- There are no "joint functions" as in NATO (manoeuvre, fires, intelligence, C2, sustainment, force protection as integrated functions).
Weakness
The greatest vulnerability lies in the chain of command itself: "where the commander goes, the unit goes." Knocking out or paralysing the command node paralyses the whole unit, because autonomous initiative at low level is not built in.