Means of armed defense and struggle. Modern means of armed struggle and their damaging factors, measures to protect the population. Conventional means of destruction
Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 contains part 3 of Sec. I "Methods and means of warfare". However, the norms of this section (articles 35-47) require careful study and research, taking into account the development of modern weapons, on the one hand, and the level of development of the science of international law, on the other. For the purposes of this chapter, weapons are understood to mean weapons designed to engage manpower, equipment, installations, and other enemy targets, the components of these weapons, and components; military equipment includes technical means intended for combat, technical and logistic support of the activities of the troops, as well as equipment and apparatus for monitoring and testing these means, components of these means and components.
The rapid progress in the field of armaments, the improvement of military equipment (and its sale to third countries) is currently far ahead of the development of international law.
Are new weapons permitted, the use of which in the event of armed conflict is not yet regulated by international law? Do the armed forces of a belligerent state have the right to use all means not specifically prohibited by IHL? This chapter is devoted to finding answers to these questions.
Prohibited means of warfare
Article 36 of Additional Protocol I contains a rule which states that, when studying, developing, acquiring or adopting new types of weapons, means or methods of warfare, States are obliged "to determine whether their use falls, in some or all circumstances, under prohibition" of the norms of international law. The article is of the most general nature, and the decision of the issue is left to the sovereign states themselves. No supranational organization was created to exercise control in this area.
In order to avoid unnecessary suffering, unjustified civilian casualties associated with hostilities, IHL establishes restrictions on the choice of means and methods of warfare by belligerents. This principle is expressed in the formula: “the belligerents do not enjoy an unlimited right to choose the means of inflicting harm on the enemy” (Article 22 of the Convention on the Laws and Customs of Land War of October 18, 1907). This position was confirmed in
Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions for the Protection of Victims of War (1949): "the right of the parties to the conflict to choose methods or means of warfare is not unlimited" (Article 35).
Means of warfare - weapons and other means used by the armed forces of the belligerents to inflict harm and defeat the enemy. The Military Doctrine of the Russian Federation of 2010 (clauses 15, 16) notes that military operations will be characterized by the increasing importance of high-precision, electromagnetic, laser, infrasonic weapons, information and control systems, unmanned aerial and autonomous marine vehicles, controlled robotic models weapons and military equipment. Nuclear weapons will remain an important factor in preventing the emergence of nuclear military conflicts and military conflicts using conventional weapons (large-scale war, regional war). In the event of a military conflict using conventional means of destruction (large-scale war, regional war), which threatens the very existence of the state, the possession of nuclear weapons can lead to the escalation of such a military conflict into a nuclear military conflict.
The document "Fundamentals of the Policy of the Russian Federation in the Field of Nuclear Deterrence", signed by the President of the Russian Federation on February 5, 2010, together with the Military Doctrine, which is closed to the press, defines the position of the Russian Federation regarding the essence of nuclear deterrence, its role and place in the overall system of ensuring the national security of the state, the provisions of the Military Doctrine in this area have been developed. According to the document, the nature and scale of Russia's use of nuclear weapons in response to aggression depend primarily on the effectiveness of political, diplomatic, military and other measures taken prior to the use of nuclear weapons. The use of nuclear weapons is carried out exclusively by decision of the President of the Russian Federation. Given the extremely short time interval from the moment a launch of foreign intercontinental ballistic missiles is detected to their impact on targets in Russia (no more than 30 minutes), Russia's response options in each specific case should be determined in advance and regulated in detail. The obvious transition of Russia to the use of nuclear weapons in response to aggression, even with the use of conventional weapons, is to strike at the most important political, administrative and economic centers of the country, at the objects of the missile attack warning system and the orbital constellation of military satellites, at the system of central command posts of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and types of the RF Armed Forces, position areas of the Strategic Missile Forces, airfields based on strategic aviation, bases of strategic submarines, as well as when Russian nuclear submarines are attacked in the World Ocean during their patrolling. Nuclear weapons can also be used by Russia when enemy ground groups invade its territory if the Russian Armed Forces fail to stop the advance deep into the country's territory by conventional methods of warfare.
IHL refers to the prohibited means of warfare those that cause unnecessary suffering by their damaging properties: a) bullets that easily unfold or flatten in the human body; b) projectiles weighing less than 400 grams, filled with explosive or combustible substances; c) poisons or poisoned weapons; d) shells that have the only purpose - to spread poisonous substances; e) asphyxiating and other poisonous gases and bacteriological agents; f) bacteriological (biological) and toxin weapons; g) means of influencing the natural environment that have wide-ranging, long-term or serious consequences, as means of destruction, damage or injury; h) specific types of indiscriminate conventional weapons and weapons the use of which causes undue injury or suffering. Let's consider them.
1. Bullets that easily expand or flatten in the human body. The Hague Declaration of 1899 specifically forbade the use of such bullets. For more than 100 years, this Declaration has been largely observed - at least in its literal sense: the bullets it specifically refers to were almost never used in wars.
The prohibition on the use of weapons and ammunition capable of causing excessive injury and unnecessary suffering was confirmed by Art. 35 of Additional Protocol I and is regarded as a rule of customary international law. The Hague Declaration sets the minimum standard for what is meant by "excessive injury" and "unnecessary suffering". Other small caliber projectiles causing the same damage should be considered as prohibited by customary international law.
During the preparation of the UN Convention on the Prohibition or Restriction of the Use of Conventional Weapons (1981), the question was raised of including a provision in it prohibiting the use of high velocity bullets, or "tumbling" bullets, bullets with a displaced center of gravity. But no agreement was reached, and the use of such bullets remains unsettled to this day.
The intent of the new proposals to ban the use of small caliber weapon systems and their ammunition is to ban ammunition that, at a firing range of 25 meters or more, releases more than 20 joules of energy for each centimeter of the first 15 centimeters of the bullet's path inside the human body. It is necessary to confirm or refute that the principles laid down in the Hague Convention on the Prohibition of Dum-Dum Bullets (1899) are also applicable in the conditions of modern armed conflicts.
When a projectile (a bullet or a fragment of a bomb) enters the human body and penetrates its tissues, its kinetic energy (motion energy) is partially or completely transferred to these tissues, tearing them apart at the speed of an explosion. The more energy is transferred, the more tissues are destroyed. In elastic tissues, such as muscles, the rapid transfer of energy results in the sudden violent formation of a "temporary cavity". Before collapse, the "temporary cavity" expands and contracts several times at high speed around the "permanent cavity" or wound channel left behind by the projectile. According to the results of Princeton University's serious research program in the field of wound ballistics during World War II, "the study and measurement of a large number of temporary cavities shows that the total volume of the cavity is proportional to the amount of energy transmitted by the bullet." As the Princeton study shows, the stretching and movement of tissues during the formation and contraction of the "temporary cavity" can lead to serious damage to a large area around the channel formed by the projectile. Tissue is torn and shredded, capillaries rupture, nerves lose their ability to transmit impulses, soft organs can be damaged, gas-filled intestinal pockets are torn, and bones not directly impacted are broken.
Consequently, the larger the size of the "temporary cavity", the more extensive the damage and the greater the likelihood of damage to a vital organ that is not directly in the path of penetration of the projectile.
It has long been recognized that energy transfer is a major factor in projectile injury.
For example, in 1969, when studying the lethality of M16 rifle ammunition in the laboratory of the US Army, this factor was taken into account as the main one. The test report noted that "previous researchers who studied the lethality of fragments, conventional and arrow-shaped bullets, considered it quite logical to assume that the degree of loss of combat capability of a soldier as a result of a bullet hit is proportional to the amount of energy released by the bullet in the target", while not expressing what or disagree with this statement.
Aerodynamically, the bullet is designed in such a way that air resistance during its flight is minimal. The high-speed rotation imparted to it in the gun barrel ensures its stability so that it moves head-first. The human body is much denser than air, however, with the right shape, solid construction and high speed of rotation of the bullet, it continues to move in it with the head part forward without losing a lot of energy and without forming an extensive wound, except in cases of shooting at close range, due to nutation. But the "dum-dum" bullet, when it hits the body, takes on a mushroom shape, the area of its contact with the body, on the tissues of which it exerts the strongest pressure, increases; the energy of the bullet is quickly transferred to the body, resulting in a large wound.
Thus, if a bullet does not deform like a dum-dum bullet, but nevertheless quickly transfers its energy to the body in some other way, it should also be considered prohibited by international law.
For many years, the standard caliber for small arms in NATO and Warsaw Pact armies was 7.62mm. Since 1957, the M14 rifle of 7.62 mm caliber has been adopted by the US Army. But the American company Armalite reduced the caliber of its rifle, adapting it to fire modified hunting ammunition with a diameter of 5.56 mm (0.22 inches). The new rifle, called the AP15, had the following advantages from a military point of view: it was a quarter lighter than the M14 rifle, the ammunition for it was also lighter, which made the recoil when firing weaker and made it possible for the soldier to carry more cartridges. In the early 60s. The US Department of Defense purchased and shipped several thousand AP15 rifles to Vietnam for combat testing. According to unofficial data published in the American magazine "Army" in August 1963, the light bullet of the AP15 rifle, flying at a speed of 3300 feet per second (1000 m / s), when it penetrates the human body, begins to tumble, causing an exceptionally serious injury, completely not like a small bullet wound with a diameter of 0.22 inches. In the US Army, the A15 rifle was assigned the code M16, and in 1967 it was adopted as the main infantry weapon of the US Armed Forces, which are not part of NATO. By 1978, these rifles were exported to 21 countries, in three more countries they were manufactured under license.
However, to establish a ban on the use of such bullets, it was necessary to develop the science of bullet wounds - the ballistics of wounds. But this information was classified. In order for the AP15 (M16) rifle bullet of 5.56 mm caliber to have the necessary range and have a fairly flat flight path that ensures the necessary accuracy of hitting the target, the designers increased its speed. The muzzle velocity (initial velocity when leaving the barrel) of the M16 rifle is 980 m / s, while this velocity for the M14 rifle is 870 m / s, and for the Soviet 7.62 mm AK47 carbine - 720 m / s. At a distance of 100 m from the trunk, these velocities are 830, 800, and 630 m/s, respectively. From this it was concluded that the severity of the wounds is due to the high speed of the bullet, which tends to tumble and deform upon contact with the human body or after penetrating it.
In 1976, at the Lugano Conference of Governmental Experts on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons, experts from the governments of Sweden and Switzerland presented soap blocks showing bullet test results. The blocks, molded in the shape of a human thigh, were shot through with various bullets and then dissected so that the cavities formed in them could be seen, which were believed to correspond to the permanent and temporary cavities formed in the human body as a result of similar shots, and, hence the amount of tissue damage.
Tests have shown that while some bullets leave a narrow channel along its entire length, others have a narrow channel at the entrance, and then expand sharply at the point where the fist-sized volume of soap is forcefully scattered to the sides as the bullet passes. However, the reasons for this remained unclear.
In 1994, the Swiss ballistics scientist B.P. Knoubel and the German professor of forensic medicine K.G. Sellier published a textbook on the ballistics of wounds, which describes the mechanism of a bullet wound and the design parameters that determine its severity.
When moving inside a person, a bullet can tumble, as a result of which a serious injury is caused to him, since at the moments when it moves inside the body not with its head part forward, but with a large angle of attack, the area over which pressure is transmitted to the tissues is relatively large, and , therefore, a lot of energy is transferred to the tissues.
According to the theory of Sellier and Knoybel, a bullet enclosed in a solid metal shell (and almost all modern rifle ammunition is like that), after penetrating the human body to a certain depth, begins to rotate about the transverse axis. The rotation speed increases rapidly, the angle of attack reaches 90 degrees, the bullet continues to turn until it begins to move almost tail-first (last position). Depending on the design, a bullet with a solid metal jacket can be deformed and destroyed under the influence of the loads experienced by it during rotation; deformation and destruction of such a bullet, being only a consequence of this rotation, and not an independent process, nevertheless increase its ability to inflict injuries, since as a result of deformation or destruction, the area of the bullet material that transmits pressure to the tissues increases.
Thus, the turning or tumbling of the bullet is the main factor in causing severe injury, and the likelihood of the latter depends on how far the bullet penetrates the body before it begins to turn. The tendency to tumble immediately upon penetration into the human body depends on the angle of impact upon impact with the body, the shape of the head of the bullet and its gyroscopic stability, which, in turn, is determined by such factors as the speed of rotation around the longitudinal axis, the moment of inertia and geometric parameters bullets. The higher the gyroscopic stability of the bullet (for example, due to the high speed of rotation), the further it penetrates the body without turning; the smaller the length of the bullet in relation to its diameter, the lower the likelihood that it will begin to tumble.
In 1981, NATO announced a decision to adopt a new standard for small arms calibers. This new caliber - 5.56 mm - was the same as that of the M16 rifle. But the Belgian SS109 ammunition was adopted as standard ammunition for NATO small arms. The high speed of rotation of the bullet is given to it due to the reduced barrel cutting pitch: one revolution occurs in 7 inches, while the M16 rifle has one revolution in 12 inches. It should be specified that the term "small caliber weapon systems" should cover both the ammunition and the weapon being fired. The nature of the wound may depend on such technical characteristics of the weapon as the parameters of the barrel cutting.
According to the test results, the CC109 bullet begins to quickly release energy (with an intensity of 50 or more joules per centimeter), only deepening by 14 centimeters or more; for 20 or more centimeters of the path, it gives the tissues only 600 joules of energy. At the same time, the bullet of the Russian AK74 assault rifle of 5.45 mm caliber begins to quickly release energy, deepening only 9 cm into the body, and it gives 600 joules of energy to the tissues at 14 centimeters of the path. According to some reports, the AK74 bullet inflicts a severe wound much closer to the surface of the body than the SS109 bullet.
Small-caliber projectiles also include an arrow-shaped bullet - a small pointed rod with several stabilizer feathers at the blunt end. In the early 60s. The U.S. Army began a program to develop small arms that fire arrow-shaped bullets (the so-called individual special-purpose weapons). In 1966, the AAI Corporation developed the concave-compound finned projectile and the multiple hardness pointed finned projectile.
The purpose of these two inventions was to deform the nose on impact, causing the arrow-shaped bullet to tumble.
In the US Army Ballistics Research Laboratory, another design was tested for lethality - a bimetallic arrow-shaped bullet. Upon impact, the two metals were supposed to separate from each other, greatly increasing the area of pressure transfer to the tissue.
The deformation of such bullets is very close to the unfolding or flattening, in the terminology of the Hague Declaration, of "dum-dum" bullets.
Thus, when developing and adopting new models of small arms, the following indicators should be taken into account: 1) the maximum caliber at which the weapon belongs to small-caliber systems (12.7 mm); 2) firing range (more than 25 m); 3) the minimum length of the narrow channel (15 cm); 4) the maximum amount of energy released in a narrow channel (more than 20 joules of energy per centimeter of the first 15 cm of the bullet's path inside the human body).
As part of the progressive development of international humanitarian law, it seems necessary to establish a strict ban on the use of modern dum-dum bullets in order to protect against undue suffering caused by especially dangerous small-caliber weapons systems.
Indicative is the discussion on the pages of Nezavisimaya Voyennoye Obozreniye on the suitability of 5.45mm assault rifles and light machine guns in service with the RF Armed Forces for confrontation with troops equipped with army bulletproof vests of the highest degree of protection. In the 60-70s. almost all leading militarily and economically states have switched to low-pulse cartridges. In the USSR in 1987, a 7N6 cartridge with a heat-strengthened core appeared. In 1992, a 5.45 mm cartridge with a 7N10 increased penetration bullet was developed and put into service, which uses a stamped pointed core; bullet weight is 5% more. In 1994, a cartridge with a modernized 7N10 bullet of increased power was developed and accepted for production, the main difference of which is that the cavity in the head is filled with lead. In 1998, a 5.45 x 39 mm cartridge was developed and put into service with an armor-piercing bullet 7N22, in which a pointed core made of U12A high-carbon armor-piercing steel was used. The authors note that the reserves of the 5.45 mm caliber in terms of increasing the effectiveness of hitting obstacles are far from being exhausted.
Similarly, the development of 9-mm bullets for the PM pistol is taking place. In the early 90s. a new high-impulse cartridge for the PMM-57N181SM pistol has appeared, which has a more powerful powder charge and provides a speed of about 45 m / s, lightened up to 5.5 g, of a conical bullet.
True, while this cartridge cannot be used in regular PM pistols.
2. Projectiles weighing less than 400 g filled with explosive or combustible substances.
2. Prohibition of misuse of the distinctive signs of the medical service, civil defense, cultural property, installations and structures containing dangerous forces, the white flag of the truce, as well as other generally recognized distinctive signs and signals (for example, for demilitarized zones, undefended areas).
Analysis of the norms contained in Art. Art. 35, 53, 75, 85 of Additional Protocol I, allows us to distinguish the following groups of prohibited methods of conducting armed struggle.
1. Directed against enemy combatants: a) treacherous killing or wounding of persons belonging to enemy troops; b) the murder of a truce and those accompanying him (trumpeter, bugler, drummer); c) the killing or wounding of enemy persons who, laying down their arms or not being able to defend themselves, surrendered; d) an attack on persons who are disabled due to illness or injury, as well as on persons who have left an aircraft in distress (with the exception of persons belonging to the airborne troops); e) compelling persons of the opposing side to take part in hostilities directed against their country; f) issuing an order to leave no one alive, to threaten it or to conduct military operations on this basis; g) taking hostages.
2. Directed against the civilian population: a) the implementation of genocide, apartheid; b) terror against the local population; c) the use of hunger among the civilian population.
Specific legal requirements that will ensure the achievement of the goal are indicated in paragraphs 2 and 3 of Art. 54 of Additional Protocol I, as well as Art. 55, providing for the obligation to protect the natural environment, in Art. Art. 68 - 71 - on assistance to the civilian population and in the Geneva Protocol of 1925, which prohibits the use of bacteriological and chemical weapons.
3. Directed against objects: a) attack, bombardment or destruction of sanitary institutions, hospital ships (ambulances), sanitary aircraft, having the proper distinctive marks; b) bombardment by military aircraft, sea ships of undefended cities, ports, villages, dwellings, historical monuments, temples, hospitals, provided that they are not used for military purposes; c) the destruction of cultural values, historical monuments, places of worship, etc., constituting the cultural or spiritual heritage of the people, as well as their use to ensure success in military operations.
4. Directed against property: a) destruction or seizure of enemy property, except when such actions are caused by military necessity; b) the seizure of vessels intended for coastal fishing or the needs of local navigation; hospital courts, as well as courts performing scientific and religious functions; c) plundering a city or locality.
A very important problem is the legal regulation of the methods of conducting combat operations of an indiscriminate nature, i.e. adherence to the principle of distinction. Acceptance of the ban enshrined in paragraph 5 "a" of Art. 51 of Additional Protocol I, was an important humanitarian achievement. The authors of the article considered that there was no need to refer to "heavy" bombing, "zone bombing" or "bomb carpets" from the moment this prohibition became fully applicable to them, and the use of such expressions could be interpreted as limiting the protection of civilians from other types of bombardment. It should be noted that the prohibition is limited to situations in which humanitarian demands are paramount, as it applies to areas where civilians or objects are concentrated. Other areas are not covered by this ban. How far apart should military installations be?
The criteria of "clearly separated" and "distinguishable" raise a number of questions in determining the need for separate attacks. Current regulations do not provide answers to these questions. Of course, the problem is related to precision weapons, and difficulties in interpretation cannot justify barbaric methods. What is the size of the military advantage achieved by the attack? By what measure should the loss of civilian life be determined? Only the courts in their decisions, world practice and world public opinion can answer these questions.
The provisions of Art. 57 of Additional Protocol I are aimed at eliminating two more cases of violation of the principle of distinction: a) incorrect identification of objects of a military nature before attacking them; b) attacks that may inadvertently cause extremely high casualties to the civilian population and damage to civilian objects. These provisions are addressed primarily to those who prepare or decide on an attack. Those who actually carry out an attack are often unable, using modern means and methods of conducting military operations, to recognize in a timely manner the objects that are planned to be attacked. If "it becomes clear that the object is not military", "the attack is canceled or suspended". But even if an object is recognized as a military one, an attack on it may be prohibited, for example, because the object harbors dangerous forces or is necessary for the survival of the civilian population, and in cases where an attack would cause excessive losses among civilians.
Note that parties are required to give "timely warning" of attacks endangering the civilian population, if circumstances permit.
Instructions on the methods of warfare are usually contained in the administrative documents (orders) of the military command and control, therefore, it is in them that all the precautions that are necessary during the operation should be provided. In this case, the knowledge possessed by legal advisers (assistant commanders for legal work) should be used. At the same time, a number of violations can be prevented only if there is a sufficient level of organization and discipline of subordinates.
The rules of engagement (rules of attack) are the rules for the use of force to achieve the set goal (combat mission) and must comply with the rules of IHL. They must meet the following requirements: 1) be accessible; communicated in a concise and understandable language; 2) be reasonable, i.e. take into account all situations that may arise when performing a task; 3) be realistic, i.e. must not expose personnel to undue risk in their performance. Each serviceman must know the norms of IHL at a sufficient level corresponding to his military rank and official position.
The elementary rules are based on the principles of humanity and are as follows:
- you can only fight with those who have weapons in their hands;
- only military installations are allowed to be attacked (for example, military bases, warehouses, fuel reserves, ports, airstrips, cars, ships, aircraft, weapons, equipment, buildings and objects that are used by the enemy for military purposes);
- the attack should not be directed at persons and objects that have a protective status, civilians and civilian objects should be spared;
- no more damage may be caused than is required to complete the combat mission, indiscriminate attacks are prohibited;
- undefended areas and neutral zones should not be attacked;
- objects containing dangerous forces (nuclear power plants, dams, dams) should not be attacked;
- taking hostages is prohibited;
- persons and objects marked with protective signs and emblems should be treated with respect;
- medical personnel and clergy, wounded and sick enemy soldiers, civilians, personnel of civil defense formations (firefighters, sappers, search and rescue teams), truce truants with a white flag should not be the object of attack;
- the encircled enemy must be given the opportunity to surrender, an order not to take prisoners is a serious war crime;
- prisoners of war should be treated humanely, they are required to report data only about their identity;
- any acts of retaliation should be refrained from, the property rights of the civilian population should be respected;
- it is necessary to observe the indicated rules yourself and demand this from colleagues, since their violation entails
Means of warfare - weapons and other means used by the armed forces of the belligerents to inflict harm and defeat the enemy.
Methods of warfare - the order in which the means of warfare are used.
Illegal means include conventional weapons capable of causing significant damage to the civilian population and civilian objects, weapons that cause unnecessary suffering, weapons that are intended to cause or are capable of causing extensive, long-term and serious damage to the environment.
Prohibited conventional weapons:
1. explosive bullets and projectiles containing combustible and incendiary substances weighing less than 400 grams,
2. bullets that easily unfold or flatten in the human body,
3. any incendiary weapon, including phosphorus bombs against the population and civilian objects,
4. any weapon whose main action is to inflict damage with fragments that are not detected by x-rays.
In UN documents, weapons of mass destruction include such weapons that act by explosion or with the help of radioactive materials, lethal chemical and bacteriological weapons, and any other weapon that will be developed in the future that has the properties of an atomic bomb or other weapons mentioned above.
Weapons of Mass Destruction:
1. radiation weapons,
2. infrasonic weapons share damage to internal organs,
3. genetic weapon,
4. ethnic weapon,
5. psychotropic weapons,
6. geophysical weapons.
Weapons of mass destruction should also include weapons, the use of which:
1. leads to mass destruction of both combatants and civilians,
2. destroy the foundations of human existence not only in the area of their use, but also far beyond its borders,
3. It has a destructive effect both at the moment of its application and for a long time after that.
Chemical weapon
The Convention on the Laws and Customs of War on Land prohibited the use of chemical weapons, poison or poisoned weapons. This prohibition is comprehensive. It prohibits the use in military operations of all chemical, bacteriological and biological agents that exist at the moment and can be obtained in the future.
However, the Geneva Protocol does not prohibit states from researching, developing, producing and stockpiling chemical weapons.
bacteriological weapon
Prohibited means of warfare, the action of which is based on the use of the pathogenic properties of microorganisms that can cause mass diseases of people, animals and flora.
The development, production and stockpiling of weapons, equipment or delivery vehicles designed for the use of such agents or toxins in armed conflicts is prohibited.
Norms prohibiting the use of chemical and bacteriological weapons are also obligatory for states that are not parties to the relevant conventions, since their norms became the usual norms of the MP.
Nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapons - weapons of mass destruction, fall under the system of prohibitive norms of the LOAC.
The UN General Assembly, on behalf of the UN member states, solemnly declared the permanent ban on the use of nuclear weapons, condemned the development, dissemination and propaganda of political and military doctrines and concepts designed to justify the legitimacy of the first use of nuclear weapons, as well as the general admissibility of unleashing a nuclear war.
The illegality of the use of nuclear weapons follows from the fact that:
1. nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction,
2. the use of nuclear weapons is contrary to the generally recognized principle of LOAC, according to which the belligerents do not use unlimited means of inflicting harm on the enemy,
3. nuclear weapons cannot be used in such a way that they spare, as far as possible, buildings serving the purposes of science, art, charity, charity, temples, historical monuments,
4. The modern LOAC prohibits the destruction of any property belonging to individuals, communities or states, and the use of nuclear weapons denies this rule in relation to the victim state.
5. The use of nuclear weapons causes radioactive exposure of the civilian population, which entails, in some cases, rapid and inevitable death, in others - long-term illness and suffering.
Environmental impact as a means of warfare
In 1977, a special convention was concluded in Geneva on the prohibition of military or any other impact on the natural environment, in which the means of influence are understood to be any means for changing, through the deliberate control of natural processes, the dynamics, composition or structure of the earth, including its biosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere , atmosphere or outer space.
The Convention excludes all types of military or any other hostile use of means of influencing the natural environment if this would have wide long-term or serious consequences in the form of destruction and damage to another state.
5. Protection of civilians
Conventional weapons include cold steel, firearms, jet, rocket, volume explosion ammunition, incendiary mixtures, etc.
Steel arms- a weapon designed to hit a target with the help of human muscle power in direct contact with the target.
Firearms- a weapon designed to mechanically hit a target at a distance with a projectile that receives directed movement due to the energy of a powder or other charge. As a rule, firearms include: small arms (pistols, rifles, machine guns, machine guns - hand, easel, large-caliber) and artillery weapons, as well as bombs, mines and grenades.
The ability of modern conventional weapons to cause severe injury and injure people is achieved by:
On increasing the speed of a wounding projectile (bullet) - bullet and fragmentation (fragments of mines, grenades, artillery shells, air bombs, bullets);
About reducing the caliber and shifting the center of gravity of the projectile (bullets);
About filling shells with elements (balls, arrows) or using cluster munitions;
About new principles of undermining (volumetric explosion ammunition);
On the use of high-precision weapons.
Wounding shells are divided into bullet and fragmentation.
Bullet wounding projectiles are classified as follows:
O oblong - ordinary bullets (for damaging manpower and unarmored vehicles), which are large-caliber (caliber 9.00; 12.7; 14.5 mm), medium-caliber (caliber
7.62 mm), small-caliber (caliber 5.56; 5.45 mm), bullets with a displaced center of gravity, special bullets - armor-piercing, incendiary, armor-piercing incendiary, tracer, sighting, etc .;
О spherical - lead, rubber, plastic;
Oh deformed.
Shrapnel wounding projectiles are fragments of irregular shape. Standard damaging elements (steel, plastic) - needle, arrow-shaped, balls, ribbed cubes, etc.
In the wars of the second half of the XX century. began to be widely used ammunition with ready-made damaging elements - balls, arrows, needles. Ball bombs contain up to 300 or more metal or plastic balls with a diameter of 5-6 mm. During the explosion, the balls scatter at high speed in all directions and cause multiple destruction of soft and bone tissues, internal organs.
Ball bombs were used by the US armies during the Vietnam War, where there were often cases of hitting several dozen balls in the body of one wounded person. To increase the area of destruction, the Americans dropped ball bombs in cases (cluster munitions) containing 640 bombs from aircraft. At an altitude of 1000 to 500 m, these cases opened up and ball bombs flying out of them hit manpower over an area of up to 25 hectares.
Needle-filled ammunition contains 5,000 to 12,000 thin steel needles or arrows that, when exploded and dispersed, bend into a hook shape and inflict multiple severe wounds, most often leading to death.
These munitions can conditionally be classified as means of mass destruction, since when they explode, the range of damaging elements reaches 500 m with an area of damage up to 70-80 hectares.
Explosive weapon - these are aerial bombs, artillery shells, missile and torpedo warheads, grenades, mines (mortar, anti-tank, anti-personnel, naval), “shahid belt” delivered by bombers, artillery mounts (guns, howitzers), grenade launchers, mortars, rocket launchers , combat missiles and their launchers, etc.
The damaging factors of explosive weapons are standard damaging elements, shell fragments of the ammunition, fragments of destroyed surrounding objects, explosive shock wave, thermal energy, gaseous toxic substances.
Ammunition of a volumetric explosion is capable of causing a shock wave, having a detrimental thermal and toxic effect on a person. As a result of the detonation of a gas-air or air-fuel mixture flowing into cracks, trenches, dugouts, military equipment, ventilation hatches and communication channels of leaking engineering structures, buildings, protective structures and buried objects can be completely destroyed. The people who are in these objects, as a rule, perish.
In the short term, it is possible to use rockets with warheads with thermobaric charges (thermal weapons) capable of instantly “burning out” the oxygen in the air over large areas and creating pressure drops in areas where the population lives, incompatible with life.
Incendiary weapons - incendiary substances and means of their combat use. Combat incendiaries include:
O napalm - condensed gasoline, less often kerosene, naphtha, develops a temperature of 800-1200 ° C;
- 0 pyrogel - napalm with metal powder (aluminum, magnesium), oxidizing agents and heavy oil products - asphalt, fuel oil, etc. (1600-2000 ° C);
- 0 thermite - a mixture of powders of aluminum and oxides of other metals (2300-2700 ° C);
About a mixture based on phosphorus.
Thermal factors are classified as follows:
- 0 primary - flames of burning incendiary substances (mixtures), radiation - light radiation of a nuclear explosion, laser radiation, hot gases during volumetric explosions and explosions of incendiary fragmentation ammunition;
- 0 secondary factors - flame, hot gases and their mixtures, hot liquids, carbon monoxide and other combustion products, lack of oxygen in the air.
The group of incendiary munitions includes Molotov cocktails and grenades, incendiary bullets, projectiles, bombs, rockets, flamethrowers, aviation pouring devices.
16. Modern means of armed struggle. The damaging factors of modern types of weapons.
CLASSIFICATION OF MODERN WEAPONS
According to the scale and nature of the damaging effect, modern weapons are divided into:
1.Weapon of mass destruction:
Chemical
Bacteriological (biological)
2. Conventional weapons,
including:
cluster munitions
precision weapons
Volumetric explosion ammunition
incendiary mixtures
3. Weapons based on new physical principles:
laser weapons
Beam weapon
microwave weapons
4.Non-lethal weapons.
5. Genetic weapon.
6.Ethnic weapons.
7. Information weapons, etc.
Nuclear weapons A weapon whose destructive effect is based on the use of intranuclear energy released during a nuclear explosion is called.
Nuclear weapons are based on the use of intranuclear energy released during chain reactions of fission of heavy nuclei of isotopes of uranium-235, plutonium-239 or during thermonuclear reactions of fusion of light hydrogen isotope nuclei (deuterium and tritium) into heavier ones.
These weapons include various nuclear munitions (warheads of missiles and torpedoes, aircraft and depth charges, artillery shells and mines) equipped with nuclear chargers, means of controlling them and delivering them to the target.
The main part of a nuclear weapon is a nuclear charge containing a nuclear explosive (NAE) - uranium-235 or plutonium-239.
Damaging factors of a nuclear explosion
During the explosion of a nuclear weapon, a huge amount of energy is released in millionths of a second. The temperature rises to several million degrees, and the pressure reaches billions of atmospheres.
The main damaging factors of a nuclear explosion are:
1. shock wave - 50% of the energy of the explosion;
2. light radiation - 30-35% of the energy of the explosion;
3. penetrating radiation - 8-10% of the energy of the explosion;
4. radioactive contamination - 3-5% of the energy of the explosion;
5. electromagnetic pulse - 0.5-1% of the energy of the explosion.
Chemical weapon These are poisonous substances and the means of delivering them to the target.
Poisonous substances are toxic (poisonous) chemical compounds that affect people and animals, infect the air, terrain, water bodies and various objects on the ground. Some toxins are designed to kill plants. The means of delivery include artillery chemical projectiles and mines (VAP), warheads of missiles in chemical equipment, chemical land mines, checkers, grenades and cartridges.
Poisonous substances can have various states of aggregation (vapor, aerosol, liquid) and affect people through the respiratory system, the gastrointestinal tract, or when they come into contact with the skin.
According to the physiological action, agents are divided into groups :
1) Nerve agents - tabun, sarin, soman, VX. They cause disorders of the functions of the nervous system, muscle cramps, paralysis and death;
2) Agent of blistering action - mustard gas, lewisite.
3) OS of general toxic action – hydrocyanic acid and cyanogen chloride. The defeat through the respiratory system and when it enters the gastrointestinal tract with water and food.
4) OV suffocating action– phosgene. It affects the body through the respiratory system. In the period of latent action, pulmonary edema develops.
5) OV psychochemical action - BZ. It strikes through the respiratory system. Violates coordination of movements, causes hallucinations and mental disorders;
6) Irritant agents - chloroacetophenone, adamsite, CS (Ci-Es), CR (Ci-Ar). Causes respiratory and eye irritation;
Biological weapons (BW)- These are special ammunition and combat devices with delivery vehicles, equipped with biological means.
BW is a weapon of mass destruction of people, farm animals and plants, the action of which is based on the use of the pathogenic properties of microorganisms and their metabolic products - toxins.
The causative agents of plague, cholera, anthrax, tularemia, brucellosis, glanders and smallpox, psittacosis, yellow fever, foot and mouth disease, Venezuelan, western and eastern American encephalomyelitis, epidemic typhus, KU fever, rocky spotted fever can be used as BOs. mountains and fever tsutsugamushi, coccidioidomycosis, nocardiosis, histoplasmosis, etc.
The main uses of BO are as follows:
a) aerosol - contamination of surface air by spraying liquid or dry biological formulations;
b) transmissible - dispersion in the target area of artificially infected blood-sucking vectors;
c) sabotage method - contamination of air, water, food with the help of sabotage equipment.
Conventional means of attack, precision weapons.
The main role of the carrier of conventional weapons is played by aviation as the most mobile component of the entire NATO military machine. Their aircraft are equipped with high-precision guided weapons - air-to-ground missiles, guided aerial bombs (conventional aerial bombs, high-explosive, armor-piercing, cumulative, concrete-piercing, incendiary, volumetric explosions, etc.).
The usual types of modern weapons also include volume explosion ammunition. The damaging factors of volumetric explosion ammunition are the shock wave, thermal and toxic effects. Buildings, structures, buried objects can be destroyed as a result of the action of a shock wave, as well as the leakage of a gas-air mixture (DHW) into the inlets, air supply channels, communications, followed by detonation of the DHW.
Conventional weapons and their varieties
The term "conventional weapons" came into use after the advent of nuclear weapons, which have immeasurably higher combat properties. However, at present, some samples of conventional weapons, based on the latest achievements of science and technology, have come close to WMD in terms of their effectiveness.
Conventional weapons comprise all fire and strike weapons that use artillery, anti-aircraft, aircraft, small arms and engineer ammunition and rockets in conventional equipment, incendiary ammunition and fire mixtures.
Conventional weapons can be used independently and in combination with weapons of mass destruction to destroy enemy personnel and equipment, as well as to destroy and destroy various especially important objects (chemical enterprises with SDYAV, nuclear power plants, hydraulic structures, etc.).
The most effective means for destroying small and dispersed targets in the conditions of combat operations with the use of conventional weapons are fragmentation, high-explosive, cumulative, concrete-piercing, incendiary and volume explosion ammunition.
Cluster and HEAT munitions
Cluster munitions are designed primarily to kill people. The most effective ammunition of this type are ball bombs, which are dropped from aircraft in clusters containing from 96 to 640 bombs. Above the ground, such a cassette opens, and the bombs scatter and explode over an area of up to 250 thousand square meters. The destructive power of striking elements (metal balls with a diameter of 2-3 mm) of each bomb is maintained within a radius of up to 15 m.
Cluster munitions can be loaded, in addition to balls, also with needle elements, shrapnel, etc.
Cumulative ammunition designed to destroy armored targets. Their principle of operation is based on burning through the barrier with a powerful jet of explosive detonation products with a temperature of 6-7 thousand degrees and a pressure of more than 5 10 in 5 st. kPa (5 - 6 thousand kgf / cm2).
Focused detonation products are capable of burning holes in armored ceilings several tens of centimeters thick and causing fires.
To protect against cumulative ammunition, screens of various materials can be used, located at a distance of 15 - 20 cm from the main structure. In this case, all the energy of the jet is spent on burning the screen, and the main structure remains intact.
Concrete-piercing ammunition designed to destroy high-strength reinforced concrete structures, as well as to destroy airfield runways. Two charges are placed in the ammunition body - cumulative and high-explosive and two detonators. Upon encountering an obstacle, an instantaneous detonator is triggered, which undermines the cumulative projectile. With some delay (after the ammunition passes through the ceiling), the second detonator fires, detonating the high-explosive charge, which causes the main destruction of the object.
Volume explosion ammunition.
The principle of operation of such ammunition is as follows: liquid fuel with a high calorific value (ethylene oxide, diborane, acetic acid peroxide, propyl nitrate), placed in a special shell, splashes during an explosion, evaporates and mixes with atmospheric oxygen, forming a spherical cloud of fuel-air mixture with a radius of about 15 m and a layer thickness of 2 - 3 m. The resulting mixture is undermined in several places by special detonators. In the detonation zone, a temperature of 2500 - 3000°C develops in a few tens of microseconds. AT
at the moment of explosion, a relative void is formed inside the shell from the fuel-air mixture. There is something similar to the explosion of the shell of a ball with evacuated air (“vacuum bomb”).
Volumetric explosion ammunition has only one damaging factor - a shock wave. They do not have a fragmentation, cumulative effect on the target.
Volumetric explosive munitions occupy an intermediate position in their power between nuclear and conventional (high-explosive) munitions. The excess pressure in the front of the shock wave of the BOW, even at a distance of 100 m from the center of the explosion, can reach 100 kPa (1 kgf / cm.kv). Ammunition of a volumetric explosion in terms of the strength of the shock wave is 5-8 times greater than conventional explosives and has a colossal destructive power. However, they are not a universal remedy and the degree of their use depends on what type of ammunition, weapon is appropriate and most effective in each specific case.
For a volumetric explosion, a large free volume and free oxygen are required; in case of strong wind, heavy rain, the fuel-air cloud either does not form at all, or is strongly dissipated.
precision weapons
High-precision weapons began to be actively developed in the 60s of the last century. Its goal is the destruction of small, well-protected objects using the minimum amount of combat weapons.
It includes such weapon systems in which the accuracy of determining the coordinates of targets, the reaction time of the weapon and the quality of guidance ensure that the target is hit by the first shot or volley with a probability of at least 0.5. This is achieved by the high speed and technical sophistication of automated reconnaissance means and by the use of guided or self-guided munitions and missiles.
Precision weapons include:
Reconnaissance and strike (fire) complexes (RUK);
Anti-tank missile systems (ATGM);
Self-guided projectiles of field artillery. At present, such systems include the Smelchak and Centimeter artillery systems. As a means of guidance, they use a laser beam to indicate the target for several seconds after the shot. For 2-3 sec. before approaching the target in the artillery shell, the automatic guidance system is turned on, the trajectory of movement is automatically corrected and the target is hit with a coefficient of about 0.3;
Guided missiles of various classes;
Guided aerial bombs and cassettes.
The latest type of high-precision weapons are reconnaissance-strike systems (RUK). When creating this weapon system, military experts set themselves the goal of achieving guaranteed destruction of small, well-protected targets with minimal means. In them, high-precision reconnaissance and high-precision weapons are combined with an automated control system, which makes it possible to solve the tasks of reconnaissance and destruction almost simultaneously.
According to the foreign press, RUK, designed to combat radio-emitting targets (objects), is capable of hitting 150-180 targets in one hour.
RUK, designed to detect and destroy group armored objects of the second echelons and reserves - 150-300 targets such as tanks, infantry fighting vehicles with a probability of hitting 0.8-0.9.
The complexes include four conjugated main elements:
1. automated reconnaissance and guidance system (automated fire control system);
2. mobile ground control center (fire control point);
3. high-precision weapons;
4. a system for accurately determining the location of the elements of the complex.
The accuracy of determining the coordinates of the RUK targets is 10-30 m. The accuracy of pointing is 10-50 m; target reconnaissance range up to 600 km. Reconnaissance assets are usually placed on aircraft that fly at altitudes up to 25 km with a range of 100-150 km from the line of contact between the parties.
The RUK control center can be located at a distance of up to 300 km from the line of contact between the parties.
The RUK high-precision weapons are self-guided and guided surface-to-ground and air-to-air missiles, guided cluster aerial bombs with self-guided submunitions.
Nuclear weapons and their damaging factors.
Nuclear weapon- weapons of mass destruction of explosive action, based on the use of the energy of fission of heavy nuclei of some isotopes of uranium and plutonium, or in thermonuclear fusion reactions of light nuclei of hydrogen isotopes of deuterium and tritium into heavier nuclei of helium isotopes.
Warheads of missiles and torpedoes, aviation and depth charges, artillery shells and mines can be equipped with nuclear charges. According to the power, nuclear weapons are distinguished: ultra-small (less than 1 kt), small (1-10 kt), medium (10-100 kt), large (100-1000 kt) and extra-large (more than 1000 kt). Depending on the tasks to be solved, it is possible to use nuclear weapons in the form of underground, ground, air, underwater and surface explosions. Features of the damaging effect of nuclear weapons on the population are determined not only by the power of the ammunition and the type of explosion, but also by the type of nuclear device. Depending on the charge, they distinguish: atomic weapons, which are based on the fission reaction; thermonuclear weapons - when using a fusion reaction; combined charges; neutron weapons.
It includes such weapons systems in which the accuracy of determining the coordinates of targets, the reaction time of the weapon and the quality of guidance ensure that the target is hit by the first shot or volley with a probability
The damaging factors of a nuclear explosion.
The damaging factors of a nuclear explosion are: shock wave, light radiation, penetrating radiation, radioactive contamination and electromagnetic pulse.
shock wave. The main damaging factor of a nuclear explosion. It consumes about 60% of the energy of a nuclear explosion. It is an area of sharp air compression, spreading in all directions from the explosion site.
The damaging effect of the shock wave is characterized by the amount of excess pressure. Overpressure is the difference between the maximum pressure in the front
shock wave and normal atmospheric pressure in front of it. It is measured in kilo pascals - 1 kPa \u003d 0.01 kgf / cm2.
With an excess pressure of 20-40 kPa, unprotected people can get light injuries. The impact of a shock wave with an excess pressure of 40-60 kPa leads to lesions of moderate severity. Severe injuries occur at an excess pressure of more than 60 kPa and are characterized by severe contusions of the whole body, fractures of the limbs, ruptures of internal parenchymal organs. Extremely severe lesions, often fatal, are observed at excess pressure over 100 kPa.
Light emission. This is a stream of radiant energy, including visible ultraviolet and infrared rays. Its source is a luminous area formed by the hot products of the explosion. Light radiation propagates almost instantly and lasts, depending on the power of a nuclear explosion, up to 20 s. Its strength is such that, despite its short duration, it can cause fires, deep burns of the skin and damage to the organs of vision in people.
Light radiation does not penetrate through opaque materials, so any obstruction that can create a shadow protects against the direct action of light radiation and eliminates burns. Significantly attenuated light radiation in dusty (smoky) air, in fog, rain.
penetrating radiation. This is a stream of gamma radiation and neutrons. The impact lasts 10-15 s. The primary effect of radiation is realized in physical, physicochemical and chemical processes with the formation of chemically active free radicals (H, OH, HO 2) with high oxidizing and reducing properties. Subsequently, various peroxide compounds are formed that inhibit the activity of some enzymes and increase the activity of others, which play an important role in the processes of autolysis (self-dissolution) of body tissues. The appearance in the blood of decay products of radiosensitive tissues and pathological metabolism when exposed to high doses of ionizing radiation is the basis for the formation of toxemia - poisoning of the body associated with the circulation of toxins in the blood. Disturbances in the physiological regeneration of cells and tissues, as well as changes in the functions of regulatory systems, are of primary importance in the development of radiation injuries.
Radioactive contamination of the area. Its main sources are fission products of a nuclear charge and radioactive isotopes formed as a result of the acquisition of radioactive properties by the elements from which a nuclear weapon is made and which are part of the soil. They form a radioactive cloud. This cloud is carried by air masses over considerable distances. Radioactive particles falling from the cloud to the ground form a zone of radioactive contamination, the length of which can reach many kilometers.
A variety of nuclear weapons is a neutron weapon, which is a small-sized thermonuclear munition with a power of up to 10 kt, designed mainly to destroy enemy manpower due to the action of neutron radiation. Neutron weapons are classified as tactical nuclear weapons.
of the radioactive properties of the elements from which the nuclear weapon is made and which are part of the soil. They form a radioactive cloud. It rises to a height of many kilometers, and is transported with air masses over considerable distances. Radioactive particles, falling from the cloud to the ground, form a zone of radioactive contamination (trace), the length of which can reach several hundred kilometers. Radioactive substances pose the greatest danger in the first hours
after falling out, since their activity is highest during this period.
electromagnetic pulse. This is a short-term electromagnetic field that occurs during the explosion of a nuclear weapon as a result of the interaction of gamma radiation and neutrons emitted during a nuclear explosion with the atoms of the environment. The consequence of its impact is the burnout or breakdowns of individual elements of radio-electronic and electrical equipment.
The defeat of people is possible only in those cases when they come into contact with wire lines at the time of the explosion.
Biological weapons, the concept of quarantine and observation
Biological weapons- These are special ammunition and combat devices with delivery vehicles, equipped with biological means.
BO is a weapon of mass destruction of people, farm animals and plants, the action of which is based on the use of the pathogenic properties of microorganisms and their metabolic products - toxins. In 1972, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Biological and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction was signed. However, as often happens, this only gave a new impetus to the development and production of tank weapons in many states. In this regard, the threat of its use in modern wars and armed conflicts continues to persist.
The basis of the damaging effect of BW is biological agents specially selected for combat use - bacteria, viruses, rickettsiae, fungi and toxins.
The causative agents of plague, cholera, anthrax, tularemia, brucellosis, glanders and smallpox, psittaccosis, yellow fever, foot and mouth disease, Venezuelan, western and eastern American encephalomyelitis, epidemic typhus, CU fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and tsutsugamushi fever, coccidioidomycosis, nocardiosis, histoplasmosis, etc. Among microbial toxins, botulinum toxin and staphylococcal enterotoxin are most likely to be used for biological warfare.
Ways of penetration of pathogenic microbes and toxins into the human body can be as follows:
1. Aerogenic - with air through the respiratory system.
2. Alimentary - with food and water through the digestive organs.
3. Transmissible way - through the bites of infected insects.
4. Contact way - through the mucous membranes of the mouth, nose, eyes, as well as damaged skin.
The main ways of using BO are:
a) aerosol - this route of application is the main one. With the help of special devices, surface air is contaminated by spraying liquid or dry biological formulations. At present, the potential adversary has a modern system of technical means for the application of biological formulations and means for their delivery to the target;
b) transmissible - dispersion in the target area of artificially infected blood-sucking carriers;
c) sabotage method - contamination of air, water, food with the help of sabotage equipment.
BO is intended for the mass destruction of troops and the population, the weakening of the military-economic potential, and the disorganization of the system of state and military administration. Tank weapons have a number of significant advantages:
Its production is the cheapest of all weapons;
High efficiency;
Difficulty in timely diagnosis, the possibility of the epidemic spreading beyond the affected area;
The strongest psychological impact on the population at risk of infection;
The ability to use various types of combat recipes to create a suitable type of hearth;
The diversion of significant organizational, financial, medical forces and funds to eliminate the consequences of the use of the tank. weapons;
At the same time, the tank weapon is not without its drawbacks, they are associated with:
The difficulty of the practical study of its combat properties;
Limited shelf life of combat recipes;
Great dependence on natural and climatic conditions during its application (wind direction, temperature, air humidity, etc.).
Characteristics of the focus of bacteriological infection.
The focus of bacteriological contamination is the territory with people located on it, which has been exposed to bacteriological weapons.
Depending on the type of combat formulation used, lesions will be formed. They can be divided into two types.
In the first, in the combat formulation, pathogens of highly contagious especially dangerous infections are used - plague, smallpox, anthrax, etc. In this case, persistent foci are formed with a tendency to spread due to the transmission of infection from the affected population located outside the lesion.
In the second, pathogens of non-contagious or slightly contagious infectious diseases are used in the combat formulation. These include tularemia, brucellosis, myeloidosis, cholera, epidemic typhus and others. In this case, the disease occurs when inhaling virulent doses of pathogens, or after drinking contaminated water and food. Further spread of infection from sick to healthy does not occur, and if it does, then through the involvement in the epidemic process of intermediate hosts - rodents, arthropod insects, or with a gross violation of sanitary norms and rules.
The main anti-epidemic measures in the event of an epidemic focus are:
1) registration and notification of the population;
2) conducting sanitary and epidemiological reconnaissance;
3) identification, isolation and hospitalization of sick people;
4) regime-restrictive or quarantine measures;
5) general and special emergency prevention;
6) disinfection of the epidemic focus;
7) detection of bacteria carriers and enhanced medical supervision;
8) sanitary-explanatory work.
Organization and implementation of isolation and restrictive measures.
Isolation and restrictive measures include quarantine and observation.
Quarantine- This is a complex of strict regime-restrictive measures aimed at complete isolation, localization and elimination of the lesion.
Quarantine is established in military units by order of the commander of the formation, among the civilian population by the head of the region when the enemy uses EOI pathogens as a bacteriological weapon.
To organize quarantine measures, a headquarters is created, the necessary forces and means of the medical service are involved, and armed guards of the quarantine zone are appointed. The main activities carried out in the quarantine zone include:
Establishment of a strict anti-epidemic regime;
Active detection of cases, their isolation, hospitalization and treatment in specialized medical institutions deployed in the quarantine zone;
Isolation of persons at risk of infection in provisional hospitals deployed in the outbreak. Medical monitoring of contacts, in order to timely identify the sick;
Carrying out emergency, specific and non-specific prophylaxis;
Fencing the quarantine zone and setting up armed guards.
Quarantine is established for a period of at least two maximum incubation periods after the cure of the last sick person.
If a pathogen of a not particularly dangerous infection is used as a weapon tank, an observation mode is introduced in the outbreak.
Observation- it is a complex of organizational, restrictive, medical and anti-epidemic measures aimed at preventing the spread of the focus, its speedy localization and elimination.
Observation includes the following activities:
Enhanced medical monitoring of persons at risk of infection in order to timely identify among them the diseased;
Isolation, hospitalization and treatment of the sick;
Carrying out specific and non-specific prophylaxis;
Strengthening the sanitary-epidemic regime.
Non-lethal weapons and their types.
Military experts note that in the last decade, when developing the concept of modern wars, NATO countries have attached increasing importance to the creation of fundamentally new types of weapons. Its distinguishing feature is the damaging effect on people, which, as a rule, does not lead to death.
non-lethal weapons- this is a weapon that is capable of neutralizing or depriving the enemy of the opportunity to conduct active hostilities without significant irretrievable losses of manpower and destruction of material values.
Non-lethal weapons include:
Laser weapons;
Electromagnetic Pulse Weapon;
Sources of incoherent light;
Electronic warfare means;
microwave weapons;
Meteorological, geophysical weapons;
Infrasonic weapons;
Biotechnological means;
New generation chemical weapons;
Means of information warfare;
Psychotropic weapons;
Parapsychological methods.
New means of armed struggle, according to military experts, will be used not so much for conducting military operations, but to deprive the enemy of the possibility of active resistance by destroying his most important economic and infrastructure facilities, destroying the information and energy space, and disturbing the mental state of the population. .
beam weapon- this is a set of devices (generators), the damaging effect of which is based on the use of highly directed beams of electromagnetic energy or a concentrated beam of elementary particles accelerated to high speeds. The damaging effect of the laser beam is achieved by heating the materials of the object to high temperatures, leading to their melting. The action of the laser beam is distinguished by stealth, high accuracy, straightness of propagation, and almost instant action.
RF weapons- means, the damaging effect of which is based on the use of electromagnetic radiation of ultra-high (UHF) or extremely low frequencies (the range of ultra-high frequencies is in the range from 300 MHz to 30 GHz, frequencies below 100 Hz are extremely low).
The object of defeat by radio-frequency weapons is manpower, which means the known ability of ultra-high and extremely low frequency radio emissions to cause damage to vital organs and systems of a person - such as the brain, heart, central nervous system, endocrine system and circulatory system.
Radio frequency radiation can also affect the human psyche, disrupt the perception and use of information about the surrounding reality, cause auditory hallucinations, synthesize disorienting speech messages that are entered directly into the human mind,
Geophysical weapons- a set of various means that make it possible to use the destructive forces of inanimate nature for military purposes by artificially induced changes in the physical properties and processes occurring in the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere of the Earth.
The possibility of a large-scale change in the temperature regime is being studied by spraying substances that absorb solar radiation, reducing the amount of precipitation, calculated on unfavorable weather changes for the enemy (for example, drought). Destruction of the ozone layer in the atmosphere can presumably make it possible to direct the destructive action of cosmic rays and ultraviolet radiation of the sun into areas occupied by the enemy.
Weather weapon was used during the Vietnam War in the form of seeding supercooled clouds with silver iodide microcrystals. The purpose of this type of weapon is to purposefully influence the weather in order to reduce the enemy's ability to meet his needs for food and other types of agricultural products.
climate weapon is a means of influencing the local or global climate of the planet for military purposes and is intended for long-term changes in the characteristic weather patterns in certain territories. Even small climate changes can seriously affect the economy and living conditions of entire regions - lead to a decrease in the yield of the most important agricultural crops, a sharp increase in the incidence of the population.
Currently, methods (by conducting underground explosions) of artificial initiation of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunami waves, avalanches, mudflows and landslides, and other natural disasters that can lead to massive losses among the population have been theoretically substantiated.
Conclusion:
Knowledge of the features of modern wars and conflicts, as well as the types and damaging factors of means of armed struggle, can help medical specialists in a number of specialties to better understand the features of combat trauma, the mechanism of its occurrence and indicate the further direction in the development of medical science aimed at saving the lives of people injured in wars and wars. armed conflicts.
test questions
1. The main goal of the development of the military organization of the state.
2. Basic principles for the development of the military organization of the state.
3. The main priorities for the development of the military organization of the state.
4. The main directions of development of the military organization of the state.
5. The structure of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
6. Basic principles for ensuring the military security of the Russian Federation.
7. The purpose of the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
8. Definition of local war.
9. Definition of a regional war.
10. Definition of a large-scale war.
11. Conventional weapons, types of conventional weapons.
12. Characteristics and purpose of cluster and cumulative munitions.
13. Characteristics and purpose of concrete-piercing ammunition. fourteen.
14. Characteristics and purpose of volume explosion ammunition,
15. Characteristics and purpose of precision weapons, types of precision weapons.
16. Brief description of nuclear weapons, their purpose, varieties of nuclear weapons.
17. Damaging factors of a nuclear explosion.
18. Biological (bacteriological) weapons, their purpose, methods of application.
19. Formulations (pathogens) used as biological weapons.
20. The focus of bacteriological infection. Anti-epidemic measures carried out in the focus of bacteriological infection.
21. Definition and concept of observation and quarantine.
22. Non-lethal weapons, their types.
23. Beam weapon, its types.
24. Geophysical weapons,
25. Meteorological and climatic weapons.
Literature
Mobilization preparation of health care. Tutorial. Ed. Pogodina Yu.I. - M. 2006.
Organization of the medical service of civil defense of the Russian Federation. Textbook. Ed. Pogodina Yu.I., Trifonova S.V. - M. 2002.
Mobilization preparation of the economy of the Russian Federation. Textbook. Vorobyov Yu.L. - M. 1997.
Russia (USSR) in local wars and armed conflicts in the second half of the 20th century. Zolotarev V.A. - M. 2000.