After-action reviews should become standard for evaluating commanders, - Butusov
The assessment of military commanders’ effectiveness in combat conditions cannot be based on personal impressions or formal criteria, but must be determined solely by the results of completed tasks and a systematic analysis of the units’ actions.
According to Censor.NET, Yurii Butusov, commander of the unmanned systems platoon of the ‘Khartiia’ brigade, spoke about this in the ‘Tuzov’s Move’ project.
"It is only possible to say objectively which commander is competent and which is not after they have carried out a specific combat mission, following which an objective analysis is conducted of the resources expended, personnel deployed, enemy losses incurred, and territory gained, held or lost," the military officer noted.
Butusov emphasisedthat an important tool for such an assessment is the after-action review procedure, which is standard practice in the armies of NATO countries.
"Then, by analysing the actions of various commanders, especially over a period of time, you can say that this person is effective, efficient and competent," he noted.
The problem of implementing NATO standards
He added that, at present, it is objectively impossible to establish this.
"And one of the main problems facing the Ukrainian Defence Forces is that we are only joining NATO in name," emphasised the commander of the unmanned systems platoon.
Despite political statements about a course towards NATO, the Alliance’s key management procedures have not actually been implemented.
"Ranks have been renamed; in headquarters, the old Soviet titles for officials have been replaced with Western-style designations such as C1, C2, C3. All this is in place, but there are no real structural changes that would correspond to the principles and procedures of NATO forces. That is why the results are what they are, and that is why it is difficult to say," added Butusov.
Separately, the military officer drew attention to the problem of vertical rotation of commanders. According to him, a successful commander at company level will not necessarily be effective at battalion or brigade level due to the different levels of responsibility and management requirements.
"Everyone says that war provides combat experience. But in reality, the problem is that war provides not only positive combat experience, but negative combat experience as well. And that is also a problem. Therefore, if you want to stay ahead, if you want to improve the quality of command, you need to introduce objective criteria for evaluating commanders," he emphasised.
