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Modern Battlefields Need NCOs — And Russia Doesn’t Have Any
Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) are the ‘secret sauce’ that makes America’s military lethal on the battlefield.
Within many modern militaries, servicemembers are divided into officers (those with at least a 4-year degree) and enlisted (those with a high school diploma — although many enlisted have degrees also).
The Russian military is also broken down into officers and enlisted.
However, the U.S. has something that the Russian military doesn’t — NCOs who act as ‘middle managers’ to whom the officers can delegate leadership.
In the U.S., NCOs — enlisted servicemembers at or above the rank of Army and Marine corporal, Air Force staff sergeant, and Navy petty officer — are trusted experts who execute officers’ battlefield orders and take care of the troops.
It works like this: An infantry officer orders a U.S. Army unit to take an enemy airfield. The details of how to take the airfield, as well as how to deal with unexpected roadblocks, fall to the enlisted NCOs.
This frees up the officers to think about strategy, while the NCOs think about execution.
NCOs have tremendous decision-making power on the battlefield. Mission command is pushed to the lowest rank possible.
