Lecture
Objective: to build students' knowledge of the main dangers of a military nature and their characteristic features, and of the main measures for preparing for, and carrying out, the protection of the population from dangers arising from the conduct of military operations.
At the present stage, the aim of state policy in the field of protecting the population and territories from emergency situations is to ensure a guaranteed level of security for the individual, society and the state within the limits of scientifically substantiated criteria of acceptable risk.
Military emergency situations –
emergency situations connected with the conduct of military operations, or arising as a consequence of such operations.
Emergency situations connected with the conduct of military operations are classified by nature as:
War - is armed conflict between states (their coalitions) or between social, ethnic and other communities.
War, as a means of destroying members of one's own species, is unique to humans among all the representatives of the biosphere.
Throughout human history there has been much bloodshed in the name of a particular idea: religious, universal happiness and brotherhood, the wholesale plundering of neighbours, or the conquest of territory. This is attested by events in Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, the crusades and the Inquisition, and revolutions.
Throughout the whole of human history, from 3500 BC to the present day, only 292 years have passed without wars. During this time almost 15,000 wars have taken place, in which 3 billion 640 million people have died.
It is worth noting that until the beginning of the 19th century, wars, as a rule, were local in nature and did not have a major impact on the environment. After the era of the \"Cold War\" and the confrontation between the two systems, nuclear disarmament and the signing of a number of treaties on the destruction of nuclear, bacteriological and chemical weapons that were already morally and physically obsolete, coinciding with the collapse of the USSR, radically changed the system of geopolitical strategy.
According to statistics, it is mainly the civilian population that suffers as a result of military conflicts, and the number of refugees is increasing. According to UN data, their number worldwide exceeds 30 million people, and this figure is growing. It should be noted that military conflicts under present-day conditions can cause far greater losses among the population, various changes in the conditions of its life activity, and a significant drop in the level of production. This is evidenced by the military conflicts and wars that took place on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq.
According to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 10 million people died in the First World War and 20 million were left disabled. More than 50 million people died in the Second World War, and since 1945 up to the present day, more than 25 million people have died as a result of more than 315 local wars and conflicts.
Another trend is also observed – a growth in the number of casualties among the civilian population. Whereas in the First World War military personnel accounted for 95% of the total number killed, and the civilian population 5%, in the Second World War the figures were 50% and 50% respectively; in Korea 9 million people died, of whom 84% were civilians and only 16% military personnel, while during the war in Vietnam the number of civilian deaths exceeded 90%.
Among the factors ensuring life activity under conditions of military conflict, a special place is occupied by the advance preparation of the population for personal protection and the protection of economic facilities, and the maximum weakening of the effects of the damaging factors of modern military equipment. According to experts' conclusions, population losses in large cities can be reduced from 90% to 5-8% if people are evacuated in good time. The reliability of such calculations is also confirmed by expert assessments of contemporary military conflicts.
In recent years there have been significant changes in the world in the military-political and socio-economic spheres. Specialists believe that one of the important features of armed conflict now and in the future is that during wars and military conflicts, not only military facilities and troops but also economic facilities and the civilian population will come under attack. In the opinion of foreign military theorists, the armed forces of the 21st century should be used not so much for conducting traditional military operations as for depriving the enemy of the ability to resist by striking its most important economic and infrastructure facilities. This can be achieved through the extensive use of forces intended for special operations, strikes by air- and sea-launched cruise missiles, and the massed use of electronic warfare equipment. These methods have already been used in practice by the USA and NATO in conducting operations in Iraq and Yugoslavia. In the opinion of experts, military operations will acquire a considerably greater spatial scope and become more fast-moving, though this will not necessarily mean a reduction in the overall duration of hostilities.
When local armed conflicts arise and large-scale wars unfold, the sources of emergency situations of a military nature will be the dangers arising during the conduct of military operations or as a consequence of such operations.
Military danger – a state of interstate and international relations characterised by the threat of war. It is a consequence of the policy of states seeking to achieve economic, political and national goals by means of military force.
Military danger may be: potential and real.
Potential danger arises when political groupings come to power that rely on a forceful solution to existing internal and external problems.
The danger becomes real when these groupings begin to realise their aspirations by preparing the state for war.
Signs of military danger:
firstly, they are planned, prepared and carried out by people, and therefore have a more complex character than natural and technogenic ones;
secondly, the means of destruction are also employed by people, so there is less that is spontaneous and accidental in the realisation of these dangers; weapons are used, as a rule, at the most inopportune moment for the victim of the aggression and at its most vulnerable point;
thirdly, the development of means of attack always outpaces the development of adequate means of protection against their effects, so for a certain period of time they retain superiority;
Table 1
fourthly, the very latest scientific achievements are used to create means of attack, the best specialists are engaged, and the most advanced scientific-industrial base is drawn upon; this means that it is practically impossible to defend against some means of destruction (missile-nuclear weapons);
fifthly, analysis of trends in the evolution of military dangers shows that future wars will increasingly take on a terrorist, inhumane character, with the civilian population of warring countries serving as the object of armed action aimed at undermining the enemy's will and ability to resist.
The source of emergency situations of a military nature will be modern conventional means of destruction, missile and air strikes using precision weapons; the use of nuclear weapons cannot be ruled out either.
Dangers of a military nature will arise from the use of nuclear, chemical, biological and conventional means of destruction.
Depending on the type of weapon of mass destruction used by the enemy, zones and areas of radioactive, chemical and bacteriological contamination may form. Zones of destruction may also arise from the enemy's use of conventional means of destruction.
When two or more types of WMD are used together, a zone of combined destruction is formed.
The primary effects of the damaging factors of WMD and other enemy means of attack can lead to explosions, fires, flooding of terrain and the spread of hazardous chemical substances across it. Secondary damaging factors are formed as a result.
Nuclear weapons are today the most powerful means of mass destruction. The damaging factors of this weapon are – the shock wave, light radiation, penetrating radiation, radioactive contamination and electromagnetic pulse.
In terms of the scale and nature of its effect, nuclear weaponry differs substantially from other means of armed conflict. The practically simultaneous action of its damaging factors accounts for the combined nature of its effect on people, equipment and structures.
Chemical weapons are also one of the types of weapons of mass destruction. Their damaging effect is based on the use of combat toxic chemical substances (CTCS). Combat toxic chemical substances include chemical warfare agents and toxins that have a damaging effect on the human and animal organism, as well as phytotoxicants, which can be used to destroy various types of vegetation.
A variant of chemical weapons is binary chemical munitions. These munitions are based on the principle of dispensing with a ready-made toxic product and transferring the final stage of the technological process of producing the chemical warfare agent into the munition itself. This stage takes place within a short interval of time after the projectile is fired (the missile is launched, or the bomb is dropped). During this time, the devices isolating the individually safe components of the agent are destroyed within the munition, and the components are intensively mixed, which promotes the rapid course of the reaction forming the toxic substance.
The use of chemical weapons can result in severe ecological and genetic consequences, the elimination of which will require a long time and great effort.
Bacteriological weapons – these are biological agents (bacteria, viruses, rickettsiae, fungi and the toxic products of their vital activity) disseminated by means of live infected disease vectors (rodents, insects) or in the form of powders and suspensions, with the aim of causing mass illness among people, farm animals and plants.
The causative agents of various particularly dangerous infectious diseases may be used as bacteriological agents: plague, anthrax, brucellosis, glanders, tularaemia, cholera, yellow and other types of fever, spring-summer encephalitis, typhus and typhoid, influenza, malaria, dysentery, and smallpox.
Bacteriological weapons have certain features that distinguish them from other means of destruction.
These include:
Conventional means of destruction include fire and strike weapons employing artillery, anti-aircraft, aviation, small-arms and engineer munitions equipped with conventional explosive, precision weapons, fuel-air explosive munitions, incendiary mixtures and substances, as well as certain newer types of weapons (infrasonic, radiological, laser).
Among precision-guided means of destruction, cruise missiles occupy a special place. These missiles are fitted with a complex combined guidance system that directs them onto their targets along pre-prepared flight maps, including at low altitudes, which makes them harder to detect and multiplies the probability of hitting the target. Guided aerial bombs, and reconnaissance-strike, anti-aircraft and anti-tank missile systems are also precision weapons.
Fuel-air explosive munitions have become widespread in recent times. The operating principle of such munitions (vacuum bombs) is based on the detonation of a fuel-air mixture. Their main damaging factor is the shock wave, the power of which is several times greater than the energy of the explosion of a conventional explosive. In addition, the temperature at detonation reaches 2500–3000 °C. As a result, a lifeless space roughly the size of a football field is formed at the site of the explosion.
The damaging effect of incendiary weapons is based on the direct effect on humans of the high temperatures generated by the combustion of incendiary substances and mixtures. Incendiary weapons are divided into incendiary mixtures (napalms), metallised incendiary mixtures based on petroleum products (pyrogel), thermite and thermite compositions, and white phosphorus.
During the conduct of military operations, or as a consequence of such operations, emergency situations may arise that vary in their nature and scale of effect.
Dangers connected with a threat to the life of the population may arise both directly from the enemy's use of weapons of mass destruction and from secondary damaging factors (accidents at explosion- and fire-hazardous facilities, accidents at nuclear power plants, etc.).
The following types of emergency situation resulting from military operations are distinguished:
Technogenic emergency situations are created by explosions, fires, collapses, releases of chemical and radioactive substances, destruction, cave-ins, etc.
Fires. In most cases, combustion occurs as a result of an exothermic interaction between a substance capable of burning (fuel) and an oxidiser (oxygen in the air, nitrous oxide, chlorine, etc.). The possible causes of fires may include: arson; the thermal effect on objects of light and incendiary weapons.
The main damaging factors of fires are:
Secondary consequences of fires may include explosions and the leakage of toxic or polluting substances into the environment. A severe social and economic consequence of a fire is the cessation of the facility's economic or other production functions.
Preventive measures for ensuring fire safety include:
Explosions. An explosion – a process of extremely rapid release of a large amount of energy in a confined volume, capable of causing casualties, destruction, disasters and technogenic accidents, as well as emergency situations. It occurs as a result of the release of chemical or intranuclear energy, or the conversion of electrical, nuclear and kinetic energy into heat.
At explosion-hazardous facilities, the following may occur: the formation of clouds of chemical gaseous and dust-like substances capable of exploding; explosions of pipelines and reservoirs of liquefied hydrocarbon gas.
The main damaging factors of an explosion are:
As a result of the action of the damaging factors of an explosion, the destruction or damage of buildings, structures, process equipment, vehicles, elements of communications and other facilities occurs, along with the death or injury of people.
Secondary consequences of explosions include the outbreak of fires, the leakage of hazardous substances from damaged equipment, and thermal and mechanical injuries to people.
Methods of protection against explosions include:
Emergency situations of an ecological nature, connected with the disruption of economic activity and ecological balance as a result of the pollution of water sources and the atmosphere with chemically and radiologically hazardous substances, and the death of vegetation over a wide area.
Socio-economic emergency situations, connected with the intimidation of the population and creating a danger of loss of life and the infliction of significant material damage.
Biological-social emergency situations, connected with mass infectious diseases among people, agricultural plants and animals, arising from the use of biological weapons and as a consequence of the occurrence of emergency situations of an ecological and technogenic nature.
Measures for preparing for protection against emergency situations are carried out in advance, taking into account possible dangers and threats.
Advance information makes it possible to carry out preventive work, bring forces and resources to readiness, and explain to people the rules of conduct.
Public warning – informing the population about the dangers arising during the conduct of military operations or as a consequence of such operations.
The absence or shortage of information promotes the emergence of rumours and false reports, and stories from «eyewitnesses» appear. All of this is fertile ground for the emergence of panic. And panic can bring considerably more negative consequences than the natural disaster or accident itself.
It is even more important that the information given to the population be correctly understood, and that reasonable conclusions be drawn from it.
Various means and methods of warning are used: circular-call stands (simultaneous calling of, and transmission to, telephone-exchange subscribers of a message recorded on magnetic media); electric sirens; wire-broadcasting networks; radio broadcasting stations and television centres;
The main method of warning the population in emergency situations is the transmission of spoken information using wired, radio and television broadcasting networks. To attract the population's attention before the spoken information is transmitted, sirens, factory horns and other signalling devices are activated, which signifies the issuing of the warning signal «Attention everyone!», on hearing which the population is obliged to switch on radio, wire-broadcasting and television receivers to listen to the emergency message and to act in accordance with the recommendations given in the official's spoken address.
For each type of emergency situation, the structural subdivisions of the executive authorities responsible for handling tasks in the field of civil defence and the protection of the population and territories from emergency situations prepare versions of text messages tailored to their specific conditions. They forecast (model) in advance both likely natural disasters and possible accidents and catastrophes.
Only after this can a text be drawn up that corresponds to the actual conditions.
Evacuation as a method of protecting the population has been used for a long time. It reached a particularly large scale during the years of the Great Patriotic War. Factories, along with their workers, employees and families, were evacuated from the European part of the country. During July-November 1941, more than 1,500 industrial enterprises were relocated to the deep rear. The evacuation from besieged Leningrad, along the sole route – the ice Road of Life across Lake Ladoga – was a special case. Children, women, and elderly and sick people were evacuated first.
The practice of contemporary life shows that the population is increasingly exposed to dangers as a result of natural disasters, accidents and catastrophes. Under these conditions, the role of civil defence, and now of the RSChS (Unified State System for the Prevention and Elimination of Emergency Situations), has grown considerably. This system is designed to protect the population in any circumstances, in any critical situation, seeking to minimise people's suffering and hardship as far as possible.
Evacuation is divided into evacuation under peacetime emergency conditions and evacuation in wartime.
In wartime, evacuation and dispersal are carried out.
Evacuation of the population - is a set of measures for the organised transporting, by all available means of transport, and the organised movement on foot, of the population out of rated cities, and its accommodation in a rural (out-of-town) zone.
Subject to evacuation are the workers and employees, together with the non-working members of their families, of economic facilities whose activity, in accordance with mobilisation plans, does not cease in wartime and can be continued at a new base corresponding to their production profile and located in the rural zone; the essential equipment and documents without which activity cannot be resumed at the new base; the workers and employees, together with the non-working members of their families, of economic facilities that cease their activity in wartime; and also the able-bodied population not employed in production.
Dispersal - is a set of measures for the organised transporting (movement) out of rated cities, and accommodation in a rural (out-of-town) zone for residence and rest, of the workers and employees of economic facilities whose production activity will continue in those cities in wartime.
Subject to dispersal are the workers and employees:
· of unique (specialised) economic facilities for which the corresponding production bases are absent in the rural zone or are located in rated cities;
· of organisations ensuring the production and life-support activity of facilities in rated cities (municipal power networks, public utility facilities, public catering, healthcare, transport and communications, state authority bodies, local self-government bodies).
The number of people subject to evacuation is determined each time by the local authorities, taking into account the recommendations of the civil defence and emergency situations agencies, based on the conditions, nature and scale of the emergency situation. The relevant officials should bear in mind that evacuation also applies to the population living in zones of possible catastrophic flooding, that is, in territory where flooding could cause the destruction of buildings and structures, loss of life, failure of the main equipment of industrial enterprises, and destruction of other material assets. However, this population is moved only a short distance - to settlements located near such zones.
During evacuation in wartime, people are transported (moved) to the rural (out-of-town) zone, that is, to those districts and settlements where continued residence poses no danger. Their distance may vary considerably, from tens of kilometres to hundreds. The districts (settlements) where the evacuated population is housed are, as a rule, located near railways and highways and river landings. Families are not split up but are transported together, and are also resettled as a single group in the homes of local residents, in public buildings (clubs, schools, tourist and sports centres, rest homes, boarding houses and sanatoriums).
Under present-day conditions, the speed of evacuation is of particular importance. For this purpose, not just one type of transport may be used, but the whole range of them, that is, in combination.
The combined method provides for both the transport of the population by road, rail and water transport, and mass evacuation on foot. Transport is used for those who cannot move independently (the elderly, disabled persons, the sick, pregnant women, women with children under 10 years of age). The rest of the healthy population is evacuated on foot.
The evacuation of workers, employees and their family members is planned and carried out by the resources of the enterprises. The evacuation of the population not connected with production is carried out at the place of residence, through housing administrations and various other housing maintenance organisations. Children are usually evacuated together with their parents, but in special cases educational institutions and kindergartens are evacuated independently.
Evacuation is organised by the heads of city and district administrations and the heads of enterprises, organisations and institutions.
To ensure the organised conduct of evacuation, evacuation commissions are set up at enterprises, organisations and institutions. They keep records of the number of workers, employees and their family members subject to evacuation. They draw up documents and liaise with the district (city) evacuation commissions and the bodies set up by them.
The evacuation bodies include:
Assembly evacuation point (AEP) - intended for the assembly, registration and organised dispatch of the population. When people are transported by rail or water transport, AEPs are located near stations, ports (landings) and at enterprises that have their own access tracks. When the population is transported by road, the AEP is located on or near the territory of those facilities whose workers and employees are to travel by that transport. Each AEP is assigned a sequential number, and the nearest institutions and organisations are attached to it.
Reception evacuation points (REP) - set up to meet people arriving in the rural zone, to register them and house them in the final settlements.
Intermediate evacuation points (IEP) - designated for the population evacuated on foot, when the final resettlement points are significantly remote from the city. They are located in settlements situated along the routes of movement. From there the population continues on foot or is transported further.
Local medical institutions are used to assist the sick, as well as the medical personnel who must be attached to the column.
Boarding points are organised at railway stations and platforms, in ports and at landings, and at the access tracks of enterprises. Boarding points for road transport are set up, as a rule, directly at the AEP.
Alighting points are located near the places where the evacuated population is to be housed.
Upon learning of the evacuation, citizens must immediately prepare to leave. Take with you only the most essential items: personal documents (passport, military ID, marriage certificate, children's birth certificates, pension certificate, money), food for 2-3 days and drinking water, clothing, footwear (including warm footwear), toiletries, underwear, and bedding in case of a lengthy stay in the rural zone. Of the food items, one should take those that can be stored: canned goods, concentrates, smoked products, dry biscuits, cookies, cheese, sugar, etc. Drinking water should be poured into a flask, thermos or bottle with a stopper. It is advisable to have a mug, cup, spoon, penknife, matches and a pocket torch.
When preparing for evacuation, you need to prepare footwear that will not chafe your feet and that is suitable for the season. If travelling to the rural zone by transport, belongings and food can be packed into suitcases, bags and rucksacks. But if you have to go on foot, pack everything into a rucksack or kitbag. Attach a tag to each item indicating your surname, initials, home address and the final evacuation destination. In this case there is a greater chance that the suitcase or rucksack will not be lost. Pre-school children should have tags sewn onto their clothing and underwear indicating the child's surname, first name and patronymic, year of birth, place of permanent residence and the final evacuation destination.
Before leaving the apartment, you must turn off all lighting and heating appliances, close the taps of the water and gas supply networks, and close the windows and vents. Switch on the security alarm (if there is one), and lock the apartment with all the locks. If the family has elderly or sick members who cannot be evacuated together with the rest of the family members, this should be reported to the head of the AEP so that the necessary measures can be taken.
By the appointed time, citizens being transported to the rural zone arrive with their belongings at the AEP. Here the evacuees undergo registration. After this they are assigned to railway carriages, motor vehicles or vessels and await boarding. At the appointed time people are led to the boarding points.
For transporting the population by rail and waterways, not only passenger transport is used, but also freight cars, cargo vessels and barges. More densely packed loading of carriages is provided for, as well as an increase in the length of the train.
When transporting people by road, in addition to buses, trucks and trailers adapted for this purpose are used. The use of private transport is not excluded. All vehicles travel not separately but in a column, and, where possible, with a traffic police escort.
The evacuation of the population on foot is carried out mainly along roads, and in certain cases along road verges and marked routes off the roads. Columns are formed at enterprises (in institutions, at the place of residence). Their numbers may vary considerably. For ease of management the column is divided into parts - workshop teams and other production units - and within each of these it is further divided into groups of 20-30 people. A leader is appointed for each column, and a senior person for each group. The average speed of movement is taken as no more than 4 km/h. Every 1-1.5 hours of movement, a short halt of 10-15 minutes is provided for, and after the second half of the march a long halt of 1-2 hours. The entire march ends with arrival at the final evacuation point.
During the march, evacuees must observe the established order: carry out all commands and instructions of the column leader and the group senior. Do not leave the column without permission. Do not drink water from sources that have not been checked by the medical service. When moving at night, make sure that neighbours in the column do not fall behind, and that at halts they do not fall asleep. In winter, watch for signs of frostbite in yourself and your neighbours. Do not lie down on the snow during halts. If you feel unwell, contact the medical worker accompanying the column.
On arrival at the destination, everyone undergoes organised registration at the REP and, accompanied by seniors, disperses to the streets and houses. New arrivals do not have the right, without the permission of the local evacuation authorities, to choose places of residence on their own or to move from one settlement to another. Medical and everyday services are organised in the rural zone. Children are placed in schools and kindergartens as necessary. Supply of food and essential items is carried out through the state and cooperative trade network, as for the local population.
Organisation of engineering protection of the population
Civil defence protective structures are intended to protect the population, equipment and material assets from the effects of the enemy's modern weapons of destruction.
Civil defence protective structures are divided, according to their purpose and protective properties, into shelters, fallout shelters and simple shelters.
Provision of personal protective equipment
Respiratory protective equipment includes: gas masks, respirators, anti-dust fabric masks and cotton-gauze masks.
Sanitary treatment – the mechanical cleaning and washing of the skin and mucous membranes of people who have been contaminated by radioactive, hazardous chemical and biological substances, as well as the decontamination of their clothing and footwear when leaving the zone of the emergency situation. It includes washing under a shower with warm water and soap, with prior decontamination of exposed areas of skin, the issuing of clean underwear, and the disinfection of contaminated clothing, footwear, equipment and personal protective equipment. Compliance with the rules and methods of sanitary treatment reliably protects a person and eliminates the threat to their health and life.
from contamination by radioactive substances, chemical warfare agents and bacterial agents.
Protection of food supplies: Main measures:
-engineering equipment of food warehouses and depots, siting them away from possible targets of nuclear, chemical and biological attack;
-dispersal of food stocks, transporting them in specially equipped vehicles (railway cars) using protective containers, packaging and coverings;
-decontamination (neutralisation) of food and food raw materials by means of deactivation, degassing and disinfection.
Protection of water and water sources:
Protection of water and water sources is ensured by measures carried out in peacetime. Underground water sources are prepared for centralised supply. At surface water sources, treatment facilities are brought to readiness for operation under conditions of contamination; reservoirs for treated water are buried, fitted with absorption filters and sealed. Bypass pipelines are prepared in the water supply network. Water sources are constantly guarded, and water samples are regularly sent for laboratory analysis to sanitary-epidemiological units.
Under conditions of wartime emergency situations, in order to reduce sanitary losses, the provision of first aid on a self-help and mutual-help basis, as well as the use of medical protective equipment by the population and rescuers, in the shortest possible time after the occurrence of areas of traumatic, radioactive, chemical or biological destruction, is of particular importance.
The main requirements for medical protective equipment for supplying the population and the personnel of units engaged in emergency rescue and other urgent work are:
Standard-issue personal medical protective equipment includes: individual first-aid kit (type AI-4); individual anti-chemical packet (type IPP-11); individual dressing packet (type IPP-1);75 sanitary bag.
1.When are measures for preparing to protect the population carried out?
2.What danger do armed conflicts pose to the civilian population today?
3. Name the main sources of emergency situations of a military nature.
4. What types of weapons of mass destruction do you know? Briefly characterise each of them.
5. What means of destruction are classified as conventional weapons?
6. Justify the need to improve the civil defence system for protecting the population under present-day conditions.
7.To attract the attention of the working personnel of enterprises (organisations, institutions) and the population before the transmission of voice information, sirens, factory whistles and other signalling devices are activated. What does this mean?
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