Military role-playing games of the Russian General Staff
Russiaʼs main war games are held in a secret bunker under the General Staff Academy in Moscow. Imagine a huge hall without a single window, which looks more like a movie theater or a command center from a science fiction movie.
Instead of spectator seats, there are work consoles, behind which dozens of Russian generals and colonels sit in rows. Each sector is assigned to a separate branch of the military: tankers, pilots, paratroopers, signalmen.
On the screen is a giant digital map. Troops move on it in real time, burning battle markers appear, and routes are calculated. Judges sit in separate places, and silence reigns in the hall itself, broken only by the hum of computers and dry reports from the military into microphones.
More than a thousand officers participate in such a game — some sit in this bunker, and the rest connect via special communication from all over Russia.
The main brain center of these simulations is the Academyʼs Center for Military Strategic Studies, whose analysts develop scenarios and enter tasks for the participants.
It is in this hall that Russian generals play out military scenarios on cards. Former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (center) and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov in the hall during a war game, February 2021. Military Academy of the General Staff in Moscow.
«Звезда»; Facebook / Міністерство оборони росії; Wikimedia
The rules are as follows: the military is divided into two teams. The “blue” are the Russians, and the “red” are the enemy.
The role of the enemy is usually played by experienced academy teachers who know well how NATO armies fight. A judge intervenes in the process: he raises problems (for example, reports that the “blue” have lost contact or the enemy has launched a nuclear strike). The computer immediately counts the losses and displays a new picture on the screen.
At the end, the analysis of the flights begins, which is personally conducted by the Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov analyzes the results of the war game.
«Звезда»
For years, Russians have been practicing for war with potential adversaries on these maps. In 2017, one scenario featured the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, and the Kaliningrad region was a key part of Russia’s military presence in the region.
In 2018, the Russians conducted a simulated war against the United States and Japan, with more than 320 000 virtual soldiers “fighting” on screens.
A still from a story on the Russian TV channel "Zvezda". The editors forgot to cover up the screens of the staff game at the Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Federation. Because of this mistake, the inscriptions "OSK VVO" and "TOF" (Pacific Fleet) appeared on the air, which revealed that the generals were training to lead the troops of the Eastern Military District. On the large screen and monitors of the game participants, maps of the Japanese prefectures of Hokkaido and Aomori and the island of Okushiri are visible. Key US and Japanese military bases are located there — it was from there that the Russian generals planned the "attack" in the scenario. Russian generals during another game in March 2017. On the screen behind them is a map with military plans. The screen is not in the frame, but the map is visible in the reflection of the glass door.
Центр «Досье» / Бабель
In addition to fictional future wars, Russians also transfer the experience of real ones to their maps. The most striking example is Syria. After the start of the Russian operation in 2015, the military tested new weapons and tactics there, and then began to reproduce the lessons learned in war game scenarios.
The Syrian war gradually became a kind of template for generals: if certain solutions worked there, they were laid down in subsequent war games. However, this did not work with the war in Ukraine.
A war game only works when its participants honestly assess themselves and the enemy.
“Any war goes wrong from the first shot,” says military analyst David Sharp.
According to him, a properly constructed game helps predict what might happen on the battlefield. But if commanders wishful thinking is the answer, scenarios in which they would lose simply don’t appear on the map.
This is especially important for the Russian army. In an authoritarian system, a commander may be afraid to bring bad news to his superiors (for example, to say that the enemy is stronger than he would like).
In addition, the military bases its calculations on intelligence and special services data, which can also be erroneous or deliberately distorted. As a result, a convenient picture of the war is formed at the top, which they then begin to play in simulations.
This seems to be what happened to Ukraine. In February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion, but the quick scenario failed. What was supposed to be a victorious operation turned into a protracted war. And the Russian General Staff had to sit down at the cards again.
Former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Vladimir Putin and Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov at a Defense Ministry meeting in Moscow, December 21, 2022.
Getty Images / «Babel'»
In the spring of 2022, he held two large command and staff games at once. The first ended on April 4. Almost 1 300 students and teachers from 15 military academies took part in it. They tried to make the situation as close to real as possible, and the participants were forced to look for non-standard ways of using troops. A week later, another game was held at the General Staff Academy — officers and generals were divided into two teams, each representing a separate combined arms army.
This time, the Russians were already playing the war they had seen in Ukraine. The scenario did not have the usual continuous front line. They took into account the actions of Special Operations Forces and foreign mercenaries, as well as cities that the Russian troops could not capture and left behind.
By the end of 2022, the experience of the first months of the war had already begun to be incorporated into new Russian war games. They were held at the War Games Center at the General Staff Academy, one of the academy’s most closed and technologically advanced facilities.
Scenarios for the most important games were developed by decision of the Minister of Defense or the Chief of the General Staff, and sometimes, as the Russian military themselves put it, “according to the plans of the Russian President”.
Russian wargame system
In Russian war games, a virtual battlefield is first created, combat scenarios are then played out on it, and the results are evaluated at the end. To do this, “Iris-T” creates a three-dimensional model of the terrain, “TEST” and “Kolodyaz 3D” allow the military to operate in it, and Spektr-7E helps the command plan the battle and analyze its course.
Letʼs start with “Iris-T”. It is this one who creates the virtual world in which the game takes place. Its presentation video looks like a trailer for a computer game: first the Earth appears, then a virtual training ground is created on the selected area — with relief, trees, clouds, and sunlight.
And then soldiers, tanks, planes, and ships appear on it. The slogan of the video sounds accordingly: "Every step is calculated."
Presentation video "Iris-T".
“Iris-T” transforms the Ministry of Defense’s digital maps, aerial photography, and satellite imagery into a 3D virtual battlefield. The system was developed by Russian technology company “RosBITEch”, a major contractor for the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and FSB.
“RosBITEch” is best known for its Astra Linux operating system, which is used by Russian security forces. However, the company has created much more for the Russian army. It has become one of the key technology suppliers for the War Games Center.
By 2017, “RosBITEch” had developed a system to automate the Centerʼs work, after which it began hosting games with the participation of over a thousand officers. The company has created an entire ecosystem of military simulators.
For example, “TEST” is a virtual shooting range where soldiers shoot from mock-ups of assault rifles, machine guns, rifles, and even grenade launchers. Instead of real bullets, there is a laser beam, and instead of targets, there are digital soldiers and tanks.
The TEST simulator has a wide range of small arms, from pistols to hand-held rocket launchers.
«Русбитех»
The “Kolodyaz 3D” simulator simulates the cockpit of a tank or helicopter. The soldier sits inside a mock-up of a real machine, and around him on a cylindrical screen with a 360-degree view, a virtual battlefield unfolds.
All these systems were conceived as parts of one large digital environment. “Iris-T” shows a virtual battlefield, “TEST” and “Kolodyaz 3D” allow the military to operate in it, and the main system that unites all this is “Spektr-7E”.
The first version of "Spektr-7E" was created by "RosBITEkh" back in 2009. The idea was simple — to give Russian generals the opportunity to play out war on a computer, and to come up with different plans, launch them and see what happens.
The finished system was presented in December 2010 at the Academy of the General Staff.
Simulation of combat operations in the villages of the Yaroslavl region of Russia.
«Русбитех»
“RosBITEch” calls “Spectrum” a universal system for war games. It can simulate combat on various terrains and involve land, sea, air, and even space forces. By 2021, the system had approximately five thousand digital models of weapons, military equipment, units, and various objects.
It works something like this. The generals first create several versions of their plan in “Spectrum”. Then other military personnel try to execute it — on special simulators they control tanks, helicopters, and shoot weapons. All this takes place on one virtual battlefield.
“Iris-T” is responsible for the picture: it shows how the battle develops in three-dimensional space. Commanders can monitor it in real time and change the situation. Spectrum records what the participants did, and then shows the result.
The same battle can be played several times, each time changing the decision.
First, the generals at Spectrum develop several variants of the military plan on a special topographic map.
How Ukraine and the West are playing this game now
War games have long been used by armies of different countries. But after the outbreak of full-scale war, NATO changed its focus: instead of operations outside the Alliance, it is increasingly preparing for a major war in Europe. Russia has become the main adversary in such scenarios.
This is evident from recent games. At the end of 2025, NATO spent a week practicing a large-scale attack on the Alliance countries at a cyber training ground near Tallinn: cyberattacks on military systems, satellite internet, and energy were accompanied by a military invasion.
The aggressor was the fictional country of Harbadus, but the organizers made it clear that they meant Russia. In another game, held in Germany, Russian troops introduced 15 000 virtual soldiers into Lithuania. The German team did not open fire, and Russia won.
These are the results we need from a wargame: they show what can happen if events go badly.
NATO militaries discuss how to deter threats and defend the Euro-Atlantic space.
One of NATOʼs main tricks is to give some of its participants the role of the enemy. They study its tactics and try to act as the enemy would act. This way, the Alliance tests its own decisions and assesses where it might be vulnerable.
The results of such games, along with other calculations, are also used to assess how quickly Russia could be ready for war with NATO.
Ukraine in this system has something that no simulation can give — the experience of a real war with Russia. Ukrainian military personnel participate in joint games with allies and help recreate the modern battlefield: using drones, reconnaissance, electronic warfare and other technologies.
To systematize this experience, a joint NATO-Ukraine center, JATEC, operates in Bydgoszcz, Poland. It analyzes the course of the war and transmits the conclusions to the Alliance for military training and planning.
At the same time, Ukraine uses wargames for its own operations. After 2022, Ukrainian and Western military personnel in Wiesbaden played out future combat scenarios: teams took turns making decisions, reacting to enemy actions, and adjusting the plan.
According to open data, this is how the Armed Forces of Ukraine prepared at least two major operations — the liberation of the Kherson region in the fall of 2022 and the offensive in the south in 2023.
For this, the NATO software, “Excel”, and even ordinary chips on the map were used.
Joint war games between Ukraine and NATO.
Now, artificial intelligence is being actively added to wargaming. NATO uses it to predict and speed up decision-making. Russia also claims to be automating war games.
The Alliance emphasizes that the final decision remains with humans.