Kathrine Frich
The exercises take place inside an underground command facility at the Russian General Staff’s Military Academy
Long before troops step onto a real battlefield, military commanders gather in dark rooms to test their strategies against digital enemies.
These high-tech simulations are supposed to prepare armies for every possible crisis.
Yet even the most complex virtual war games can fall apart when real bullets start flying.
Digital war games
Russian generals spent years rehearsing potential wars with NATO using secret computer simulations. An investigation by the Dossier Center revealed that top officers began running these high-tech games no later than 2017.
The exercises take place inside an underground command facility at the Russian General Staff’s Military Academy near Moscow. Up to 50 senior commanders gather in a single session, directing virtual fleets, air defense units, and submarine operations.
Large digital screens display real-time maps while computers calculate casualties, troop movements, and defense penetration depths. Some sessions last just hours, while others stretch across several days.
Mapping global targets
In March 2017, senior officers ran a multiday simulation in the Baltic Sea. According to the Kyiv Post, investigators spotted a map marking Gotland, a strategically vital Swedish island that Stockholm later remilitarized.
A much larger simulation took place the following year with more than 900 officers taking part. Participants controlled around 320,000 virtual troops while screens displayed strategic targets in northern Japan, including air bases hosting American forces.
The simulation even featured three-dimensional models of American reconnaissance aircraft carrying NATO markings. Investigators concluded that NATO and its regional partners clearly acted as the opposing team during these high-stakes sessions.
Flawed predictions
By 2021, commanders were ordered to run these war games every single month. Yet despite all the secret preparation, the digital models completely failed to predict the real-world disasters Moscow encountered after invading Ukraine.
“Any war departs from the plan from the first shot,” military analyst David Sharp told Dossier Center.
Experts say officers in authoritarian systems rarely test worst-case scenarios because leaders expect positive reports. Russian commanders also relied heavily on tactics honed in Syria, assuming air strikes would easily clear the path forward.
When Ukrainian air defenses held firm, the virtual plan instantly collapsed. Following the failed push toward Kyiv, Moscow updated its simulations to reflect urban resistance and broken front lines.
Sources: Kyiv Post, Dossier Center
