Originally Posted by
etudiant
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The lesson learned by the Russians will surely included much more emphasis on planning secrecy, as well as better monitoring of the surrounding air space.
Not sure it is relevant or applicable in the considered case.
As far as I read, there were two (or more) mobs fighting for oil-rich locations in Syria. One mob hired Russian mercenaries (or volunteers, whatever) who were recruited on an individual basis by the Wagner company. They are poorly equiped thus "monitoring of the air space" is not applicable here at all. Regarding tactics, their punpkin-headed client simply commanded "go and fight" so they quickly found themselves in a helpless situaion.
The fact that the Russian military made it clear to the US forces that they did not care much about the mobs' businesses testifies to a nearly zero coupling to those mercenaries.
I think that similar US "Blackwater" (now "Academia") guys are more tightly linked to or coordinated by the regular forces.