Bulletin of National Defence University of Ukraine

The paper substantiated the structure and content of the programme of special psychological training of anti-aircraft missile forces specialists of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the conditions of countering massive combined enemy strikes. The relevance of the study is conditioned by the discrepancy between conventional approaches to psychological training and the destructive load of contemporary high-tech warfare: intensive use of unmanned aerial vehicles and various types of missile weapons by the enemy, continuous combat operations for 5-8 hours, lack of time for decision-making, and awareness of the consequence of error cause cognitive inhibition, physiological exhaustion and the risk of psychological disruption of operators of anti-aircraft missile systems. The transition to control systems with elements of artificial intelligence additionally requires digital stress tolerance and critical thinking from combat services. The purpose of the study was to substantiate the integral structure and content of the programme of special psychological training of anti-aircraft missile forces specialists, aimed at improving the combat capability of combat services of anti-aircraft missile systems and preserving the mental health of military personnel. The methods of analysis were theoretical analysis, systematisation, and generalisation of Ukrainian and international scientific sources of military psychology, analysis of the experience of combat operations of air defence units of Ukraine in 2022-2026, comparative analysis, structural and functional modelling. A five-stage model of specialised psychological training has been developed, based on the principles of dynamic adaptation and a person-centred approach. It covered: professional and psychological selection with input screening of psychophysiological and cognitive indicators; basic training that combines psycho-education on the neurobiology of combat stress, stress hardening by dosed modelling of loads within the optimal stimulus range and cognitive immersion by means of virtual reality; psychological coordination of combat services and the fostering of group resilience through a common mental model, vertical trust, and horizontal cohesion; mutual monitoring of performance on the principle of “peer-to-peer” based on somatic, sensory and visual, communicative and speech fatigue markers using Express micro-interventions; post-combat decompression with group debriefing, psychological recovery of personnel by means of virtual reality and output screening, which closes the feedback loop of the programme. The practical significance of the study consists in the possibility of introducing the proposed model into the combat training system of anti-aircraft missile forces units, which will ensure the development of stable psychological readiness of personnel, maintaining professional reliability of combat services, preventing post-traumatic stress disorders, and preserving the combat potential of air defence units

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