Prepare translation of the main text

Types of Combat

General

Four primarily elements – maneuver, firepower, protection, and leadership - combine to create combat power - the ability to fight. Their effective application will decide the outcome of campaigns, major operations, battles and engagements. Firepower provides destructive force in defeating the enemy’s ability to fight.

Protection conserves the fighting potential of a force so that commanders can apply it at decisive time and place. In modern warfare any combined arms combat will be conducted jointly by forces of allied nations acting together for the successful accomplishment of a single mission. 

Offensive operations

The offense is the decisive form of battle. The attacker seizes and retains the initiative through offensive actions. Offensive operations are also designed to seize and secure key terrain. The primary purpose of offensive operations is to find and destroy the enemy. This is done by defeating the integrity of his defensive system, and by destroying his command, control and communication (C³) systems. The attack is launched to deceive enemy forces, fix enemy units, or disrupt an enemy's offensive attack. Tactical commanders as well as operational commanders conduct offensive operations simultaneously throughout the depth of battlefield.

Forms of offence

When executing offensive operations, the division uses four general forms of offense. These are movement to contact, hasty attack, deliberate attack, exploitation, and pursuit. Offensive operations are fluid. They require swift transition from one form of maneuver to another.

However, a movement to contact may terminate in a deep attack, a hasty defense or even a retrograde operations. When the units encounter resistance, the commander commits the combat power necessary to maintain the momentum of the advance. Fragmentary or oral orders are normally used once the movement to contact begins.

Other types of attacks include counterattacks, spoiling attacks, raids, feints, and demonstrations.

Friendly forces counterattack to defeat an enemy after it has launched his attack.

Spoiling attack is a tactical maneuver employed to seriously impair a hostile attack while the enemy is in the process of forming or assembling for an attack.

The raid is normally conducted by smaller combat elements in the division. Commanders destroy key enemy installations and facilities, capture or free prisoners, or disrupt enemy command and control posts.

Exploitation usually follows successful attacks. Their ultimate goal is to disrupt an expected enemy attack. Exploiting forces can secure objectives deep in the enemy rear, cut lines of communication, and deny escape routes to an encircling force.

The pursuit is an offensive operation against a retreating enemy force. It follows a successful attack or exploitation and is ordered when the enemy cannot conduct an organized defense and attempts to disengage. The pursuit consists of encircling forces. The mission of the encircling force is to engage the enemy in deep rear and to deny escape routes. Airborne, air assault, armored, and mechanized units are effective encircling forces.

The basic forms of offensive maneuver used by Army divisions are envelopment, turning movement, infiltration, penetration, and frontal attack.

Envelopments attack an enemy's flanks or secure objectives in his rear that cut his lines of communication. In corps envelopment, the division may be the fixing force. The division commander uses aviation, airborne, air assault, armor, and mechanized units to envelop. A vertical (aerial) envelopment, search and attack operations, raids are also widely used.

The turning movement is directed to secure vital areas deep in the hostile rear that will prevent an enemy's reinforcement. It is used when an opportunity exists to cause the enemy to abandon his prepared defenses. Commanders use penetration when enemy flanks are assailable. The division masses its combat power, normally at a single point, to overwhelm the enemy. Divisions execute a penetration to destroy the integrity of the enemy's defense. The division launches a frontal attack across a wide area within the zone of action.

Infiltration is the covert movement of the attacking force through enemy lines to an objective in the enemy's rear. The tactical offensive battles are viewed as operations in depth and consist of independent operations. These are deep operations,

close operations. The commander attempts to fight in depth to attack key enemy functional sites such as command posts, logistics sites, and air defenses.

In close operations, the division normally establishes a main attack, and supporting attacks. The main attack is the principal attack into which the commander throws the full weight of his combat power for seizure of the division’s principal objective. Supporting attacks assist the success of the main attack. Supporting attacks can be feints or demonstrations and use camouflage technique. Commanders conduct approach marches when they are relatively certain that enemy locations are some distance from their approaching friendly force.

Defensive Operations

The defense is a temporary state that permits the division to survive an enemy attack, halt the enemy, and create conditions for offensive operations. Division defensive operations may gain time and wear down enemy forces. Forces positioned in the main battle area may conduct area or mobile defenses.

In a mobile defense, the mobility of the striking force is equal to or greater than that of the attacker. Minimum force is committed to the fixing force; maximum combat power is given to the striking force making the decisive attack. The enemy's initiative must create vulnerability, such as exposing a flank to the striking force. Generally, the division commander resorts to a mobile defense when friendly forces are insufficient to adequately defend the area of operations. The defense orients on the destruction of the enemy force and the retention of terrain.

The area defense focuses on denying the enemy access to designated terrain or facilities for a specified time, rather than on destroying the enemy. The division normally conducts an area defense in depth to secure advantages in later engagements. The area defense is normally organized around static defensive positions in depth. Occasionally, the commander may direct the construction of a strongpoint. The echeloned battalion strongpoints absorb the momentum of the attack and provide time for mobile reserves in the counterattack. They control or repel enemy penetrations.

Deep operations complement close and rear operations. Normally, the corps commander assigns the division specific deep targets.

The close operations are when soldiers close with and destroy the enemy. In close operations reconnaissance and security forces serve as covering forces.

The delaying operations are usually conducted to provide time to concentrate or withdraw forces, to establish defenses in greater depth, or to complete offensive operations elsewhere.