[Maruf]

This thread has been opened to compile basic information about organization and tactics of army. I am hoping that this thread will help those people that are interested in learning military and war tactics. This thread will grow in course of time. Thank you.

[Maruf]

Chain of Command (Organization)

Building block: The basic building block of all Army organizations is the individual soldier.

Squad - 9 to 10 soldiers. Typically commanded by a sergeant or staff sergeant, a squad or section is the smallest element in the Army structure, and its size is dependent on its function.

Platoon - 16 to 44 soldiers. A platoon is led by a lieutenant with an NCO as second in command, and consists of two to four squads or sections.

Company - 62 to 190 soldiers. Three to five platoons form a company, which is commanded by a captain with a first sergeant as the commander's principle NCO assistant. An artillery unit of equivalent size is called a battery, and a comparable armored or air cavalry unit is called a troop.

Battalion - 300 to 1,000 soldiers. Four to six companies make up a battalion, which is normally commanded by a lieutenant colonel with a command sergeant major as principle NCO assistant. A battalion is capable of independent operations of limited duration and scope. An armored or air cavalry unit of equivalent size is called a squadron.

Brigade - 3,000 to 5,000 solders. A brigade headquarters commands the tactical operation of two to five organic or attached combat battalions. Normally commanded by a colonel with a command sergeant major as senior NCO, brigades are employed on independent or semi-independent operations. Armored cavalry, ranger and special forces units this size are categorized as regiments or groups.

Division - 10,000 to 15,000 soldiers. Usually consisting of three brigade-sized elements and commanded by a major general, divisions are numbered and assigned missions based on their structures. The division performs major tactical operations for the corps and can conduct sustained battles and engagements.

Corps - 20,000 to 45,000 soldiers. Two to five divisions constitute a corps, which is typically commanded by a lieutenant general. As the deployable level of command required to synchronize and sustain combat operations, the corps provides the framework for multi-national operations.

Army - 50,000 + soliders. Typically commanded by a lieutenant general or higher, an army combines two or more corps. A theater army is the ranking Army component in a unified command, and it has operational and support responsibilities that are assigned by the theater commander in chief. The commander in chief and theater army commander may order formation of a field army to direct operations of assigned corps and divisions. An army group plans and directs campaigns in a theater, and is composed of two or more field armies under a designated commander.

[Maruf]

Military Tactics

Military tactics is the collective name for methods of engaging and defeating an enemy in battle. Changes in philosophy and technology over time have been reflected in changes to military tactics.

Difference between Tactics and Strategy

Tactics should be distinguished from military strategy, which is concerned with the overall means and plan for achieving a long-term outcome, and operational art, an intermediate level in which the aim is to convert the strategy into tactics.

Universal Military Tactics

Military tactics are the tricks used on the battlefield, while conducting a war, to gain success. There are two main ways to defeat an army: by destroying it through fighting, and by cutting off its supplies so that it runs out of weapons, medication, food and drink, and thus 'starves' to death.

Encirclement

In both cases, encirclement is a good idea. When fighting, an encircled army is being hit from many angles at once, making it difficult to fight back effectively. Also, encirclement cuts off supplies. Therefore, encirclement is one of the most central tactics used in warfare.

Overwhelming Force

Second to encirclement comes the tactic of overwhelming force concentrated on a weaker part of the opponent's army, attacking by surprise so the enemy is not even ready for you. With this tactic, encirclement is not necessary, since you can destroy the opponent with one powerful blow, and then regroup and go on to overwhelm other parts of the enemy's army. Surprise and hiding your location, movements and intentions are critical for success with this kind of tactic, since it depends on your enemy spreading his or her army out thinly, not knowing where to expect your attack, while you concentrate yours massively in one location and destroy all in your way.

In order to make the opponent spread his or her forces out thinly, you need to make him or her ignorant of your exact whereabouts, intentions, and where you will attack next. This can be very difficult to do since the opponent will often be able to see where you are amassing your forces, and he or she will respond by amassing his or her forces opposite yours, to counter your build-up. Thus, this tactic is normally only employed when your army is much stronger than the enemy's, so even if he or she amasses his or her forces opposite yours, he or she still cannot face up to yours.

Hit and Run Tactics

If the opponent is much weaker and cannot stand up to an attack of overwhelming force, he or she will then break his or her army up into small groups, so that there is no way the army can be destroyed in one blow. He or she will now send the groups at you from different angles, when you do not expect them, to cause damage, and then run off again before you have a chance to respond effectively or catch them. These tactics are also called 'Guerrilla Tactics'.

To respond to these kinds of tactics, you have to send out parties of soldiers to find out where the enemy's groups are hiding, and then destroy them one by one. This can become almost impossible if they are hiding in jungles, forests, mountains and so on, and they have no permanent homes to defend. All through history, many large and powerful armies have been defeated by small, wandering, guerilla armies.

Sending out mobile squads of troops to find the enemy is called 'scouting'.

[Maruf]

Principles of Battle

Line Tactics

Typically, when armies face off, they draw their forces out in long lines facing each other. The reason for this is to prevent the other side from encircling them. You do not want to draw out your forces too thinly, or the enemy might be able to overpower you by using the Overwhelming Force tactic. However, you do not want to mass your forces too closely together, or you will be encircled, and your will make your troops too easy of a target for the enemy, since they are all in more or less the same place.

Range

Armies, when they draw up their lines, draw them up slightly out of range of the enemy's weapons. This has always been the case throughout history. This is so that the soldiers remain safe. As soon as any group of soldiers advances closer to the enemy line, it is said to have come 'within range', and it can be destroyed by the enemy. However, if the enemy does not notice its advance, either because it remains hidden and advances secretly, or advances so quickly the enemy cannot react fast enough, this group of soldiers might be able to inflict significant damage on the enemy. If this group of attacking soldiers destroys the enemy soldiers opposite it, then other soldiers can follow behind the group and rush through the gap in the enemy's line, and then turn around to hit the enemy from the rear, creating an encirclement.

Mobility

One of the best ways to punch through an opponent's line, or circle around behind it or over it is through transportation devices. In the past, the most commonly used transportation 'device' was the horse. Now, tanks, armoured personnel carriers, helicopters, planes and paratroopers are used. These devices enable soldiers to circle around through or behind the enemy and catch the enemy forces from behind while the remainder of the army attacks them from the front. Transportation devices have always been expensive compared with the cost of raising footsoldiers, so typically, highly mobile forces have accounted for only a fraction of an army's total strength. Their usefulness comes both from their mobility and in the case of ground mobility, breaking through the enemies lines, overwhelming, separating and driving back the enemy. The modern tank is used much like the horse of ancient battlefields; a cavalry can give any army an advantage. It has been previously argued that mobility only serves for movement and scouting purposes. This is an absurd statement, because the cavalry of any age is designed first and foremost to "run over" the enemy, and separate them, as to make them far more vulnerable to being overwhelmed and overrun. Air mobility is also useful, as a strike from 30,000 ft is very difficult to prevent.

Protection

On the battlefield, protection is very important, for obvious reasons. There are several methods of protection used by armies:

1. Staying out of range of the enemy's weapons
2. Hiding so you will not be seen and therefore not get hit
3. Wearing armour which can resist enemy weapons to some degree. The tank is, for example, considered a form of armour.
4. Building fortifications such as walls, trenches and minefields to stop enemy movement and provide defenses against enemy weapons.

[Maruf]

Individual Fighting Skills

Fighting skills include all of the above, working as part of a team. On the individual level, speed and accuracy are the most important.

Accuracy

Being as accurate as possible so that you are able to hit the opponent when ideally the opponent is too far away to accurately hit you is a critical skill. Remember that armies tend to stay out of range, so if you can accurately hit your enemy at a long range, you will have a big advantage. This takes lots of practice, and the development of better weapons technology.

Speed

It is critical to hit the opponent before he or she hits you. This means you must act faster than your opponent. And, as mentioned above, you must be accurate even though working at such a high speed. Therefore, the development of speed and accuracy better than your opponents, takes endless practice. Your opponents may be practicing just as much as you, so you can never stop training and improving your skills.

Protection of Self

It should also be noted that all the 'protection' skills listed above apply as well to the individual soldier. So training in self-protection on the battlefield is critical, just as training to work as a unit and to be effective with weaponry are.

[Maruf]

Infantry Minor Tactics

Infantry Minor Tactics or IMTs are the very basic tactics that are employed at the squad, section or platoon level. They are, generally speaking, reasonably similar across most modern armies.

In most situations, except static defense, IMTs are based on the principle of "fire and movement". That is firing and moving, often in pairs, one soldier firing to suppress or neutralize the enemy whilst the other moves either toward the enemy or to a more favourable position. The movement is often only 5-10 metres per move. This technique is sometimes referred to as "pepper-potting" (British/Commonwealth) or "fireteam rushes"(US).

IMTs are typically taught to all arms and services both in basic training and often also whilst undergoing non-infantry specialty training.

Most IMTs are taught in the form of a drill - ie a series of choreographed steps that occur in reaction to a certain stimuli, such as sighting an enemy to the front, or being engaged by enemy from flank etc. The initial stages of the drill are routinized and therefore action doesn't require full appraisal of the situation by individual soldiers or unit commaders. Such stimulus-response training allows coordinated responses without the need for direct orders. In combat, this allows the first few moments of the engagement to occur almost automatically and therefore gives the soldiers a way to respond appropriately and predictably (eg. take cover and start returning fire, or shift the flanks to becoming in enfilade to a surprise attack) while the unit commander asseses the actual situation and issues orders further orders.

Perhaps the most basic of all IMTs is the "Basic Drill". The Basic Drill is the drill that all individual soldiers are supposed to perform if they come under "effective fire".

The basic drill is:

Run two or three steps
Drop to the ground or into cover
Crawl a few yards (or move under concealment/cover)
Observe
Shoot (identified targets of opportunity within effective range)
Move
Observe
Shoot
Move
Repeat until issued orders

The basic drill is designed to provide a the soldier with simple steps to follow under the stress of combat. The essential goal of the basic drill is to move the soldier into cover, remove him from the last position where he was likely to be seen by the enemy, and keep him him "positively engaged" with (identifying and shooting) any targets in his effective area until his commander makes an appraisal and issues instructions.

[Maruf]

Fire and Movement

Fire and movement is the basic military tactic used by small unit commanders on the modern battlefield. It uses the power of suppressive fire, or threat thereof, to decrease the enemy's ability to return fire, its organization and unit cohesion, its intelligence through suppression, and morale. The "Movement" part of the action, consists of a seperate organizational unit moving forward in greater safety afforded by the suppressive fire laid down on the enemy.

Overview

Fire and movement works on the basis of a section of, or entire military unit suppressing the enemy with an appropriate level of fire, while at the same time, another section of, or entire military unit advancing. This will take the form of two units of whatever size appropriate, be it two soldiers or larger. Enemy supression can also be achieved with direct and/or indirect fire from combat support units. Artillery, mortars and armor are a few examples of combat support units often used in fire and movement tactics.

In the United States Military, a basic fire and movement tactic is called overwatch. There also exists several variations of overwatch, generally adding further description to more accurately describe the specific maneuver (I.E. Bounding Overwatch).

Base of Fire

One unit will provide a base of fire from a position in order to supress the enemy. This will take the form of sustained fire on the enemy position. A common term used to describe a suppressed unit is "pinned down". Pinning an enemy unit allows the friendly unit many choices in its tactical movements used to eliminate the enemy threat. It allows considerably more safety to the friendly unit, due to the enemies inability and/or unwillingness to effectively return fire. This is the precurser to the following:

Suppression

Heavy and continuous fire keeps an opponent suppressed and therefore limits the overall firepower of a unit (if a platoon has 30 soldiers, but only 15 are shooting back because the other 15 are being suppressed, you have tactically limited that unit's firepower by 50%). It also builds up confusion and sometimes panic for undisciplined forces. The fire cuts down on an enemy's intelligence in that they are not able to assess the situation as clearly. Finally the suppressive fire hurts an enemy's morale by scaring them, by the fire being continuous, it scares more when it kills. An enemy that hesitates the least bit is at a great disadvantage.

Advance

Whilst a base of fire is set up, the second unit will advance to cover in front, in the process setting up a new base of fire at this point.

After a new base of fire has been set up the first unit will advance, under cover of the new fire base, to a new position and set up another base of fire.

Assault

This is repeated until the units have closed upon the enemy position. At this point a unit will close in on the enemy and destroy them. Often throwing grenades, close-quarters combat techniques, and much more rarely in modern warfare, hand-to-hand combat.

[Maruf]

Offensive and Defensive Tactics

We can classify tactics into two broad categories, namely, offensive and defensive tactics. We will take a deeper look at these two categories of tactics below:

Offensive tactics

Ambush: A sudden attack made from a concealed position.

Skirmish: A minor battle in war, as one between small forces or between large forces avoiding direct conflict.

Rapid dominance

Blitzkrieg: A swift, sudden military offensive, usually by combined air and mobile land forces.

Carpet bombing : To bomb in a systematic and extensive pattern, so as to devastate a large target area uniformly.

Human wave attack: Human wave attack is a military term describing a type of assault performed by infantry units, in which soldiers attack in successive line formations, often in dense groups, generally without the support of other arms or with any sophistication in the tactics used.

Shock and Awe: It is a military doctrine that has as its main principles "overwhelming decisive force," "dominant battlefield awareness," "dominant maneuvers," and "spectacular displays of power" as a means of destroying an adversary's will to fight and adversely affecting the psychology and the will of the enemy to resist. The doctrine was written by Harlan K. Ullman and James. P. Wade.

Planned attack

Use of Supporting Fire: The support or protection given forces in direct contact with the enemy by ground or naval guns or by aircraft engaging in close air support.

Indirect Fire Support :

Flying wedge: A compact, wedge-shaped formation, as of police or guards, moving as a body and used especially for penetrating crowds.

Frontal assault: The military tactic of frontal assault is a direct, hostile movement of forces towards enemy forces in a large number, in an attempt to overwhelm the enemy. This is often referred to as a "suicide strike," because it is often a commander's last resort when he has run out of strategies.

Penetration or infiltration :

Pincer movement: The pincer movement (double envelopment) is a basic element of military strategy which has been used, to some extent, in nearly every war. The maneuver is mostly self-explanatory; the flanks of the opponent are attacked simultaneously in a pinching motion after the opponent has advanced towards the center of an army which is responding by moving its outside forces to the enemy's flanks, in order to surround it. At the same time, a second layer of pincers attacks on the more extreme flanks, so as to prevent any attempts to reinforce the target unit.

Flanking maneuver: flanking maneuver, also called a flank attack, is an attack on the sides (or, less often, the rear [1]) of an opposing force. If a flanking maneuver were to succeed, the opposing force would be surrounded from two or more directions, which often grants victory to the flanking side. As the flanks is usually the weaker part of an army, flanking often gives the attacker an advantage on the psychological condition or the practical condition of an army, depending on the situation.

Attrition warfare: Attrition warfare is a strategic concept which states that to win a war, one's enemy must be worn down to the point of collapse by continuous losses in personnel and materiel. The war will usually be won by the side with greater such reserves.

Interdiction: Severing or disrupting lines of communication and supply.

Control MSR (Main supply routes):

Rapid deployment

Capturing key points :

Airborne operations : The organized, integrated use of aircraft and missiles for purposes of foreign policy, strategy, operations, and tactics.

Air Mobile operations :

Amphibious operations : Military operations directed against hostile shores and characterized by attacks launched from the sea by naval and landing forces. Amphibious warfare's greatest advantage is its mobility and flexibility; its greatest limitation is that the attacker must start from nothing to build up strength ashore. Modern amphibious forces attempt to overcome this by fielding larger and more efficient landing vessels and also by using helicopters and short-takeoff and -landing airplanes to deploy troops beyond the hostile shore.

Motorised operations :

Tank desant : Tank desant is a military combined arms tactic, where infantry soldiers would ride into an attack on tanks. They dismount to fight on foot in the final phase of the assault. Desant is the Russian word for airborne or parachute drops, but it can be used more generally, describing amphibious landings or "tank desant".

Mechanised operations : Mechanized warfare, employment of modern mobile attack and defense tactics that depend upon machines, more particularly upon vehicles powered by gasoline and diesel engines. Central to the waging of mechanized warfare are the tank and armored vehicle, with support and supply from motorized columns and aircraft.

Armoured operations : Armoured warfare in modern warfare is understood to be the use of armoured fighting vehicles as a central component of the methods of war.

Raiding: A raid is a small attack, normally done with a small amount of men, to demoralize the enemy, ransack a camp, or obtain goods.

Preemptive Strike : An attack initiated on the basis of incontrovertible evidence that an enemy attack is imminent.

Disrupting Communications :

Electronic countermeasures : An offensive or defensive tactic or device using electronic and reflecting apparatus to reduce the military effectiveness of enemy equipment involving electromagnetic radiation, such as radar, communication, guidance, or other radio-wave devices. Abbreviated ECM. Also known as electromagnetic countermeasure.

Radar Jamming : Radar jamming and deception is the intentional emission of radio frequency signals to interfere with the operation of a radar by saturating its receiver with noise or false information. There are two types of radar jamming: Mechanical and Electronic jamming.

Radio Jamming : Radio jamming is the transmission of radio signals that disrupt communications by decreasing the signal to noise ratio.

Salami tactics -Salami tactics, also known as the salami-slice strategy, is a gradual process of threats and alliances as a means of overcoming opposition. With it, an aggressor can influence and eventually dominate a (typically political) landscape, slice by slice.

Divide and Conquer - Win by getting one's opponents to fight among themselves.