Operational warfare
Encyclopedia
Operational mobility, beginning as a military theory
concept during the period of mechanisation of armed forces, became a method of managing movement of forces by strategic commanders from the staging area
to their Tactical Area of Responsibility
.
Within a strategic offensive or a strategic defence
, it represents the level of command which coordinates the minute details of tactics
with the overarching goals of strategy
.
Common synonyms for Operational mobility are the operational art derived from , operational warfare, and operational level of war. During the 18th and early 19th centuries, the term grand tactics was often applied to describe manoeuvring of troops not tactically engaged
, while in the late 19th century and beyond the First World War a term minor strategy was also in use, in fact into the Second World War by some military commentators.
The confusion over terminology was brought up in professional military publications such as the US Army's Infantry Journal that sought to identify "...slightly different shades of meaning, such as minor tactics, tactics, major tactics, minor strategy, major strategy, and grand strategy."
, began to consider the concept during the 1980s and it slowly made its way into Western military terminology and officer combat training courses. In part, it was popularised by its use in computer games, such as The Operational Art of War
(Norm Koger).
Above all, the term as conceived by 20th century military theorists signifies the offensive
, and therefore mobility
at the level is at a scale bigger than one where line-of-sight and the time of day are important, and smaller than the strategic level, where production and diplomacy
are considerations, termed operational battle
.
Formations are of the operational level if they are able to conduct operational movement on their own, that is operating independently, and are of sufficient size to be directly handled or have a significant impact on the enemy's decision-making at the strategic level of military campaign
or even the war
. These methods of conducting operational mobility were pioneered by the German
Army during the First World War and collaboratively developed with the Soviet Red Army
in the late 1920s and 1930s by Mikhail Tukhachevsky
who began to develop the concept between 1925 and 1929 as the basis of the Red Army's new field manual for the conduct of war. It was significantly tested and improved during the Second World War
by Wehrmacht during initial phases of Operation Barbarossa
, and by the Red Army for much of the rest of the war after Battle for Moscow offensive.
What constitutes the operational level has changed with the size and function of armies. During the Second World War, an operational-level formation was typically a corps
or army
.
With the increase in combat power of individual units during the Cold War era, this was accepted as a mechanised division, and in the post-Cold War, the combat power of relatively small formations is today as great as that wielded by larger formations in the past. A brigade
of some 6,000 personnel has emerged among many militaries (notably the United States Army
) as an operational-level formation, replacing the division.
s. Operational formations contain sufficient assets to perform most or all military roles, and the Operational Manoeuvre Group
of the Soviet Army
besides elements of the Combat Arms
included logistic, medical, and often supporting air assets such as armed helicopter
s from the overall military force, and hence are fully capable of independent operation.
The tactical forces of the lowest level of operational units perform actual engagement
of the enemy and the commanders of these units are responsible for determining how best to perform this combat task. Tactical decisions such as where entrenchments will be placed on defense, and the formations that attacking units will move in are determined at this level.
The lowest operational units define the immediate objectives of these tactical units within their zones of command coordinating the offensive and defensive actions of the units as well as planning and applying supporting artillery fire as needed to accomplish those actions. Higher level operational units such as divisions
and corps
will support the lower level operational units with logistics and medical supplies, and have more extensive artillery and air support assets at their disposal.
These supporting fires are concentrated at the higher level in order that their striking power can be used where it is needed most. In addition, these forces may order lower level fire support to be applied at particularly important targets, through the technique known as Time on Target.
Toward the end of the Cold War, the United States Army
developed the doctrine known as AirLand Battle
which formalized U.S. operational doctrine around the concept of mobile warfare. This doctrine sought to create a coherent and integrated practice of all aspects of operational warfare from logistics to maneuver and the use of artillery and air support.
Military theory
Military theory is the analysis of normative behavior and trends in military affairs and military history, beyond simply describing events in war and military theories, especially since the influence of Clausewitz in the nineteenth century attempt to encapsulate the complex cultural, political and...
concept during the period of mechanisation of armed forces, became a method of managing movement of forces by strategic commanders from the staging area
Staging area
A staging area is a location where organisms, people, vehicles, equipment or material are assembled before use.- In construction :...
to their Tactical Area of Responsibility
Tactical Area of Responsibility
Tactical Area of Responsibility is a prescribed area in a theatre of combat which has been assigned to a unit commander who is responsible for, and has the authority to act on, the development and maintenance of installations and the conduct of tactical operations, area defence, coordination of...
.
Within a strategic offensive or a strategic defence
Strategic defence
A Strategic defence is a type of military planning doctrine and a set of combat activities used for the purpose of deterring, resisting and repelling a strategic offensive, conducted as either a territorial or airspace invasion, or a naval offensive to interrupt shipping lane traffic as a form of...
, it represents the level of command which coordinates the minute details of tactics
Military tactics
Military tactics, the science and art of organizing an army or an air force, are the techniques for using weapons or military units in combination for engaging and defeating an enemy in battle. Changes in philosophy and technology over time have been reflected in changes to military tactics. In...
with the overarching goals of strategy
Strategy
Strategy, a word of military origin, refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. In military usage strategy is distinct from tactics, which are concerned with the conduct of an engagement, while strategy is concerned with how different engagements are linked...
.
Common synonyms for Operational mobility are the operational art derived from , operational warfare, and operational level of war. During the 18th and early 19th centuries, the term grand tactics was often applied to describe manoeuvring of troops not tactically engaged
Engagement (military)
A military engagement is a combat between two forces, neither larger than a division and not smaller than a company, in which each has an assigned or perceived mission...
, while in the late 19th century and beyond the First World War a term minor strategy was also in use, in fact into the Second World War by some military commentators.
The confusion over terminology was brought up in professional military publications such as the US Army's Infantry Journal that sought to identify "...slightly different shades of meaning, such as minor tactics, tactics, major tactics, minor strategy, major strategy, and grand strategy."
From concept to method
The term was not widely used in the West before the 1980s, where it was viewed as analogous to the expression "medium term" rather than short or long term when considered from the perspective of commander's decision-making about the timing of the movement. Western military thinkers, particularly those in the British ArmyBritish Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
, began to consider the concept during the 1980s and it slowly made its way into Western military terminology and officer combat training courses. In part, it was popularised by its use in computer games, such as The Operational Art of War
The Operational Art of War
The Operational Art of War is a series of computer wargames noted for their scope, detail, and flexibility in recreating, at an operational level, the major land battles of the 20th century. A Norm Koger design, Talonsoft published the first of the series in 1998...
(Norm Koger).
Above all, the term as conceived by 20th century military theorists signifies the offensive
Offensive (military)
An offensive is a military operation that seeks through aggressive projection of armed force to occupy territory, gain an objective or achieve some larger strategic, operational or tactical goal...
, and therefore mobility
Mobility (military)
Mobility in military terms refers to the ability of a weapon system, combat unit or armed force to move toward a military objective. Combat forces with a higher mobility are able to move more quickly, and/or across more hostile terrain, than forces with lower mobility.Mobility is regarded as a...
at the level is at a scale bigger than one where line-of-sight and the time of day are important, and smaller than the strategic level, where production and diplomacy
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...
are considerations, termed operational battle
Battle
Generally, a battle is a conceptual component in the hierarchy of combat in warfare between two or more armed forces, or combatants. In a battle, each combatant will seek to defeat the others, with defeat determined by the conditions of a military campaign...
.
Formations are of the operational level if they are able to conduct operational movement on their own, that is operating independently, and are of sufficient size to be directly handled or have a significant impact on the enemy's decision-making at the strategic level of military campaign
Military campaign
In the military sciences, the term military campaign applies to large scale, long duration, significant military strategy plan incorporating a series of inter-related military operations or battles forming a distinct part of a larger conflict often called a war...
or even the war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
. These methods of conducting operational mobility were pioneered by the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Army during the First World War and collaboratively developed with the Soviet Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
in the late 1920s and 1930s by Mikhail Tukhachevsky
Mikhail Tukhachevsky
Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky was a Marshal of the Soviet Union, commander in chief of the Red Army , and one of the most prominent victims of Joseph Stalin's Great Purge.-Early life:...
who began to develop the concept between 1925 and 1929 as the basis of the Red Army's new field manual for the conduct of war. It was significantly tested and improved during the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
by Wehrmacht during initial phases of Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
, and by the Red Army for much of the rest of the war after Battle for Moscow offensive.
What constitutes the operational level has changed with the size and function of armies. During the Second World War, an operational-level formation was typically a corps
Corps
A corps is either a large formation, or an administrative grouping of troops within an armed force with a common function such as Artillery or Signals representing an arm of service...
or army
Army
An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
.
With the increase in combat power of individual units during the Cold War era, this was accepted as a mechanised division, and in the post-Cold War, the combat power of relatively small formations is today as great as that wielded by larger formations in the past. A brigade
Brigade
A brigade is a major tactical military formation that is typically composed of two to five battalions, plus supporting elements depending on the era and nationality of a given army and could be perceived as an enlarged/reinforced regiment...
of some 6,000 personnel has emerged among many militaries (notably the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
) as an operational-level formation, replacing the division.
Role of operational mobility in battle
Operational mobility functions to implement the overall strategy of an armed force by giving direction to tactical forces and providing them with the support needed to reach their tactical objectiveTactical objective
A tactical objective is the immediate short term desired result of a given activity, task or mission, usually entrusted to the lower positioned management in a three-tier organisation's structure of field or front desk, middle and executive management....
s. Operational formations contain sufficient assets to perform most or all military roles, and the Operational Manoeuvre Group
Operational manoeuvre group
The Operational manoeuvre group was a Soviet Army organisational maneuver warfare concept created during the early 1950s to replace the Cavalry mechanized group which performed the deep operations on the Eastern Front during the Second World War....
of the Soviet Army
Soviet Army
The Soviet Army is the name given to the main part of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1992. Previously, it had been known as the Red Army. Informally, Армия referred to all the MOD armed forces, except, in some cases, the Soviet Navy.This article covers the Soviet Ground...
besides elements of the Combat Arms
Combat Arms
Combat Arms is a multiplayer game, free-to-play modern first-person shooter developed by the South Korea-based developer Doobic Studios, and published by Nexon. The game uses the Lithtech game engine to produce its graphics.- Gameplay :...
included logistic, medical, and often supporting air assets such as armed helicopter
Armed helicopter
An armed helicopter is a helicopter equipped with weapons. Most commonly, it is used for attacking targets on the ground. Such helicopter could be either purposely designed for the ground-attack mission—in which case it would be more specifically categorized as an attack helicopter—or could be...
s from the overall military force, and hence are fully capable of independent operation.
The tactical forces of the lowest level of operational units perform actual engagement
Engagement (military)
A military engagement is a combat between two forces, neither larger than a division and not smaller than a company, in which each has an assigned or perceived mission...
of the enemy and the commanders of these units are responsible for determining how best to perform this combat task. Tactical decisions such as where entrenchments will be placed on defense, and the formations that attacking units will move in are determined at this level.
The lowest operational units define the immediate objectives of these tactical units within their zones of command coordinating the offensive and defensive actions of the units as well as planning and applying supporting artillery fire as needed to accomplish those actions. Higher level operational units such as divisions
Division (military)
A division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions typically make up a corps...
and corps
Corps
A corps is either a large formation, or an administrative grouping of troops within an armed force with a common function such as Artillery or Signals representing an arm of service...
will support the lower level operational units with logistics and medical supplies, and have more extensive artillery and air support assets at their disposal.
These supporting fires are concentrated at the higher level in order that their striking power can be used where it is needed most. In addition, these forces may order lower level fire support to be applied at particularly important targets, through the technique known as Time on Target.
Toward the end of the Cold War, the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
developed the doctrine known as AirLand Battle
AirLand Battle
AirLand Battle was the overall conceptual framework that formed the basis of the US Army's European warfighting doctrine from 1982 into the late 1990s. AirLand Battle emphasized close coordination between land forces acting as an aggressively maneuvering defense, and air forces attacking...
which formalized U.S. operational doctrine around the concept of mobile warfare. This doctrine sought to create a coherent and integrated practice of all aspects of operational warfare from logistics to maneuver and the use of artillery and air support.
See also
- StrategyStrategyStrategy, a word of military origin, refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. In military usage strategy is distinct from tactics, which are concerned with the conduct of an engagement, while strategy is concerned with how different engagements are linked...
- Grand strategyGrand strategyGrand strategy comprises the "purposeful employment of all instruments of power available to a security community". Military historian B. H. Liddell Hart says about grand strategy:...
- Naval strategyNaval strategyNaval strategy is the planning and conduct of war at sea, the naval equivalent of military strategy on land.Naval strategy, and the related concept of maritime strategy, concerns the overall strategy for achieving victory at sea, including the planning and conduct of campaigns, the movement and...
- Military strategyMilitary strategyMilitary strategy is a set of ideas implemented by military organizations to pursue desired strategic goals. Derived from the Greek strategos, strategy when it appeared in use during the 18th century, was seen in its narrow sense as the "art of the general", 'the art of arrangement' of troops...
- Military doctrineMilitary doctrineMilitary doctrine is the concise expression of how military forces contribute to campaigns, major operations, battles, and engagements.It is a guide to action, not hard and fast rules. Doctrine provides a common frame of reference across the military...
- Principles of WarPrinciples of WarThe Principles of War were tenets originally proposed by Carl von Clausewitz in his essay Principles of War, and later enlarged in his book, On War. Additionally, Napoléon Bonaparte had pioneered the "Principles of War," and "The armies of today are based on the organization created by Napoleon...
- Military tacticsMilitary tacticsMilitary tactics, the science and art of organizing an army or an air force, are the techniques for using weapons or military units in combination for engaging and defeating an enemy in battle. Changes in philosophy and technology over time have been reflected in changes to military tactics. In...