maneuverist approach to war fighting
DESCRIPTION
tacticsTRANSCRIPT
The aim is to explain the British Armed Forces’ way of thinking when fighting its wars in order that all Officers adopt the same
approach
AIM
BRIEFING
• Background• Hierarchy of Doctrine• The New Thinking• Attacking the Enemy’s Will & Cohesion• The OODA Loop• The Manoeuvrist Approach
• The Core Functions of Find, Fix & Strike• Deep, Close & Rear Operations
• Summary
BACKGROUND
To analyse and record accumulated military experience is to produce doctrine
• What is Doctrine?
• Influence of Bagnell in 1989
THE HIERARCHY OF DOCTRINE
Design for Military Operations: The British Military Doctrine
British Defence Doctrine
STRATEGIC
Army Doctrine Publications
OPERATIONAL
Army Field Manuals
TACTICAL
THE NEW THINKING
• Shift away from destroying to defeating• Think in terms of defeat not destroy• Attack the enemy’s will to fight• Deprive enemy of his will to fight• Work on what your enemy thinks is happening• Deprive the enemy of his will to resist
PRE-EMPTION
Deny the enemy the ability to gather his strength
• Strike at him early• Do not allow him to concentrate his forces• Do not allow him to deliver instructions
DISLOCATION
Deny the enemy the ability to bring his strength to bear
• Avoid his strengths• Prevent him exploiting his strengths• Drag him into arena of your choice• Frustrate his plans• Avoid attritionalist tendency to fight like with like• Functional or positional dislocation
DISRUPTION
Attack the enemy selectively to break apart his assets and cause confusion
Break the enemy’s ability to...
• To select and maintain his aim• To concentrate his force• To maintain his morale
TEMPO
How quickly a task can be completed and another started. Fast turn around
of missions, plans and orders. Disruption and chaos caused
SIMULTANEITY
So many things are happening to the enemy at any one time that he
overloads and makes wrong decisions
The synergy of these 4 facets with each other creates a situation where the
enemy cannot cope. Key is to present enemy with unexpected changes with which he cannot cope
Achieved by adherence to the OODA cycle
THE MANOEUVRIST APPROACH
• A warfighting philosophy• A whole way of going about business• Opposite of attritional approach• Emphasis on physical activity• Mental activity required to outwit• How we approach operations
Put concepts into practice through...
FIXING
• Denying the enemy his goals• Distracting the enemy from his objectives• Depriving enemy of his freedom of action
STRIKING
• Manoeuvring into position of advantage• Threaten or hit the enemy• Analogy with surface & gaps
• Flow around surfaces/Enemy strengths• Pour through gaps/Enemy weaknesses
• Hit with superior & unexpected force• Give enemy no respite
Operations to find, fix and strike may be simultaneous and must be integrated.
Integrated and organised within a frameworkof Deep, Close & Rear Operations
DEEP OPERATIONS• Fix the enemy• Keep him from his objectives• Constrain his freedom of action• • 3 principal activities
• Deception• Deep surveillance/Target acquisition• Interdiction
Focus on enemy’s vulnerabilities
CLOSE OPERATIONS
• Strike the enemy to eliminate combat power• Concerned with winning current battles• Direct contact with enemy
REAR OPERATIONS
• Freedom of action by protecting own force• Sustaining own force in combat• Retain freedom of movement for reserves
• Avoid enemy strengths and attack weakness• Focus on enemy rather than ground• Seek to defeat him by attacking his will• Act more quickly than enemy can react• Do the unexpected
SUMMARY
THE MANOEUVRIST APPROACHTo
defeat rather than destroy
andcohesion
firepower tempo simultaneity surprise
by attacking theenemy’s will
pre-emption dislocation disruption
employing theCore Functions
find fix strike
in aframeworkof operations
deep close rear