After toppling the regime of Saddam Hussein in a few weeks, the decisive operational maneuver victory was not enough to defeat the enemy’s will to fight. Instead of challenging US forces in a conventional military battle, the enemy has now sought...
The purpose of this monograph is to provide an in-depth study of how the U.S. miscalculation of Iraqi will to fight during the planning of Operation Iraqi Freedom contributed to post major conflict operational problems. The specific nature of these...
This monograph is about planning strategy for the conduct of military intervention. Using popular, but often misunderstood or misquoted theory from some of the most popular strategic theorists, this monograph attempts to dispel the myth that...
The United States Army's vision of the conventional battlefield of the early 21st century is one characterized by increased lethality, greatly expanded dimensions, and significantly increased dispersion of units. It puts a premium on forces being...
In 1993, the Bottom-Up Review (BUR) concluded that the United States could fight and win in two nearly simultaneous major regional conflicts (MRCs). Nearly simultaneous required that the two MRCs be spaced at least 42 days apart to allow adequate...
Sun Tzu asserts that success is not winning every battle fought, but subduing the enemy's will without fighting. Nevertheless, modern military thought fails to distinguish an enemy's will-to-fight from their means to do so, limiting the ways...
Napoleon once said, “The moral is to the material as three is to one.” What did he have in mind when he stated this famous aphorism? Material factors are easy to calculate. This is the science of warfare. Organization, equipment, doctrine,...
The problem is, valid but incompatible service theories of operational warfighting inhibit rather than promote jointness. One cause of this problem is the joint definition of the center of gravity, which is vague and ineffective. This monograph...
During World War II and the Vietnam War, the primary focus of effort for air power was on the destruction of enemy factories producing military goods and the transportation networks that brought these goods and personnel to the battlefield. In the...
This monograph examines the feasibility of adapting the Soviet concepts of "desant" and the Operational Maneuver Group for amphibious application in future joint campaigns. It is based on premises that future employment of U.S. military forces will...
During the Interwar period, the Soviet theory of “deep operations,” like Soviet military science as a whole developed in parallel with Soviet armed forces organizational reform, including rearmament and preparation for current threats. The...
The 1993 version of FN4 100-5, Operations, formally added the theoretical term of decisive points to our professional warfighting lexicon without providing a useful methodology for their identification. This monograph undertakes a study of decisive...
In 1986, the US Army published a revision of FM 100-5, Operations, that, for the first time, clearly linked military theory and its doctrine. In this manual, a term defined by Carl von Clausewitz as the hub of all power and movement, the center of...
This study analyzes the concepts of dominant maneuver and precision engagement at the operational level of war as defined in Joint Vision 2020. The analysis begins by establishing the relationship between today’s geostrategic environment,...
The purpose of the R.A.F. Middle East Review is to present the story of air force activities in the Middle East and various aspects of those activities for their instructional as well as their informative value. This edition includes operations in...
Central to the design and conduct of campaigns and major operations is the concept of gravity. However, a thorough understanding of this concept seems to be lacking within the U.S. Army. While some of this misunderstanding exists because of the...
The purpose of the R.A.F. Middle East Review is to present the story of air force activities in the Middle East and various aspects of those activities for their instructional as well as their informative value. This edition includes operations in...
This study analyzes the concept of simultaneity developed by Russian military theorists, V.K. Triandafillov and M. Tukhachevskii, for application at the operational level of war with respect to non-linear full-spectrum operations. The study begins...
This monograph addresses the viability of the use of infantry forces in the deep interdiction role. Light infantry doctrine holds that infantry can add to the interdiction effort by striking enemy combat support, combat service support, and command...
The operational level of war translates strategic goals into guidance for tactical actions. Because war has expanded in terms of time, space, and mass, modern wars cannot be decided in a single battle; instead commanders must concentrate combat...