|In war the only sure defense is offense, and the efficiency of the offense depends on the war-like souls of those conducting it.|
|General George S. Patton Jr.
War as I Knew It
7-1. The offense
|In war the only sure defense is offense, and the efficiency of the offense depends on the war-like souls of those conducting it.|
|General George S. Patton Jr.
War as I Knew It
7-1. The offense is the decisive form of war. Offensive operations aim to destroy or defeat an enemy. Their purpose is to impose US will on the enemy and achieve decisive victory. While immediate considerations often require defending, decisive results require shifting to the offense as soon as possible.
7-2. Offensive operations seek to seize, retain, and exploit the initiative to defeat the enemy decisively. Army forces attack simultaneously throughout the area of operations (AO) to throw enemies off balance, overwhelm their capabilities, disrupt their defenses, and ensure their defeat or destruction. The offense ends when the force achieves the purpose of the operation, reaches a limit of advance, or approaches culmination. Army forces conclude a phase of an offensive by consolidating gains, resuming the attack, or preparing for future operations. Additional tasks offensive operations accomplish include
7-3. Army operational commanders conduct offensive campaigns and major operations to achieve theater-level effects based on tactical actions. They concentrate on designing offensive land operations. They determine what objectives will achieve decisive results; where forces will operate; the relationships among subordinate forces in time, space, and purpose; and where to apply the decisive effort. Operational commanders assign AOs to, and establish command and support relationships among, tactical commanders. Tactical commanders direct offensive operations to achieve objectivesdestroying enemy forces or seizing terrainthat produce the theater-level effects operational commanders require.
7-4. At the operational level, offensive operations directly or indirectly attack the enemy center of gravity. Commanders do this by attacking enemy decisive points, either simultaneously or sequentially. Massed effects of joint and multinational forces allow attackers to seize the initiative. They deny the enemy freedom of action, disrupt his sources of strength, and create the conditions for operational and tactical success.
7-5. To attain unity of effort, operational commanders clearly identify objectives and reinforce the relationships among subordinate forces. By minimizing interoperability challenges and harnessing system capabilities, commanders tailor their forces to achieve decisive effects. They allocate sufficient joint and multinational forces to achieve their objectives.
7-6. Tactical commanders exploit the effects that joint and multinational forces contribute to the offense. They synchronize these forces in time, space, resources, purpose, and action to mass the effects of combat power at decisive points. Commanders direct battles as part of major operations. Battles are related in purpose to the operational commander's objectives.
7-7. Battles may be linear or nonlinear and conducted in contiguous or noncontiguous AOs. Tactical commanders receive their AO, mission, objectives, boundaries, control measures, and intent from their higher commander. They determine the decisive, shaping, and sustaining operations within their AO. They direct fires and maneuver to attack and destroy the enemy and attain terrain objectives. Tactical commanders normally have clearly defined tasks-defeat the enemy and occupy the objective.
7-8. Surprise, concentration, tempo, and audacity characterize the offense. Effective offensive operations capitalize on accurate intelligence and other relevant information regarding enemy forces, weather, and terrain. Commanders maneuver their forces to advantageous positions before contact. Force protection, including defensive information operations (IO), keeps or inhibits the enemy from acquiring accurate information about friendly forces. The enemy only sees what the friendly commander wants him to see. Contact with enemy forces before the decisive operation is deliberate, designed to shape the optimum situation for the decisive operation. The decisive operation is a sudden, shattering action that capitalizes on subordinate initiative and a common operational picture (COP) to expand throughout the AO. Commanders execute violently without hesitation to break the enemy's will or destroy him.
7-9. In the offense, commanders achieve surprise by attacking the enemy at a time or place he does not expect or in a manner for which he is unprepared. Estimating the enemy commander's intent and denying him the ability to gain thorough and timely situational understanding is necessary to achieve surprise. Unpredictability and boldness help gain surprise. The direction, timing, and force of the attack also help achieve surprise. Surprise delays enemy reactions, overloads and confuses his command and control (C2) systems, induces psychological shock in enemy soldiers and leaders, and reduces the coherence of the defense. By diminishing enemy combat power, surprise enables attackers to exploit enemy paralysis and hesitancy.
7-10. Operational and tactical surprise complement each other. Operational surprise creates the conditions for su