Movement to Contact: Losing the Fight from the Start.

Abstract

This monograph evaluates the soundness of U.S. movement to contact doctrine towards the offensive meeting battle. The author distinguishes two forms of meeting battle: offensive and defensive. The offensive meeting battle is a continuous struggle for the initiative. The author finds that in an offensive meeting battle, U.S. movement to contact doctrine concedes the initiative. U.S. movement to contact doctrine is passive, indecisive, and reactionary. doctrine loses the fight from the start. The doctrine is evaluated against the offense guidance presented in FM 100-5 to determine its level of congruency with capstone doctrine. Soviet doctrine is introduced to support the position presented in FM 100-5. The Soviets championed the offensive meeting battle. They preferred it to all other forms of combat.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 17, 1994
Accession Number
ADA293631

Entities

People

  • Charles W. Coxwell Jr

Organizations

  • United States Army Command and General Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Defense
  • Artillery
  • Artillery Fire
  • Attrition
  • Battlefields
  • Combat Forces
  • Combat Operations
  • Combat Support
  • Employment
  • Fire Support
  • Force Protection
  • Gain
  • Military History
  • Military Operations
  • Reconnaissance
  • United States
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies