The Tangled Web by
"Part of The US Army Large-Scale Combat Operations Series. Throughout the recorded history of warfare, military planners and commanders have sought to deceive their adversary as to the size, timing, or location of an attack, in order to gain a decisive advantage. From the famous "Trojan Horse" to modern efforts to use the electromagnetic spectrum to "spoof" or "jam" sensors, deception in some form remains an essential component of military operations. Whether attacking an unsuspecting enemy on Christmas morning, as Washington did at Trenton, or emplacing "Quaker guns" (logs painted black to resemble cannon) to provide the impression of strength, US forces have successfully built on a long legacy of military deception (MILDEC) in order to prevail in the nation's wars. While technology continues to advance at a dizzying pace, threatening to render previous lessons obsolete, MILDEC operations have successfully withstood previous developments and even incorporated new technologies continue to continue to form an important part of combat operations. While potentially capable, in some cases, of enabling military forces to prevail without a fight, as the theorist Sun Tzu postulated, more often MILDEC confers an advantage that helps the side that successfully harnesses it prevail, often at a much lower cost that it would have otherwise. Thus, MILDEC, and its long and successful history, remain an important, even vital, tool for any future leader"--Provided by publisher.
Bringing Order to Chaos by
"Part of The US Army Large-Scale Combat Operations Series, Bringing Order to Chaos provides 10 case studies written by a diverse group of military historians. All of the chapters focus on some element of command and control of combined arms from 1917 through 2003. These case studies--ranging from US Army Corps in their first major fight to divisions fighting on the far end of culmination--provide strong lessons in the major issue of combined arms warfare: whether victory is determined by maneuver, by fires, or a combination of both. In the concluding chapter, Lieutenant General Michael D. Lundy, Commanding General of the US Army Combined Arms Center presents a vision of the future in combined arms maneuver and expectations to win our next wars in multi-domain operations."--Provided by publisher.
Soldiers with 163rd Military Intelligence Battalion, 504th MI Brigade conduct air load operations at Fort Hood, Texas, March 10, 2019. The 163rd prepares to convoy as a part of their certification. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Melissa N. Lessard, 504th Military Intelligence Brigade)
Field Manual (FM) 3-0: Operations, published October 2017, details how the Army will fight near-peer threats using current capabilities. Large-Scale Combat Operations (LSCO), after almost 20 years of counterinsurgency (COIN) operations, is now re-invigorated and FM 3-0 prepares our Army culture to the possibility of near-peer large-scale combat. According to the Department of Defense, "Today, we are emerging from a period of strategic atrophy, aware that our competitive military advantage has been eroding" (Mattis, 2018, p. 1) Source: armyupress.army.mil
