War Overview - MCDP 1

An overview of concepts of warfare and important factors worth noting - with high regard for MCDP1-Warfighting - bullet point style and from a birds-eye view. 

MCDP: 1 Warfighting

CHAPTER 1: The Nature of War

Ø  War: a violent struggle between two hostile, independent, and irreconcilable wills, each trying to impose itself on the other

~ A violent clash of interests between or among organized groups characterized by the use of military force

~Economic, political, and ideological warfare are all aspects of war

~Can be an organization if it can organize violence on a scale sufficient enough to effect political consequences

                                    ~Enemy will resist and seek to impose his own will upon us

·       Friction: the force that resists all actions and saps energy

~Makes the simple difficult and the difficult seemingly impossible

~Friction may be mental, physical, external, self-induced

~We overcome the effects of friction with strength of mind and spirit allowing us to fight effectively with friction

·       Uncertainty: pervades battle in the form unknowns about the enemy, environment, and even about the friendly situation

~”Fog of War” so the use of possibilities and probabilities is used to make decisive decisions

~We battle uncertainty through flexible planning

~Nonlinearity: system that describes in which causes and effects are disproportionate

~Uncertainty causes risk and chance in warfare

·       Fluidity: each episode merges with those that follow and precede it creating a continuous, fluctuating flow of activity replete with fleeting opportunities and unforeseen events

~Success depends largely on the ability to adapt to the situation and manipulate it to our advantage and reacting quickly to changing conditions

~Although tempo is impossible to keep high at all times it is essential to use it to manipulate the enemy

·       Disorder: in an environment of uncertainty, friction, and fluidity war gravitates toward disorder

~Each encounter will grow increasingly disordered overtime (Gallipoli)

~Plans can change so much that they look nothing like the original

~Modern battlefield is by historical standards inherently disorderly to the extent of blurring the lines of enemy and friendly controlled areas

 ~The best we can hope for is to impose a general framework of order on the disorder, to influence the general flow of action rather than to try to control each event (Higher’s Intent)

·       Complexity: from the MEF to Fire team the Marine Corps is complex and so is war this is why our ranks have a chain of command and again Higher’s Intent

·       The Human Dimension: because war is a clash between opposing human wills, the human dimension is central in war and is shaped by human emotion

~The human dimension is susceptible to effects of danger, fear, exhaustion, and privation on those who fight

~Individuals react differently to the stress of war, an act that may break one enemy may only make the resolve of another stronger. Human will, instilled through leadership, is the driving force of all action in war

~Training is the way we overcome the human reaction to fear, danger, and exhaustion

·       Violence and Danger: since war is a human phenomenon, fear, the reaction to danger has a significant impact on the conduct of war

~Leaders must foster the courage to overcome fear. “Courage is not the absence of fear, rather, it is the strength to overcome fear.”

·       Physical, moral, and mental forces: physical characteristics of warfare are easily seen, mental characteristic along with mental is harder to grasp

~Aerial bombardment is one way we break the resolve of our enemy

~Moral and mental forces a greater influence on the nature and outcome of war

·       The Evolution of Warfare: Innovations such as the rifle boar and the railroad are developments that greatly affected the evolution of warfare

~How we implement changes in technologies on the battlefield and training

·       The Science, Art, and Dynamic of War: art is the employment of creative or intuitive skills

~The conduct of war is fundamentally a dynamic process, interplay between art and war, of human competition requiring both the knowledge of science and the creativity, application, of art but driven ultimately by the power of human will

Ø  Principles of War: MOOSEMUSS

·      Mass: Concentrating the effects of combat power at the decisive place and time to achieve a decisive point

·      Objective: Direct every military operation toward a clearly defined objective

·      Offensive: Seize, retain, and exploit the initiative

·      Security: Never permit the enemy to acquire a unexpected advantage

·      Economy of Force: Allocate minimum essential combat power to get desired effects

·      Maneuver: Place the enemy in a disadvantageous position through flexibility

·      Unity of Command: For every objective, ensure unity of effort under one responsible commander

·      Surprise: Strike the enemy at a time or place in a manner for which he is unprepared

·      Simplicity: Prepare clear, uncomplicated plans and clear, concise orders to ensure thorough understanding

CHAPTER 2: The Theory of War

·      War As An Act Of Policy

~War must serve policy and policy can vary from resistance against aggression to unconditional surrender of a foreign government

~Policy is achieved through politics

~Two ways to use military force to impose our will on the enemy

o   Strategy of annihilation or strategy of incapacitation-destroying the enemies military power (Operation Iraqi Freedom 2003)

o   Strategy of erosion- convince the enemy that accepting our terms will be less painful then continuing to resist  (Hiroshima and Nagasaki)

·       Means In War

~Should not neglect the economic, diplomatic, and psychological aspects of war and only focus on military force because sometimes all that is needed is a show of force

·       The Spectrum Of Conflict

~At one end of the spectrum there is the use of force to deter war, resolve conflict, promote peace and support civil authorities while on the other end of the spectrum there is total war between two powers

~Small wars are more prominent than large scale war because of our superior technological advantages

~MOOW- Military Operations Other than War

~Long scale conflict can cause a higher intensity and make the situation escalate while some grow less intense as time passes because they are not able to sustain the intensity required

·       Levels Of War

v  Strategic: highest level of planning and focuses on directly on policy objectives

o   National Strategy- coordination and focus of all the elements of a nation to attain the policy objectives

o   Military Strategy- application of military force to secure policy objectives

 - subordinate to national strategy

o   The art and science of winning wars

o   Involves establishing goals, assigning forces, providing assets, and imposing conditions on the use of force in theaters of war

v Operational: links the strategic and tactical levels of operations

o   Use of tactical results to attain strategic objectives

o   Decisions at this level are made to decide when, where, and under what conditions to engage the enemy and when to refuse to in support of higher aims

o   Generals

o   The Art and science of winning campaigns

v Tactical: level that requires concepts and methods used to accomplish a particular mission

o   Tactics focuses on the application of power to defeat an enemy force in combat at a particular time and place

o   Scheme and methods used in non-combat missions

o   Requires judgment and creativity along with techniques and procedures that require the use of combat techniques and knowledge of the art of war and armaments

o   Colonels to NCOs

o   The art and science of winning engagement and battles

~At a nuclear war the generals may operate at both the operational and strategic level as in the cold war time period because one mistake at the tactical level could have grave consequences

·      Initiative And Response

~By taking the initiative we dictate the terms of the conflict and force the enemy to meet us on our terms

~Through the initiative we can impose our will upon the enemy

~The response has a negative aim of negating the enemy by blocking or counterattacking to          re-attain the initiative

~Flux of war is due to the constant interaction between initiative and response

~The offense does not always mean they have the initiative; if they attack the strength of our defense then we can take the initiative

~The act of offense and defense are not mutually exclusive, for a good defense you must counterattack

~Eventually after attacking for so long you reach a culminating point at which we can no longer sustain the attack and must revert to defense

o   At this point the defense element of the offense is most vulnerable to the offensive element of the defense, the counterattack

·      Styles of Warfare

v Attrition Warfare: the pursue of victory through the cumulative destruction of the enemy’s material assets by superior firepower

o   The destruction will amount to one victor and no alternative successor

o   Technical proficiency especially of weapons employment matters more than cunning and creativity

o   Systematic and organized form of warfare were enemy concentrations are highest priority in destruction along with their arsenals

o   Tend to gauge progress in quantitative terms such as body counts and terrain gathered and use maneuver as an asset to bring firepower upon the enemy

o   Greatest necessity for success is numerical and material superiority

o   Wars that were fought with attrition was Vietnam, Korea after 1950, Europe after D-day

o   Centralized command

v  Maneuver Warfare: stems from the desire to circumvent a problem and attack it from a position of advantage rather than meet it straight on

o   Attacking the enemy’s weakness in order to maximize advantage

o   Relies on speed and surprise, relative or completely, success by maneuver is often disproportionate to the effort made, essential it has a high tempo

o   Focus is to eliminate a key element which incapacitates the enemy systematically

o   Decentralized command

·       Combat Power

~The total destructive force we can bring to bear on our enemy at a given time

~Tangibles: people and equipment

~Intangible: Moral and willingness to fight, cohesion

·       Speed and Focus

~Speed is rapidity of action and overtime is tempo

~Relative speed matters in combat more than absolute speed

~Superior speed allows us to seize the initiative, a prerequisite for maneuver warfare

~Focus is the convergence of effects in time and space on some objective

~The generation of superior combat power at a particular time and place

·       Surprise and Boldness

~Surprise is the state of disorientation resulting from an unexpected event that degrades the enemy’s ability to resist

~Surprise is based on speed, deception, stealth, and ambiguity

~Surprise is not what we do but how the enemy reacts to surprise

~Boldness is facing fear and mounting up anyways

·      Center of Gravity and Critical Vulnerabilities

~Center of Gravities (key strength): any important sources of strength, if the enemy’s center of gravity we want to take them away, if they are friendly we want to protect them

~Critical vulnerability (key weakness): if exploited will do the most significant damage to the enemy’s ability to resist us

o   Critical vulnerability leads to the center of gravity

·      Creating And Exploiting Opportunity

CHAPTER 4: The Conduct of War

·      The Challenge

~The challenge is to be expeditionary force that can win quickly against a larger foe on his home soil with minimal casualties and limited external support

·      Maneuver Warfare

~Maneuver in time is tempo and if we generate a faster tempo we gain an advantage over the enemy

~By definition it is the warfighting philosophy that seeks to shatter the enemy’s cohesion through a variety of rapid, focused, and unexpected actions which create a turbulent and rapidly deteriorating situation with which the enemy cannot cope

·      Orienting on the Enemy

~Understanding the unique characteristics that make the enemy system function so that we can penetrate the system, tear it apart, and, if necessary, destroy the isolated components

·      Philosophy of Command

~To achieve our goals in an uncertain environment our command and control must be decentralized

~Implicit communication is clearer than detailed explicit orders

~Command from the front, follow me, but do not over supervise

~As a commander we must not try to maintain excessive control over subordinates since this will necessarily slow our tempo and inhibit initiative

·      Shaping the Action

~First establish what we want to accomplish, why, and how

~Look through our enemy’s eyes and fix our critical vulnerabilities to shape the battlefield to our advantage

~The further ahead we plan the more vague it needs to be and seen more as groundwork

·       Decision-making

~As a basis for action any decision is generally better than no decision

~Time is of the essence to make a high tempo effective fighting force but should not be rushed

~“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week”

·      Mission Tactics

~The way the Marine Corps assigns a subordinate a mission without specifying how the mission must be accomplished

~Must operate with “topsight” which is a grasp of how their actions play into the larger situation

·      Commander’s Intent

~Task is what, when, and where while the intent is why?

·      Main Effort

~The force designated with the most important mission and first to receive firepower

·      Surfaces and Gaps

~Surfaces are enemy strengths and gaps are enemy’s weaknesses

~Surfaces can be gaps for other, forest can be a surface for tanks but a gap for an infantry squad

·       Combined Arms

~Designed to put the enemy through superior power and using each weapon in our arsenal to devastate the enemy most effectively and put the enemy in a no win dilemma

 THE ATTRITIONIST LETTER #3: Do as You’re Told

                              ~Argues that mission tactics and commanders intent are now obsolete due to                                        technological advancement

                                    ~Says that commanders should make calls not field grade officers because                                          their vast experience gap

            ~Only few selected officers should be trained for upper rank positions and                        that they would be taught through success not trial and error

~Opinion:

o   “A competent subordinate commander who is at the point of decision will naturally better appreciate the true situation than a senior commander some distance removed.” –MCDP 1 , 78

The Eastern and Western Way of War

                  Greats of Western War

                                    Machiavelli- The Prince and The Art of War

Books on statesmanship and tactical concept of war, war has to serve policy, wanted a standing professional arm not a mercenary army, wanted decisive battles

                                    Jomini- Napoleonic error writer of The Art of War

Cannot forecast victory and that war is an art not a science, follow the principles of war, core concepts of morale, movement, concealment…..etc. (MOOSMUS)

                                    Clausewitz- On War

Prussian who fought against Napoleon most his life, looked back on history to apply to the now, absolute war vs. war in reality, politics and morals effect real war, war as a extension of politics, culminating point, friction, fog of war and centers of gravity, a key center of gravity is a destruction of an enemy

Western Way of War

                                    Focus on decisive battles

                                    Commander’s intention and initiative hold the key to success

                                    Concentrate forces

                                    Discredits Intel, deception, and surprise

                                    Operational and tactical level of war focused

                                    Policy drives war but during a war policy should serve war and all should                                            center on war effort

                  Eastern Doctrine

Priorities: disrupt alliances, attack allies, last resort attack cities, deception, try to win without use of force, deny information

                                    Sun Tzu- Could be a single person or a conglomeration (730-480 BCE)

Know thy enemy, and know thyself, only use the military if it profits the state, don’t micromanage you generals if you are the sovereign, general is the hero, act fast on intel

5 Elements: morale, doctrine, terrain, weather, leadership

                                    Mae Tse-Tung- leader of the Chinese communist party from (empowered                                           1949) Asymmetric war subject matter expert, studied Clausewitz, three                                                outcomes to counter revolutionary war: strategic defense, stalemate,                                                    counteroffensive. Fight on the fringes, gain strength, politics maintain full                                              control over the military, very eastern mentality

                  Eastern Way of War

Focused on all levels of war, deception is key, rational intelligence is key, maneuver is essential, incorporate the state into all aspects of war