Chapter 3: Offense

The offense carries the fight to the enemy. The OPFOR sees this as the decisive form of combat and the ultimate means of imposing its will on the enemy. While conditions at a particular time or place may require the OPFOR to defend, defeating an enemy force ultimately requires shifting to the offense. Even within the context of defense, victory normally requires some sort of offensive action. Therefore, OPFOR commanders at all levels seek to create and exploit opportunities to take offensive action, whenever possible.

The aim of offense at the tactical level is to achieve tactical missions in support of an operation. A tactical command ensures that its subordinate commands thoroughly understand both the overall goals of the operation and the specific purpose of a particular mission they are about to execute. In this way, subordinate commands may continue to execute the mission without direct control by a higher headquarters, if necessary.

Purpose of the Offense

All tactical offensive actions are designed to achieve the goals of an operation through active measures. However, the purpose or reason, of any given offensive mission varies with the situation, as determined through the decision making process. The primary distinction among types of offensive missions is their purpose which is defined by what the commander wants to achieve tactically. Thus, the OPFOR recognizes six general purposes of tactical offensive missions:

Gain freedom of movement.
Restrict freedom of movement.
Gain control of key terrain, personnel, or equipment.
Gain information.
Dislocate.
Disrupt.

These general purposes serve as a guide to understanding the design of an offensive mission and not as a limit placed on a commander as to how he makes his intent and aim clear. These are not the only possible purposes of tactical missions but are the most common.

These six general purposes are only a few of the many reasons the OPFOR might have for attacking an enemy, a potential enemy, a neighbor, or someone else. The true intent of an attack may reside at the operational or strategic level, but the attack is executed at the tactical level. Therefore, the actual reason for the attack may often be difficult to discern. In addition to those listed above, a few other reasons to attack may be to destroy, deceive, demonstrate dominance, deter (such as to discourage a neighbor from joining a coalition or alliance), or any number of other purposes.

In each of these general purposes of tactical offensive missions, the enemy may be destroyed or attrited to varying levels. Destruction is an inherent part of any attack. The critical tactical factor to the OPFOR commander initially is not how to conduct the offensive mission—but rather why. Once the why has been decided the method with the best chance of achieving tactical success becomes the how.

Attack to Gain Freedom of Movement

An attack to gain freedom of movement creates a situation in an important part of the battlefield where other friendly forces can maneuver in a method of their own choosing with little or no opposition. Such an attack can take many forms, of which the following are some examples:

Seizing an important mobility corridor to prevent a counterattack into the flank of another moving force.
Destroying an air defense unit so that a combat helicopter may use an air avenue of approach at lower risk.
Breaching a complex obstacle to allow an exploitation force to pass through.
Executing security tasks such as screen, guard, and cover. Such tasks may involve one or more attacks to gain freedom of movement as a component of the scheme of maneuver.

Attack to Restrict Freedom of Movement

An attack to restrict freedom of movement prevents the enemy from maneuvering as he chooses. Restricting attacks can deny key terrain, ambush moving forces, dominate airspace, or fix an enemy formation. Tactical tasks often associated with restricting attacks are ambush, block, canalize, contain, fix, interdict, and isolate. The attrition of combat elements and equipment may also limit the enemy units’ ability to move. An example of this may be a preemptive strike on the enemy’s water-crossing or mineclearing equipment.

Attack to Gain Control of Key Terrain, Personnel, or Equipment

An attack to gain control of key terrain, personnel, or equipment is not necessarily terrain focused— a raid with the objective of taking prisoners or key equipment is also an attack to gain control. Besides the classic seizure of key terrain that dominates a battlefield, an attack to control may also target facilities such as economic targets, ports, or airfields. Tactical tasks associated with an attack to control are raid, clear, destroy, occupy, retain, secure, and seize. Some non-traditional attacks to gain control may be information attack, computer warfare, electronic warfare, or other forms of information warfare (INFOWAR).

Attack to Gain Information

An attack to gain information is a subset of the reconnaissance attack. (See Reconnaissance Attack later in this chapter.) In this case, the purpose is not to locate to destroy, fix, or occupy but rather to gain information about the enemy. Quite often the OPFOR will have to penetrate or circumvent the enemy’s security forces and conduct an attack in order to determine the enemy’s location, dispositions, capabilities, and intentions.

Attack to Dislocate

An attack to dislocate employs forces to obtain significant positional advantage, rendering the enemy’s dispositions less valuable, perhaps even irrelevant. It aims to make the enemy expose forces by reacting to the dislocating action. Dislocation requires enemy commanders to make a choice: accept neutralization of part of their force or risk its destruction while repositioning. Turning movements and envelopments produce dislocation. Artillery or other direct or indirect fires may cause an enemy to either move to a more tenable location or risk severe attrition. Typical tactical tasks associated with dislocation are ambush, interdict, and neutralize.

Attack to Disrupt

An attack to disrupt is used to prevent the enemy from being able to execute an advantageous course of action (COA) or to degrade his ability to execute that COA. It is also used to create windows of opportunity to be exploited by the OPFOR. It is an intentional interference (disruption) of enemy plans and intentions, causing the enemy confusion and the loss of focus, and throwing his battle synchronization into turmoil. The OPFOR then quickly exploits the result of the attack to disrupt. A spoiling attack is an example of an attack to disrupt.

The OPFOR will use an attack to disrupt in order to upset an enemy’s formation and tempo, interrupt the enemy’s timetable, cause the enemy to commitment of forces prematurely, and/or cause him to attack in a piecemeal fashion. The OPFOR will either attack the enemy force with enough combat power to achieve the desired results with one mass attack, or sustain the attack until the desired results are achieved.

Note. Disrupt is not only a purpose of the offense, but also a tactical task.

Attacks to disrupt typically focus on a key enemy capability, intention, or vulnerability. They are also designed to disrupt enemy plans, tempo, infrastructure, logistics, affiliations, C2, formations, or civil order. However, an attack to disrupt is not limited to any of the above. The OPFOR will use any method necessary to upset the enemy and cause disorder, disarray, and confusion.

Attacks to disrupt often have a strong INFOWAR component and may disrupt, limit, deny, and/or degrade the enemy’s use of the electromagnetic spectrum, especially the enemy’s C2. They may also take the form of computer warfare and/or information attack.

Attacks to disrupt are carried out at all levels and are limited only by time and resources available. The attack to disrupt may not be limited by distance. It may be carried out in proximity to the enemy (as in an ambush) or from an extreme distance (such as computer warfare or information attack from another continent) or both simultaneously. The attack to disrupt may be conducted by a single component (an ambush in contact) or a coordinated attack by several components such as combined arms using armored fighting vehicles, infantry, artillery, and several elements of INFOWAR (for example, electronic warfare, deception, perception management, information attack, and/or computer warfare).

The OPFOR does not limit its attacks to military targets or enemy combatants. The attack to disrupt may be carried out against noncombatant civilians (even family members of enemy soldiers at home station or in religious services), diplomats, contractors, or whomever and/or whatever the OPFOR commanders believe will enhance their probabilities of mission success.

Planning the Offense

For the OPFOR, the key elements of planning offensive missions are⎯

Determining the objective of the offensive action.
Defining time available to complete the action.
Determining the level of planning possible (planned versus situational offense).
Organizing the battlefield.
Organizing forces and elements by function, including affiliated forces.
Organizing INFOWAR activities in support of the offense (see chapter 7).

Planned Offense

A planned offense is an offensive mission or action undertaken when there is sufficient time and knowledge of the situation to prepare and rehearse forces for specific tasks. Typically, the enemy is in a defensive position and in a known location. Key considerations in offensive planning are⎯

Selecting a clear and appropriate objective.
Determining which enemy forces (security, reaction, or reserve) must be fixed.
Developing a reconnaissance plan that locates and tracks all key enemy targets and elements.
Creating or taking advantage of a window of opportunity to free friendly forces from any enemy advantages in precision standoff and situational awareness.
Determine which component or components of an enemy’s combat system to attack.

Situational Offense

The OPFOR may also conduct a situational offense. It recognizes that the modern battlefield is chaotic. Fleeting opportunities to strike at an enemy weakness will continually present themselves and just as quickly disappear. Although detailed planning and preparation greatly mitigate risk, they are often not achievable if a window of opportunity is to be exploited.

The following are examples of conditions that might lead to a situational offense:

A key enemy unit, system, or capability is exposed.
The OPFOR has an opportunity to conduct a spoiling attack to disrupt enemy defensive preparations.
An OPFOR unit makes contact on favorable terms for subsequent offensive action.

In a situational offense, the commander develops his assessment of the conditions rapidly and without a great deal of staff involvement. He provides a basic COA to the staff, which then quickly turns that COA into an executable combat order. Even more than other types of OPFOR offensive action, the situational offense relies on implementation of battle drills by subordinate tactical units (see chapter 5).

Organization of the battlefield in a situational offense will normally be limited to minor changes to existing control measures. The nature of situational offense is such that it often involves smaller, independent forces accomplishing discrete missions. These missions will typically require the use of task- organized tactical groups and detachments of various types.

Note. Any division or brigade receiving additional assets from a higher command becomes a division tactical group (DTG) or brigade tactical group (BTG). Therefore, references to a tactical group throughout this chapter may also apply to division or brigade, unless specifically stated otherwise.

Functional Organization of Forces for the Offense--Tactical Groups, Divisions, and Brigades

In planning and executing offensive actions, OPFOR commanders at brigade level and above organize and designate various forces within his level of command according to their function. (See chapter 2.) Thus, subordinate forces understand their roles within the overall battle. However, the organization of forces can shift dramatically during the course of a battle, if part of the plan does not work or works better than anticipated. For example, a unit that started out being part of a fixing force might split off and become an exploitation force, if the opportunity presents itself.

Each functional force has an identified commander. This is often the senior commander of the largest subordinate unit assigned to that force. For example, if two BTGs are acting as the DTG’s fixing force, the senior of the two BTG commanders is the fixing force commander. Since, in this option, each force commander is also a subordinate unit commander, he controls the force from his unit’s command post (CP). Another option is to have one of the DTG’s CPs be in charge of a functional force. For example, the forward CP could control a disruption force or a fixing force. Another possibility would be for the integrated fires command (IFC) CP to command the disruption force, the exploitation force, or any other force whose actions must be closely coordinated with fires delivered by the IFC.

In any case, the force commander is responsible to the tactical group commander to ensure that combat preparations are made properly and to take charge of the force during the battle. This frees the tactical group commander from decisions specific to the force’s mission. Even when tactical group subordinates have responsibility for parts of the disruption zone, there is still an overall tactical group disruption force commander.

A battalion or below organization can serve as a functional force (or part of one) for its higher command. At any given time, it can be part of only a single functional force or a reserve. If, for example, a BTG needed one part of one of its battalions to serve as an enabling force, but needed another part to join the exploitation force, one of the two battalion subunits would be task organized as a separate detachment.

Enabling Force(s)

Various types of enabling forces are charged with creating the conditions that allow the action force the freedom to operate. In order to create a window of opportunity for the action force to succeed, the enabling force may be required to operate at a high degree of risk and may sustain substantial casualties. However, an enabling force may not even make contact with the enemy, but instead conduct a demonstration.

Battalions and below serving as an enabling force are often required to conduct breaching or obstacle-clearing tasks, However, it is important to remember that the requirements laid on the enabling force are tied directly to the type and mission of the action force.

Disruption Force

In the offense, the disruption force would typically include the disruption force that already existed in a preceding defensive situation (see chapter 4). It is possible that forces assigned for actions in the disruption zone in the defense might not have sufficient mobility to do the same in the offense or that targets may change and require different or additional assets. Thus, the disruption force might require augmentation. For example, the disruption force for a division or DTG is typically a BTG especially task- organized for that function. Battalions and below can serve as disruption forces for brigades or BTGs. However, this mission typically is complex enough for them to be task-organized as detachments.

Fixing Force

OPFOR offensive actions are founded on the concept of fixing enemy forces so that they are not free to maneuver. The OPFOR recognizes that units and soldiers can be fixed in a variety of ways. For example⎯

They find themselves without effective communication with higher command.
Their picture of the battlefield is unclear.
They are (or believe they are) decisively engaged in combat.
They have lost mobility due to complex terrain, obstacles, or weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

In the offense, planners will identify which enemy forces need to be fixed and the method by which they will be fixed. They will then assign this responsibility to a force that has the capability to fix the required enemy forces with the correct method. The fixing force may consist of a number of units separated from each other in time and space, particularly if the enemy forces required to be fixed are likewise separated. A fixing force could consist entirely of affiliated irregular forces. It is possible that a discrete attack on logistics, command and control (C2), or other systems could fix an enemy without resorting to deploying large fixing forces.

Battalions and below often serve as fixing forces for BTGs and are also often capable of performing this mission without significant task organization. This is particularly true in those cases where simple suppressive fires are sufficient to fix enemy forces.

Assault Force

At BTG level, the commander may employ one or more assault forces. This means that one or more subordinate detachments would conduct an assault to destroy an enemy force or seize a position. However, the purpose of such an assault is to create or help create the opportunity for the action force to accomplish the BTG’s overall mission. (See the section on Assault below, under Types of Offensive Action— Detachment, Battalion, and Company.)

Security Force

The security force conducts activities to prevent or mitigate the effects of hostile actions against the overall tactical-level command and/or its key components. If the commander chooses, he may charge this security force with providing force protection for the entire area of responsibility (AOR), including the rest of the functional forces; logistics and administrative elements in the support zone; and other key installations, facilities, and resources. The security force may include various types of units⎯such as infantry, special-purpose forces (SPF), counterreconnaissance, and signals reconnaissance assets⎯to focus on enemy special operations and long-range reconnaissance forces operating throughout the AOR. It can also include Internal Security Forces units allocated to the tactical-level command, with the mission of protecting the overall command from attack by hostile insurgents, terrorists, and special operations forces. The security force may also be charged with mitigating the effects of WMD.

Deception Force

When the INFOWAR plan requires combat forces to take some action (such as a demonstration or feint), these forces will be designated as deception forces in close-hold executive summaries of the plan. Wide-distribution copies of the plan will refer to these forces according to the designation given them in the deception story.

Support Force

A support force provides support by fire; other combat or combat service support; or C2 functions for other parts of the tactical group. (When fire support units in the figures in this chapter are not identified as performing another function, they are probably acting as a support force.)

Action Force(s)

One part of the tactical group conducting a particular offensive action is normally responsible for performing the primary function or task that accomplishes the overall goal or objective of that action. In most general terms, therefore, that part can be called the action force. In most cases, however, the tactical group commander will give the action force a more specific designation that identifies the specific function it is intended to perform, which equates to achieving the objective of the tactical group’s mission.

There are three basic types of action forces: exploitation force, strike force, and mission force. In some cases there may be more than one such force.

Exploitation Force

In most types of offensive action at tactical group level, an exploitation force is assigned the task of achieving the objective of the mission. It typically exploits a window of opportunity created by an enabling force. In some situations, the exploitation force could engage the ultimate objective with fires only.

Strike Force

A strike is an offensive COA that rapidly destroys a key enemy organization through a synergistic combination of massed precision fires and maneuver. The primary objective of a strike is the enemy’s will and ability to fight. A strike is typically planned and coordinated at the operational level. However, it is often executed by a tactical-level force. The force that actually accomplishes the final destruction of the targeted enemy force is called the strike force. (See FM 7-100.1 for more detailed discussion of a strike.)

Mission Force

In those non-strike offensive actions where the mission can be accomplished without the creation of a specific window of opportunity, the set of capabilities that accomplish the mission are collectively known as a mission force. However, the tactical group commander may give a mission force a more specific designation that identifies its specific function.

Reserves

OPFOR offensive reserve formations will be given priorities in terms of whether the staff thinks it most likely that they will act as a particular type of enabling or action force. The size and composition of an offensive reserve are entirely situation-dependent.

Functional Organization of Elements for the Offense--Detachments, Battalions, and Below

An OPFOR detachment is a battalion or company designated to perform a specific mission and task- organized to do so. Commanders of detachments, battalions, and companies organize their subordinate units according to the specific functions they intend each subordinate to perform. They use a methodology of “functional organization” similar to that used by used by brigades and above (see chapter 2). However, one difference is that commanders at brigade and higher use the term forces when designating functions within their organization. Commanders at detachment, battalion, and below use the term element. Elements can be broken down into two very broad categories: action and enabling. However, commanders normally designate functional elements more specifically, identifying the specific action or the specific means of accomplishing the function during a particular mission. Commanders may also organize various types of specialist elements. Depending on the mission and conditions, there may be more than one of some of these specific element types.

Note. A detachment as a whole can receive a specific mission assigned by a higher commander. That commander gives the detachment a functional designation based on the role it will play in his overall mission or the specific function it will perform for him. For example, a detachment assigned to conduct a raid may be called the raiding detachment or the raiding force of the higher command.

The number of functional elements is unlimited and is determined by any number of variables, such as the size of the overall organization, its mission, and its target. Quite often the distinction between exactly which element is an action element or an enabling element is blurred because, as the mission progresses, conditions change or evolve and require adaptation.