Lethal And Non Lethal Fires

Volume 3, Lethal and Non-Lethal Fires: Historical Case Studies of Converging Cross-Domain Fires in Large Scale Combat Operations, provides a collection of ten historical case studies from World War I through Desert Storm. The case studies detail the use of lethal and non-lethal fires conducted by US, British, Canadian, and Israeli forces against peer or near-peer threats. The case studies span the major wars of the twentieth-century and present the doctrine the various organizations used, together with the challenges the leaders encountered with the doctrine and the operational environment, as well as the leaders' actions and decisions during the conduct of operations. Most importantly, each chapter highlights the lessons learned from those large scale combat operations, how they were applied or ignored and how they remain relevant today and in the future.

Lethal and Non-Lethal Fires: Historical Case Studies of Converging Cross-Domain Fires in Large Scale Combat Operations, provides a collection of ten historical case studies from World War I through Desert Storm. The case studies detail the use of lethal and non-lethal fires conducted by US, British, Canadian, and Israeli forces against peer or near-peer threats. The case studies span the major wars of the twentieth-century and present the doctrine the various organizations used, together with the challenges the leaders encountered with the doctrine and the operational environment, as well as the leaders' actions and decisions during the conduct of operations. Most importantly, each chapter highlights the lessons learned from those large scale combat operations, how they were applied or ignored and how they remain relevant today and in the future.

"Part of The US Army Large-Scale Combat Operations Series, Lethal and Non-Lethal Fires is a collection of 11 historical case studies involving lethal and non-lethal fires from the period 1917 through 1991 with lessons for military professionals who will be engaged in future large-scale combat operations. The chapters range from the First World War through Desert Shield/Desert Storm and provide an overview of an engagement, battle, or campaign; the doctrine that applied; and how leaders addressed various challenges and the lessons they learned. The book concludes with a chapter addressing the future of fires and how to address complex mission during multi-domain operations."--Provided by publisher.

The U.S. military does not believe its soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines should be engaged in combat with adversaries on a "level playing field." Our combat individuals enter engagements to win. To that end, the United States has used its technical prowess and industrial capability to develop decisive weapons that overmatch those of potential enemies. In its current engagement-what has been identified as an "era of persistent conflict"- the nation's most important weapon is the dismounted soldier operating in small units. Today's soldier must be prepared to contend with both regular and irregular adversaries. Results in Iraq and Afghanistan show that, while the U.S. soldier is a formidable fighter, the contemporary suite of equipment and support does not afford the same high degree of overmatch capability exhibited by large weapons platforms-yet it is the soldier who ultimately will play the decisive role in restoring stability. Making the Soldier Decisive on Future Battlefields establishes the technical requirements for overmatch capability for dismounted soldiers operating individually or in small units. It prescribes technological and organizational capabilities needed to make the dismounted soldier a decisive weapon in a changing, uncertain, and complex future environment and provides the Army with 15 recommendations on how to focus its efforts to enable the soldier and tactical small unit (TSU) to achieve overmatch.

Operational planning today must further develop the use of fires in military operations other than war (MOOTW). Factors such as emerging technologies in information operations and the difficulties of MOOTW planning make non-lethal operational fires the weapons of choice to achieve the operational objectives in an environment restrained by ROE, purpose and scope. The capabilities of non-lethal fires are manifested through PSYOPS, Information Warfare (IW), Military deception, and Electronic Warfare (EW).

Military forces conduct information operations against one of the most complex, adaptive systems the human mind. Linear thought processes, prevalent in the military, correspond to, and understand well, the linear mathematics that measure the effects of lethal fires. They do not lend themselves well to the thinking necessary for understanding the effects of non-lethal fires on the complex adaptive system of the human mind. While each of the capabilities of information operations (IO) has individual Measures of Effectiveness (MOE), the cumulative effects they achieve, once integrated and synchronized in IO, are not simply a sum of each of the capabilities MOE. Nevertheless, these non-lethal systems, synchronized in information operations, must have predictive effects in order for commanders to employ them with confidence. Therein lies the problem; comprehensive MOE for information operations do not exist.

Tunnell¿s memoir is the history of one Soldier¿s and one unit¿s experience in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Personal accounts of war are a critical aspect of understanding that immensely complex phenomenon. Using a journal which he kept during the war, then reflecting on his experiences while recovering from the wounds he suffered, LTC Tunnell tells the story of the 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment in Northern Iraq. The story of the Red Devils covers that crucial period of time from early 2003 when the Army prepared for war, through the end of so called 'major combat operations¿, and into the start of the insurgency and counterinsurgency. This is a first hand account of Operation Iraqi Freedom¿s earliest period.

Volume 2, Bringing Order to Chaos: Combined Arms Maneuver in Large Scale Combat Operations, opens a dialogue with the Army. Are we ready for the significantly increased casualties inherent to intensive combat between large formations, the constant paralyzing stress of continual contact with a peer enemy, and the difficult nature of command and control while attempting division and corps combined arms maneuver to destroy that enemy? The chapters in this volume answer these questions for combat operations while spanning military history from 1917 through 2003. These accounts tell the challenges of intense combat, the drain of heavy casualties, the difficulty of commanding and controlling huge formations in contact, the effective use of direct and indirect fires, the need for high quality leadership, thoughtful application of sound doctrine, and logistical sustainment up to the task. No large scale combat engagement, battle, or campaign of the last one hundred years has been successful without being better than the enemy in these critical capabilities. What can we learn from the past to help us make the transition to ready to fight tonight?

The information revolution seems to hold a lot of promise to the U.S. economy and the U.S. military, but rigid bureaucratic hierarchies make it extremely difficult for effective integration of operational fires and information operations (IO). As one observes the transformation of the U.S. military and other traditional institutions, they have been ill prepared to meet new organizational challenges posed by nonhierarchical, amorphous, and networked opponents due to adapting unevenly to the information revolution. This monograph serves only to suggest that the U.S. military has adapted to the information revolution unevenly due to constraints by institutional inertia, service rivalries, and conservative thinking. Doctrine traditionally has emphasized centralized control of fires as the most efficient means of matching fires to capabilities, missions, and desired effects. In Objective Force (OF), due to the complexity and importance of integrating lethal and non-lethal fires and effects within IO, employing fires will require positioning delivery systems in a way that allows the ability to apply effects where they are needed. Additionally, as the concept of information warfare (IW) becomes more popular with certain circles of the U.S. defense establishment, it is imperative that the U.S. Army and the fires support community begin establishing effective feedback mechanisms at the operational level that effectively applies IO across all phases of an operation, throughout the range of military operations, and at every level of war.

Deep Maneuver: Historical Case Studies of Maneuver in Large-Scale Combat Operations, presents eleven case studies from World War II through Operation Iraqi Freedom focusing on deep maneuver in terms of time, space and purpose. Deep operations require boldness and audacity, and yet carry an element of risk of overextension - especially in light of the independent factors of geography and weather that are ever-present. As a result, the case studies address not only successes, but also failure and shortfalls that result when conducting deep operations. The final two chapters address these considerations for future Deep Maneuver.