Offensive (military)

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An Offensive is a military operation that seeks through aggressive projection of armed force to occupy territory, gain an objective or achieve some larger strategic, operational or tactical goal. Another term for an Offensive often used by the media is 'invasion', or the more general 'attack'.

The offensive was considered pre-eminent means of producing victory. although with the recognition of a defensive phase at some stage of the execution.[1]

Offensives are largely conduced as a means to secure initiative in a confrontation between opponents. They can be waged on land, at sea[2] or in the air.

Naval offensives, such as the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor, can have wide-ranging implications for national strategies, and require significant logistics commitment to destroy enemy military naval capabilities. It can also be used to interdict enemy shipping, such as the Battle of the Atlantic (1939–1945). Naval offensives can also be tactical in nature such as the operation[3] conducted by the United States Navy's Mobile Riverine Force during the Vietnam War.

An Air offensive is an operation that can describe any number of different types of operations, usually restricted to specific types of aircraft. The offensive conducted with use of fighter aircraft are predominantly concerned with establishing air superiority in a given air space, or over a given territory. A is sometimes also know as the strategic bombing offensive, and was prominently used by the Allies during the Second World War on a large scale.[4] Use of ground attack aircraft in support of ground offensives can be said to be an air offensive, such as that performed in the opening phase of the Red Army's operations Kutuzov and Rumyantsev when hundreds of Il-2 aircraft were used en masse to overwhelm Wehrmacht's ground troops.

Contents

Strategic offensive

A strategic offensive is the aggressive expression of war planning and use of strategic forces as a whole, combining all resources available for achieving defined and definitive goals that would fundamentally alter the balance of power between belligerents.[5] However, the planning and execution of strategic offensives are always based on theoretical considerations because it is impractical, uneconomic and difficult to hide a full scale rehearsal of large scale operations.

A strategic offensive consists of simultaneous, tandem or phased operational offensives that seek to achieve specific operational objectives that eventually lead to the achievement of a strategic goal, usually a complete defeat of the opposition, but also destruction of a significant enemy force or occupation of strategically significant territory.

Any given strategic offensive is a derivative of a combination of factors such as national military doctrine, past military experience, and analysis of socio-political, economic and military circumstances.[6]

References

  1. ^ p.220, Glantz
  2. ^ Edward Wegener; Henning Wegener, The Soviet Naval Offensive: An Examination of the Strategic Role of Soviet Naval Forces in the East-West Conflict, Naval Institute Press, 1976
  3. ^ p.135, Fulton
  4. ^ pp.309-312, Longmate
  5. ^ p.8, Glantz (1991)
  6. ^ p.8, Glantz (1991)

Sources

  • Glantz, David M., Soviet military operational art: in pursuit of deep battle, Frank Cass, London, 1991 ISBN 0-7146-4077-8
  • Fulton, William B., Major General, VIETNAM STUDIES RIVERINE OPERATIONS 1966-1969, DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, U.S. Government Printing Office, WASHINGTON, D. C., 1985
  • Longmate, Norman. The Bombers. Hutchins & Co, 1983. ISBN 0-09-151508-7.

External links

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