Military Strategic Goal: Unleashing Tactical Brilliance for Modern Warfare

By Fouad Sabry

What is Military Strategic Goal

A strategic military goal is used in strategic military operation plans to define the desired end-state of a war or a campaign. Usually it entails either a strategic change in an enemy's military posture, intentions or ongoing operations, or achieving a strategic victory over the enemy that ends the conflict, although the goal can be set in terms of diplomatic or economic conditions, defined by purely territorial gains, or the evidence that the enemy's will to fight has been broken. Sometimes the strategic goal can be to limit the scope of the conflict.

How you will benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Strategic Goal (Military)

Chapter 2: Battle

Chapter 3: Military Science

Chapter 4: Military Strategy

Chapter 5: Military

Chapter 6: Military Doctrine

Chapter 7: Military Intelligence

Chapter 8: Military Operation

Chapter 9: Operational Level of War

Chapter 10: Counterinsurgency

(II) Answering the public top questions about military strategic goal.

Who this book is for

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of Military Strategic Goal.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: Jun 3, 2024

Book preview

Chapter 1: Strategic goal (military)

In strategic military operation plans, a strategic military objective defines the desired outcome of a battle or campaign. Typically, it implies a strategic shift in an adversary's military posture, It is the highest level of organizational accomplishment in a military organization and is typically determined by national defense policy. In terms of objective assignment, it corresponds to actions conducted by a theater front or fleet, an Army group, or, during World War II, a Red Army Front.

A strategic target is attained by the accomplishment of individual strategic objectives that reflect intermediate and incremental steps within the overarching strategy plan. This is important because high-level strategic goals are frequently abstract and, as a result, impossible to evaluate in terms of accomplishment without reference to some particular, typically physical objectives.

A crucial outcome of the study that leads to the strategic decision to use military action is the identification of the national objective to be attained by the use of force.

However, military history analysis is rife with examples of the two factors that plague goal setting in military strategies, namely, their change during the campaign or war due to economic, political, or social changes within the state, or a change in how achievement of the existing goal is assessed and the criteria for its achievement. For instance:

Because of the Vietnam War's complexity and diversity, it was extremely challenging to transform abstract strategic aims into specific missions for individual organizations.

This occurred as a result of the economic change that saw the cost of the war escalate beyond the original estimates and the changing political leadership, which was no longer willing to commit to the conduct of the war, but also as a result of the radical change that United States society underwent during the war, and most importantly, as a result of the fact that the United States was no longer a superpower:

The American strategic objective was not the destruction of an organized military machine equipped with tanks, planes, helicopters, and warships, for which the United States had prepared, but rather the preservation of a fragile regime against the lightly armed attacks of both its own people and the North Vietnamese.

For fear of a Chinese or Soviet military response, the United States did not plan to capture North Vietnam. Similarly, the United States assumed that the Vietnam War did not justify the full scope of its might.

{End Chapter 1}

Chapter 2: Battle

A battle is a conflict that takes place in armed conflict between opposing military forces, regardless of their size or number. Typically, a war consists of numerous engagements. In general, a battle is a clearly defined military engagement in terms of time, space, and force commitment. Skirmishes are occasionally used to describe an interaction where there is little mutual commitment and no clear winner.

Rarely, the term battle will also be used to describe a complete operational campaign, despite the fact that this usage substantially deviates from the term's usual or conventional definition. Typically, a protracted combat encounter in which one or both fighters shared the same tactics, materials, and strategic goals throughout the encounter is referred to as a battle when describing such campaigns. The Battle of the Atlantic, the Battle of Britain, and the Battle of Stalingrad, all of which took place during World War II, are some notable examples of this.

Military strategy directs wars and military campaigns, whereas fights occur at an operational mobility level of preparation and execution. was how strategy worked.

The word battle is a loanword from the Old French bataille, first recorded in 1297, from the Late Latin battualia, meaning exercise of soldiers and gladiators in fighting and fencing, from the Late Latin beat, which is also where the English word battery comes from via Middle English batri..

With changes in the structure, employment, and technology of military forces, the definition of the conflict as a concept in military science has evolved. The ideal definition of a fight, according to English military historian John Keegan, is anything which happens between two armies leading to the moral then physical collapse of one or both of them, although the causes and results of battles are rarely so easily summed up. When a conflict lasts more than a week, it is frequently because of planning and is referred to as an operation. When one side is unable to retire from combat, the other may arrange, confront, or force a battle.

A battle's main objective is always to accomplish a mission objective through the use of military force. When one of the opposing sides routs the other (i.e., forces it to withdraw or renders it militarily worthless for further combat operations) or annihilates the latter, resulting in their deaths or capture, the other is forced to renounce its purpose and surrender its forces. A conflict could result in a Pyrrhic triumph that eventually benefits the side that lost. A stalemate can happen in a battle if no solution is found. An insurgency frequently results from a disagreement where one side refuses to settle the issue through a frontal confrontation using conventional combat.

The bulk of fights up until the 19th century were brief, with many only lasting a few hours. (The Battle of Gettysburg (1863) and the Battle of Nations (1813) were remarkable in that they lasted three days.) This was primarily because it was challenging to equip mobile forces or carry out night operations. Typically, siege warfare was used to extend a combat. The First World War in the 20th century saw a dramatic evolution of trench warfare with its siege-like characteristics, extending the length of fights to days and weeks. As a result, unit rotation became necessary to prevent combat weariness, with troops ideally not being in a theater of operations for more than a month.

The term battle has been misused throughout military history to refer to nearly any magnitude of conflict, particularly by strategic forces with hundreds of thousands of soldiers that may be engaged in operations or one fight at a time (Battle of Leipzig) (Battle of Kursk). The area that a battle takes up is determined by the participants' weaponry. As in the instance of the Battle of Britain or the Battle of the Atlantic, a battle in this more general definition may be prolonged and take place over a vast geographic region. Battles were fought with the two sides within sight, if not actually within reach of one another, prior to the development of artillery and aviation. With the presence of the supporting units in the back areas, such as supplies, artillery, medical staff, etc., the depth of the battlefield has also expanded in modern warfare.

Battles are made up of numerous little engagements, skirmishes, and individual combats, and the participants typically only see a small portion of the entire conflict. Few British infantry who went over the top on the first day of the Somme, July 1, 1916, would have anticipated that the battle would last five months. To the infantryman, there may be little to distinguish between combat as part of a minor raid or a big offensive, nor is it likely that he anticipates the future course of the battle. Some of the Allied infantry who had just handed the French a catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Waterloo fully anticipated having to engage in combat once more the following day (at the Battle of Wavre).

In order to integrate and coordinate armed forces for the military theater of operations, including air, information, land, sea, and space, battlespace is a single strategic concept. It encompasses the surroundings, elements, and circumstances that need to be comprehended in order to use combat power, safeguard the force, or carry out the mission, such as hostile and ally armed forces, infrastructure, weather, topography, and the electromagnetic spectrum.

The quantity and caliber of combatants and their equipment, the quality of the commanders' skill, and the terrain are some of the main factors that determine the outcome of battles. Armor and weapons can make the difference; on numerous times, armies have won by using more sophisticated weapons than their adversaries. An extreme instance occurred in the Battle of Omdurman, where an Anglo-Egyptian force using Maxim machine guns and artillery defeated a sizable army of Sudanese Mahdists armed in the conventional fashion.

Simple weapons used in unconventional ways have occasionally been effective; Swiss pikemen won numerous battles by turning a normally defensive weapon into an aggressive one. Early in the 19th century, the Zulus acquired a new type of spear called the iklwa, which helped them defeat their enemies. Despite having inferior armaments, certain forces have still managed to win, as in the Scottish Independence Wars. The importance of disciplined troops is frequently higher; despite being vastly outnumbered, the Romans prevailed at the Battle of Alesia due to their better training.

Terrain can also influence a battle. In countless battles, gaining high ground has been the primary strategy. An army that controls a high point forces the opposition to climb, wearing them out in the process. Areas of densely vegetated jungle and forest serve as force multipliers that are advantageous to weaker armies. The development of aircraft may have diminished the significance of topography in modern combat, but it still plays a crucial role in concealment, especially in guerilla warfare.

An equally significant role is played by generals and commanders. Hannibal, Julius Caesar, Khalid ibn Walid, Subutai, and Napoleon Bonaparte were all accomplished generals whose armies occasionally enjoyed great success. An army with a greater morale than one that constantly questions its decisions is one that can confidently follow the orders of its leaders. The success of the British in the naval Battle of Trafalgar was attributed to Admiral Lord Nelson.

On land, at sea, and in the air, battles can be waged. There have been naval fights since before the fifth century BC. Due to their later development, air conflicts have been much less frequent, with the Battle of Britain in 1940 serving as their most notable example. Since the Second World War, aviation support has become essential for victories on land or at sea. Five aircraft carriers were sunk at the Battle of Midway without either force coming into direct contact.

An encounter in which the opposing sides agree on the time and location of combat is called a pitched battle..

A battle of encounter (also known as an encounter battle) is an engagement in which the two sides meet on the battlefield without having either prepared their attack or defense.

A fight of attrition tries to cause an enemy to suffer losses that are less manageable than one's own losses. These losses don't necessarily have to be bigger in terms of numbers; if one side is significantly outnumbered, an attrition-based strategy can still be successful even if both sides sustain roughly equal numbers of casualties. Attrition conflicts were prevalent on the Western Front during the First World War, either on purpose (Verdun) or accidentally (Somme).

A breakthrough fight tries to breach the enemy's defenses and