FT-04 is part of the series of founding documents of the French Army's doctrine corpus and is coherent with joint documents. It is also intended as a reference for the drafting of employment doctrine for warfighting land functions.

Read the full document: FT-04 - Fundamentals of combined arms maneuver

This document describes broadly how a land force’s assets must be combined, in relation to the various currently foreseeable engagements. It serves as a reference for personnel developing warfighting doctrine as well as those conducting training, education and leadership development, force generation, planning and conduct of land operations. However, the contingencies of armed combat will always be a central parameter in any engagement. This doctrinal document in particular has therefore a dual objective:

• on the one hand, it is ambitious, demanding a coherent vision of combined arms operations from the Army’s planning and execution actors;
• on the other hand, it must be reasonably limited because its principles must in the end be adapted to the actual operational environment, whose reality is characterized by complexity and responsiveness. It is necessary to extrapolate and to combine the patterns outlined in this manual.

We consider operations across the spectrum of conflict, namely offense, defense, security and assistance  while taking into account all possible adversaries (symmetric, dissymmetric and asymmetric).This document thus encompasses the doctrines specific to each military branch. It regroups field manuals governing the employment of combined arms brigades, battalion task forces and company teams, as well as those related to specific types or aspects of operations (urban or mountain areas, fire coordination, contact with populations, protection of facilities and/or convoys).

Land maneuver can be defined as the manner in which forces are committed on the battlefield. It combines movement, actual or potential fire and non-kinetic effects, so as to gain a physical and psychological advantage over the adversary while accomplishing the assigned mission.This maneuver typically employs combined arms at all tactical levels.

Table of contents

Foreword

I. Combined arms action
 1.1. General Principles of Operations
 1.2. Warfighting Functions of Land Forces and Their Components
 1.3. Tactical Levels of Command and Employment

II. Types of operations
 2.1. Types of Operations in the Strict Sense
 2.2. Specific Features of Certain Commitments

III. The four universal functions of land maneuver
 3.1. The Two Interdependent Functions of Command and Command Support
 3.2. The Intelligence Function
 3.3. The Logistics Function

IV. Land engagement warfighting functions
 4.1. The Contact (Close Combat/Maneuver) Function
 4.2. The Combat Support Function
 4.3. The Maneuver Enhancement Function
 4.4. The “Shaping Perceptions and the Operational Environment” Function

V. Specific and emerging aspects of current commitments
 5.1. Fire Support Coordination at Lower Tactical Levels
 5.2. The Use of Uavs (drones)
 5.3. Forward Posts and Bases
 5.4. Combating Ieds
 5.5. Convoy Protection

This doctrinal manual is part of the ongoing series of ‘Capstone Doctrine' documents of the Army's doctrinal corpus. It is also intended to specify the French approach to operational command in the light of the field manuals and handbooks that our key allies have recently published on the same topic.

Read the full document: FT-05 ANG - The tactical commander's guide to command and control in operations

The French version of this doctrinal manual, entitled L'exercice du commandement en operations pour les chefs tactiques and designated FT-05, was approved by the Army Chief of Staff on October 13, 2010, under the reference 1671/DEF/EMAT/ES/B.EMP/ES/10.

Backed up by historical examples, it is first and foremost intended to provide food for thought for our officers, in particular the youngest of them, but also for each and every commander who may one day be called upon to exercise command and control in operations.

This doctrinal manual is part of the ongoing series of ‘Capstone Doctrine' documents of the Army's doctrinal corpus. It is also intended to specify the French approach to operational command in the light of the field manuals and handbooks that our key allies have recently published on the same topic.

The conditions for the use of military force have changed. In today's typical engagements, military action may represent only one line of operations among many others. This evolution is described in the Army's employment of land forces in present and future conflicts Capstone Doctrine Winning the Battle , Building Peace (FT-01). In a context where tactics has regained importance, ground military action now meets three tactical objectives as described in the tactical manual General Tactics (FT-02): force the enemy, control the environment and influence perceptions.

As command and control functions do not change significantly over time, the foundations of command in operations cannot be separated from those in peacetime, and both tend to interact. The question here is not whether to rewrite existing documents  or to revisit the foundations and principles of soldiering in the Army that have already been presented in comprehensive and detailed documents  . It is, rather, to present in a single doctrinal manual the exercise of command and control in operations for French tactical commanders.

Nevertheless, one should not lose sight of the specificity of command and control in operations which always includes, when appropriate, a choice between tactical effectiveness, or ‘necessary boldness', and fair consideration for the risks in combat, or ‘essential caution'.

Table of contents

PART I. Adapting command and control to the conditions of an engagement to the conditions of an engagement and its strategic objectives

• I.1 The continuum of operations means changing conditions for the exercise of command and control
• I.2 The mission must be firmly defined in a scope concerning all players all players

PART II. Command by objectives through the commander's intent

• II.1 Command and control is not wholly rational but s but still a science
• II.2 Differentiate between the two major styles of command
• II.3 Expressing intent: the best way to reduce uncertainty and promote initiative by subordinates

PART III. applying and combining the six principles of command

• III.1 Simplicity
• III.2 Unity
• III.3 Permanence and continuity
• III.4 Subsidiarity and decentralization
• III.5 Command dialogue
• III.6 Proximity

PART IV. The qualities of the commander

• IV.1 Courage, responsibility and self-confidence
• IV.2 The gift of intuition
• IV.3 The ability to win confidence
• IV.4 An understanding of the general interest
• IV.5 Persuasion and credibility
• IV.6 Discernment
• IV.7 Serenity

While the risk of a conventional war has faded away, especially with the overwhelming superiority of western technology, warfighting among populations constitutes, now and for te years to come, the general framework of combat. This predominance of the human environment, together with threats that no longer have any physical borders, unavoidably changes the strategic and tactical expectations of military action.

Read the full document: FT-02 ANG - General Tactics

The world has been changing for the past 15 years and the operational conditions as well. It was thus necessary to describe a renewed tactical approach for actual conflicts, defining a core of five documents (FT-01 to FT-05), representing the keystone of the French Army doctrine corpus.
After presenting general principles and tactical methods, the document then aims to describe tactical action in order to make it easier to understand and enable for operational preparation. Therefore, it provides the required references for doctrinal application manuals such as unit employment handbooks. Their adaptation to the circumstances is then up to the judgement of the operational commanders.

The global action of land forces is now carried out within a strategic environment that has dramatically changed for 15 years.

While the risk of a conventional war has faded away, especially with the overwhelming superiority of western technology, warfighting among populations constitutes, now and for te years to come, the general framework of combat. This predominance of the human environment, together with threats that no longer have any physical borders, unavoidably changes the strategic and tactical expectations of military action.

In this kind of war, the link between strategy and tactics is reinforced by the decisivemilitary action that is most often conducted at a tactical level in contact and therefore, in a position to seize opportunities.

As a result, tactics regains all of its importance. Facing an irregular enemy, it is no longer a question of breaking-down the means of destruction in a hierarchal fashion, but to emphasize their decentralized use in order to support the tactical action of ground forces. This logic also applies to the technology which must put at the tactical levels' disposal all the information and means that are essential to gain the advantage.

As a result, maneuver extends not only to the combination of coercive means but also to those acting on the physical and human environment. It provides military ground action with an overall capability to force, to control and to influence in order to achieve a desired end state. This is how the link between tactics and military strategy is reinforced.

Based on the actual operational conditions, this document lays down the general framework for the use of land forces. After presenting general principles and tactical methods, it then aims to describe tactical action in order to make it easier to understand and enable for operational preparation. Therefore, it provides the required references for doctrinal application manuals such as unit employment handbooks. Their adaptation to the circumstances is then up to the operational commanders' assessment.

Table of contents

PART 1 . USE OF THE ARMED FORCES AND ACTUAL CONDITIONS FOR OPERATIONS  
1 - The framework for the use of Armed Forces
2 - The actual conditions for operations

PART 2 . TIMELESS WARFIGHTING PRINCIPLES...NEW METHODS  
1 - Established principles
2 - The evolution of methods

PART 3 . TACTICAL PRINCIPLES OF LAND OPERATIONS  
1 - Basic principles to respect
2 - Tactical methods for land forces
3 - Support for land forces