July 2010. 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.
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