RAA Liaison Letter 2024 - 2025 Edition

RAA Liaison Letter – 2024 / 2025 Edition 107 these tactical advances, the appreciation gained from training and exercises, will provide the confidence to soldiers and junior leaders to be able to conduct manoeuvre warfare tactics against a live and reactive opposition force. Soldiers and junior leaders need to be able to see successful examples of manoeuvre warfare and more importantly understand and be involved. Intent Soldiers must understand the higher intent. Orders such as “We must capture this town”, or “I want you to engage the 145 feature” do not give soldiers the chance to understand the higher commander’s intent, or to use initiative and battle track to provide the best capability to their supported unit. It gives such a basic intent that leaves little room for employing the capability which will best suit and shape the battle space in accordance with the commander’s intent. Why does the commander want this town? Why must this feature be engaged? How does this play in the combat team picture? How does this help the battle group’s intent and plan? How will this affect other elements in the battle space? What are future plans in the battle space? These are questions the enlisted soldiers must understand and fight for this information. Soldiers’ understanding the intent of their Manoeuvre Arms Commander is key to successful manoeuvre warfare operations. Why and how is the intent and scheme of manoeuvre being lost at the lowest level? Many of the above questions can be answered in SMEAC orders, but they are being too censored for the perceived education and ability of the soldiers. Soldiers attend orders from the section to the division, but a conventional soldier does not always understand the way we are fighting in relation to the strategic level. As earlier mentioned, the Australian soldier possesses exceptional tactical appreciation skills, but is lacking the situational awareness for the strategic level. All soldiers, as have I, have heard lines such as “it’s simple don’t worry about it” and “you don’t need to know that stuff.” To have the capability of elements in support who not only know but understand the higher intent will be priceless to the commander due to their ability to shape the battle space and mould it specifically in relation to current events and in preparation for future courses of actions. With a more developed training continuum for the soldier on understanding the application of manoeuvre theory, they will have a greater awareness of the importance in understanding why we are conducting tactics, and will will make the Australian Army a more aware, competent, and lethal force against our enemies in the future. Tactics “Army has embraced manoeuvre theory that uses physical means to achieve psychological ends to meet the political and strategic objective.” (LWD 1) From an anecdotal survey on how soldiers interpret manoeuvre warfare, I have found that soldiers see it purely in the form of physical manoeuvre. It seems soldiers and some junior leaders perceive it as moving towards the enemy, moving around the enemy e.g. instead of a frontal attack on an enemy position, attack the flank or rear. But is that really this whole methodology of war? Offensive tactics like this and defensive tactics focusing primarily on deception and counter attacks will definitely be employed in manoeuvre warfare, but they are not the core tactics to be associated with the definition of manoeuvre warfare. “Army’s concept of manoeuvre occurs within and across the physical, information and cognitive dimensions. Manoeuvre is a way of thinking about warfare rather than the application of a particular set of tactics or techniques.” (LWD 1) Manoeuvre warfare strongly relies on avoiding enemy strengths and to be able to throw maximum friendly forces against their weaknesses. “Its essence lies in defeating the enemy’s will to fight by ‘destroying’ the enemy’s plan rather than destroying his forces. In its most kinetic form, manoeuvre seeks to shatter the enemy’s moral and physical cohesion through a series of actions orchestrated across multiple lines of operation to a single purpose, creating a turbulent and rapidly deteriorating situation with which the enemy cannot cope. In this context, manoeuvre is used to create an expectation of defeat in the enemy’s mind. Manoeuvre focuses commanders at every level on exploiting enemy weaknesses, avoiding enemy strengths and protecting friendly vulnerabilities.” (LWD 1) The easiest way of describing the tactics that must be used in manoeuvre warfare are as follows; the tactics must be coordinated in succession or simultaneous, complex for the enemy commander, rapid, and yet surprisingly to most, they must be abstract as well. By being abstract