TACTICS SERIES: POST 1 | Understanding Tactics: An Overview

Understanding Tactics: An Overview

The mission of every Warfighter is to win--victory is the only option. Winning requires many things: excellence in techniques, an appreciation of the enemy, exemplary leadership, battlefield judgement, and focused combat power. Yet these factors by themselves do not ensure success in battle. Many armies, both winners and losers, have possessed many or all of these attributes. When we examine the differences between victor and vanquished, we draw one conclusion. Winning in combat depends upon tactical leaders who can think creatively and act decisively. This series pertains to all leaders, whether their force is a fire team or a division; it applies to all. Everyone faces tactical decisions in battle regardless of their roles. Tactical leaders must develop and hone their warfighting skills through study and practice. 

Tactics is "the art and science of winning engagements and battles. It includes the use of firepower and maneuver, the integration of different arms, and the immediate exploitation of success to defeat the enemy." This description is from Marine Corps doctrine and reflects our approach to tactics. 

Tactics are the purposeful actions taken to win engagements and create an advantage over the enemy. They involve arranging and employing forces in ways that fit the situation, exploit opportunities, and impose problems the enemy cannot solve. Tactics require an understanding of the environment, the mission, the enemy, and one’s own unit's capabilities.

Tactics is a combination of art and science to gain victory over the enemy. The art of tactics lies in how we creatively form and apply military force in a given situation. It involves the creation, positioning, and maneuvering of combat power. When do we flank the enemy, and when do we ambush him? When do we attack, and when do we retreat? How do we use speed and momentum to achieve a decisive advantage? This creativity is a developed capacity and acquired through education, practice, and experience. 

The Environment

The tactical environment is defined by uncertainty, friction, disorder, and constant change. No situation is ever perfect or fully known, and even simple tasks become difficult under the pressures of combat.

An example of how the environment can further chaos and confusion is the amphibious assault on the island of Tarawa in World War 2. Between the heavy fire, the lack of effective communication, and the landing craft carrying reinforcements and supplies being unable to cross a coral reef, the entire 2nd Marine Division faced eradication. Robert Sherrod, a correspondent for "Time" and "Life," called it "war at its worst." 

The enemy is not a passive obstacle but an intelligent, adaptive force actively trying to disrupt our plans. Terrain, weather, time, and the limits of human beings all add additional layers of complexity. Because of this, the tactical environment demands flexibility, awareness, and the ability to make decisions with incomplete information.

A tactician must understand that the environment will never be ideal. Plans will break down, communications will fail, and the situation will shift faster than expected. Instead of seeking perfect clarity, we must learn to operate effectively within this uncertainty. Success comes from recognizing patterns, identifying opportunities, and acting despite the chaos—not waiting for conditions to improve. This ability to think, adapt, and overcome within a dynamic environment is the heart of effective tactics.

This chaotic environment also brings opportunity. Clausewitz wrote about combat, "No other human activity is so continuously... bound up with chance." The challenge is to recognize opportunity when it arises amid chaos and uncertainty, and to seize it to achieve a clear, unambiguous victory. When viewed through time, even the most chaotic of systems may reveal recurring patterns that may then be exploited. The experienced tactician will look for these recurring patterns that can be exploited to advantage. 

Deterministic vs. Probabilistic

How we view the combat environment largely determines how we operate in it. There are two competing views of combat: Deterministic and Probabilistic. The deterministic view argues that combat is predictable. Among the advocates of this view are military theorists who seek prescriptive rules for battle and analysts who predict battle outcomes based upon force ratios. The other view is that combat is chaotic and uncertain. In this probabilistic view, battle is seen as a complex phenomenon in which participants interact with one another and respond and adapt to their environment. The probabilistic viewpoint sees combat as unpredictable.

The deterministic view often leads to centralized control, micromanagement, and stifled initiative, inhibiting a unit's ability to adapt and change, which may leave them overwhelmed.  

The probabilistic view recognizes the complexity and uncertainty of war, leading to a decentralized approach to control. It places greater trust in subordinates to achieve a desired result through the use of mission order and commander's intent. Subordinates can handle unforeseen situations and seize opportunities as they arise. We advocate this view as it allows us to remain flexible, cope with uncertainty, and operate in an ever-changing combat environment. As one tactics manual put it more than half a century ago: "The leader who frantically strives to remember what someone else did in some slightly similar situation has already set his feet on a well-traveled road to ruin." 

Leaders must remember that there are no fixed rules and no precise checklists, but there are bounds. We study examples of successes and failures not to emulate, but to increase our own tactical competence. 

In the next post of this series, we will review how to achieve a decision in a combat environment.