Chapter 1
What is friction?
The force which makes things that seem easy, difficult. It is the force that resists all action and saps energy.
War is an act of ____?
Policy
What is force planning?
Planning that is associated with the creation and maintenance of military capabilities that derives from a common set of concepts which describe how MARFOR’s operate and perform key functions.
What is the main effort?
The Main effort is the action that is the most critical for mission success at the given moment, The unit given the responsibility of accomplished the key mission is the main effort and afforded all the support necessary to accomplish the mission.
Define the nature of war
The nature of war is a violent struggle between two hostile, independent, and irreconcilable wills. This results in continuous competitive interaction that produces uncertain, dangerous, unpredictable situations that require mutual adaption despite the human factors that make surviving much less adapting difficult.
Give one example of each of the following:
The physical characteristic of war.
The moral characteristic of war.
The mental characteristics of war.
Any of these are correct:
Physical: Equipment capabilities, supplies, physical objectives seized, force ratios, losses of material or life, terrain lost or gained, prisoners or material captured.
Moral: Encompass national resolve, military resolve courage, morale, leadership and esprit.
Mental: The ability to grasp complex battlefield situations and to make effective estimates, calculations, and decisions that make tactics, strategies and plans.
What are the two styles of warfare and which does the Marine Corps favor?
Attrition and maneuver.
The Marine Corps favors maneuver warfare.
What type of mindset do we not have?
A zero defects mindset.
It is important for decentralized command so that Marines at every level of the command structure are able to understand what their purpose and mission is so that they are able to make decisions on their own. It gives subordinate leaders the freedom to find creative solutions to make the intent of the superior leader come to fruition.
What are the three levels of war?
Strategic level, Operational level, Tactical level
The science of war includes activities directly subject to the laws of ballistics, mechanic, and like disciplines while the art of war is the application and employment of the sciences of war in creative or intuitive ways that produce unique skills and capabilities.
Describe speed and focus in their relation to war.
Speed is the rapidity of action in both time and space while focus is the convergence of effect in time and space. It is the coordination of elements to deliver fires or maneuver together to hit a specific object together production more firepower.
Why is personnel management so important?
It is essential to know what your Marines are good at so that you can leverage those unique capabilities within your unit. This involves a deep understanding of your Marines and how to utilize them effectively.
Why is it important to "flip the map" (orient on the enemy)?
It is used to understand the enemy and it is important because it allows us to anticipate their movements, actions, reactions, and tactics in order to effectively find their centers of gravity and critical vulnerabilities and make a plan to exploit them.
What are the five stresses of combat?
Boredom, Fog of War, Casualties, Discomfort and Fatigue, Extreme risk and Fear.
What is disorder?
This is an inherent characteristic of war, there will always be something that does not go according to plan or is misunderstood. This is used or experienced, you either create disorder for the enemy or experience it in your own ranks.
What is the difference between centers of gravity and critical vulnerabilities?
Centers of gravity are the areas that make the enemy systems functional and/or give them their greatest strength or capability while critical vulnerabilities are the areas within a system that, if destroyed or incapacitated, would cripple the system or inhibit the use of its center of gravity.
Why is having a doctrine so important?
It is essential to teach the fundamental beliefs of the Marine Corps on war so that you can develop a certain way of thinking about war and so that everyone in the Marine Corps has the same baseline understanding of war.
What is combined arms?
The full integration of arms direct, indirect, from the air, from the sea, and from the ground to produce a situation for the enemy where if they want to escape one type of fires they will become vulnerable to another. We create a no-win situation to produce the effects we desire and destroy the enemy.
Define war
War is defined as a “violent clash of interests between or among organized groups characterized by the use of military force.”
What is fluidity in terms of war?
War is ever changing so there will always be a unique set of problems and circumstances that require a original solution. The ability to adapt and apply rehearsed operations to create a solution to a problem that shapes the situation in our favor is the application of fluidity in war.
What is combat power?
The total destructive force we can bring to bear on our enemy at any given time.
What are the four components of the MAGTF?
Air combat element, ground combat element, logistics combat element, headquarters element.
Define surface and gaps
Surfaces are hard spots, where the enemy has either superior strength or there is something that makes what we want to do extremely difficult.
Gaps are places where the enemy has a weakness and we can effect directly. Sometimes we must use a surface to create a gap. Kind of like probing a pillbox to determine its primary direction of fire in order to find out where we can draw its fire in order for the main effort to flank it.
Describe economy of force
Allocating minimum essential combat power to secondary efforts