Tactical Alchemy

In the wake of the Cold War, the U.S. Army increasingly finds its institutional focus shifting away from preparing for sustained mechanized land combat. This trend serves the Army’s immediate operational needs and addresses its perceived need to demonstrate relevancy, but it also raises an important question. How can the Army preserve for future use its hard won expertise in combined arms mechanized warfare? The art of these operations is well documented in doctrine, tactics, techniques, and procedures, but the science of time, space, and combat power in heavy division operations is not. In effect, the Army is already lapsing into what J.F.C. Fuller described as 'military alchemy,' denying the science of war in favor of theorizing on its art. The generation of officers raised during the Cold War and tested in battle in the Gulf is fading away taking with it the Army’s practical expertise in the physics of combined arms mechanized warfare. This knowledge is largely unrecorded in doctrine and has long been absent from the core course tactics instruction at the Command and General Staff College. If the Army is to preserve its institutional expertise in mechanized warfare, it must undertake to document, analyze, and codify this missing science. Failure to do so would place the Army at risk of being dangerously unprepared for the challenges posed by close combat with peer and near-peer competitors in the new century.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.