Engineer Doctrine in a 2,000 words or less, a primer in the breach[1]

--- Indy <kochte@stsci.edu> wrote:

> I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts as to how
> to
> use/run/work engineering platoons/companies in DSII.

OK, when I say maneuver forces I mean tankers and
infantry.  If I use any other arcane words without
explaining, let me know.

In the attack there's one rule.  SOSRA!

Supress:  Throw enough fire on the enemy to keep them
pinned down.  Artillery and tankers are best for this.
 Try to push the enemy away from the breach site.

Obscure:  Drop smoke on the obstacle and in the line
of site of enemy defenders.  Where possible, try to
pick a breach site that is covered by terrain.

Secure:  Move your maneuver forces up and out over the
flanks to try and use fire to get rid of all the enemy
forces that can still threaten the engineers.

Reduce:  That's the engineer's actual job.  Actual
mechanics of the breach depend on nature of the
obstacle and resources available.

Assault:  Have a designated assault force which will
roll through the breach.  There's nothing more
pointless than taking heavy casualties creating a
breach only to find that you have nothing left to push
through the breach to take the objective.

Specifics depend on the mission.

Deliberate Attack:  You know pretty much where the
obstacles are, and breaching them is a focus for one
of your subunits (platoon + EN PLT if the attacking
force is company, company + EN assets if attacking
force is batallion).  So that unit focuses on nothing
but getting the engineers to the breach.  Also on the
plus side, you've got a lot of artillery with smoke
rounds (that's what those light artillery units, ie
batallion mortars are good for) and even more with MAK
and HEF to supress.

Hasty Attack:  Simillar except you get to plan on the
fly.  Still have a designated breach unit (maneuver +
EN), but there's a tendency to let it get into fights.
 Also since the situation is real fluid, there's a
tendency to want to have scatterable minefields
available to throw out to cover flanks and prevent
counter-attacks.

Movement to Contact:  Engineers shouldn't have much of
a job.	Maybe some WAM or MOPMS point obstacles to cut
down on counter-attacks and some Volcanoes
(mechanically dispensed scatterable minefields
launched from the back of an M548 cargo track) to
secure flanks.

During a defense you don't need to worry about
breaches, but you need to do obstacle planning. 
That's a bit of an arcane science, but some general
rules.	

1)Weapons ranges.  This determines where your
obstacles are in relation to the friendlies.  If
you're fighting the Parumphians and you know that the
Parumphian POS-class main battle tank is their
mainstay and it carries an HKP/4 that means their
weapons are pretty spiffy out to 42" and still work
out to 54".  Now, you're digging in the 1st
Gildenstern Jaeger Batallion and their main anti-armor
unit is Delta Company with GMS/H-armed Jeeps.  Your
weapons are effective out to 48".  So that means you
want your delay and fix obstacles out from 48-42" from
the Gildenstern Jaeger units.  If you have time, put
in another belt at 30-36" so that you get in a couple
shots from the GMS/Ls before they get into short
range.	:)

2)Effects desired.  There's basically 5 things you can
do with a obstacle group.  You can block, which means
a deep obstacle that requires multiple breaches to
actually create a lane.  Really resource-intensive and
frequently narrow enough to bypass unless carefully
planned.  Second, you can turn enemies.  This is sort
of a slanted, narrower block obstacle which
channelizes enemy maneuver into a fire sack where your
fires can kill them.  Third, you can throw in delay
minefields.  Disrupt obstacles force them to commit
engineering resources prematurely and break up
formations.  Generally a loose group that could be
bypassed, but consumes time.  Fourth, fix.  The idea
behind a fix obstacle is that it's in the middle of
the fire sack and is used to hold the enemy in place
where you want him to die under the integrated direct
and indirect fires of your main effort.  Fifth are
protective minefields, which are used for close-in
protection against the enemy's final assault.  

3)Fires integration.  An obstacle not covered by, at a
minimum observation and indirect fire is NOT an
obstacle.  Obstacles don't kill any more than a couple
vehicles unless the enemy is total morons.  But you
can do some serious damage to them if you use the fact
that they are holding still to inflict damage.

4)Planning cycle:  Figure out what you want to do to
the enemy.  Figure out how to do this with direct
fire.  Then plan your indirect fire plan.  Then your
obstacles.  Make sure all of these support what you
want to do to the enemy.  Make sure you have observers
in place to cover likely avenues of approach, and
never, ever, ever leave an obstacle unattended.

5)Resources and time available.  You'll never have all
the time, mines, wire, WAMs, etc to do what you want
to do, especially in a hasty defense.  Prioritize,
prioritize, prioritize.

> > Speaking of which, I still havn't gotten my
> > retroactive Carter Island Award certificate. . .
> :)
> 
> Send me your addr, John, and I'll get it out to ya.

John M. Atkinson
C CO 299 EN BN 
Box 125
Fort Hood, TX 76544

John

[1]Speaking of puns. . . 

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