July 28, 2023
Franz-Stefan Gady and Michael Kofman on what Ukraine must do to break through Russian defences
Combined-Arms Warfare is a deadly ballet choreographed to overwhelm the defender by integrating different combat arms, such as infantry and artillery, and services, such as ground and air forces. Its origins lie in the last two years of the first world war. After years of stalemate, the German Imperial Army adopted innovative tactics to break through the layered Allied defences of the western front and thus out of the attritional deadlock.
Ukraine’s victory will not be secured by any single capability or weapon, but by effective use of force, better training and sustained Western support.
This novel approach was not enough to win the war, but it changed the course of warfare. Before 1917 most operations were sequential. Days of artillery fire on a trench gave advance warning of an attack. When the fire paused and infantry went over the top, soldiers would be mown down. The same attack in combined-arms fashion would involve brief artillery fire on the enemy position, combat engineers clearing obstacles such as mines and barbed wire, and soldiers advancing under covering fire immediately afterwards.
Read the full article from The Economist.
More from CNAS
-
Splitting the Atom on U.S. Nuclear Strategy
Podcast
Earlier this year, the Biden administration revised its nuclear strategy, the nuclear employment guidance, which is updated approximately every four years. This time, however,...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Jim Townsend, James Acton & Jon B. Wolfsthal
-
Sharper: Drones on the Battlefield
Commentary
From the battlefields of Libya to Nagorno-Karabakh to Ukraine, the deployment of drones has become a critical element of modern warfare. Will the explosion of unmanned aerial ...
By Anna Pederson & Molly Campbell
-
Why Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran are teaming up
Video
Probably the most surprising thing about the war in Ukraine is that Russia is getting a ton of help. North Korea and Iran are sending it millions of rounds of ammunition and l...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor
-
Putin Will Never Give Up in Ukraine
Commentary
The evidence suggests that on Ukraine, Putin simply is not persuadable; he is all in....
By Peter Schroeder
