Order of battle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An order of battle (often abbreviated as ORBAT, OOB, O/B, or OB) is an organizational tool used by military intelligence to list and analyze enemy military units. In United States Army practice, an order of battle should relate what an American unit might be expected to encounter while on field operations. Orders of battle analyze enemy units, personnel, and equipment.
The United States Army breaks down an order of battle entry by the following factors:
- Composition: the command structure and organization of headquarters and subunits
- Disposition: geographical locations of unit headquarters and subunits
- Strength
- Training
- Tactics used by the enemy unit
- Logistics: how the enemy unit obtains its supplies
- Combat Effectiveness
- Electronic Technical Data
- Miscellaneous
- Personalities
- Unit history
- Uniforms and insignia
The collection of order-of-battle data is the responsibility of the unit commander, through the G-2/J-2 (intelligence) section. A U.S. Army military intelligence group maintains an Order of Battle Section.
The rule of thumb used by American military intelligence is that each unit should keep track of enemy subunits two echelons down: that is, a division should monitor enemy units confronting it down to battalion, a brigade should monitor enemy units down to companies, and a battalion should monitor enemy forces down to platoons. General George S. Patton was one of the first to recommend this practice.
The United States military's intelligence capabilities in the 21st century have allowed for monitoring even further than two echelons down the chain. It is quite common for a US battalion sized force to be able to identify the location and activities of not only squad level enemy forces but even individual vehicles. This "situational awareness" provides a more complete picture of the battlefield for US forces.
The term is also used by historians and war gamers to list the organization and unit structure of both sides in a battle.
Up until and through the Cold War, order of battle was generally an orderly process because both NATO and Warsaw Pact nations had well known order of battle, tactics, techniques and procedures. However, on the modern battlefield against a non-traditional enemy (insurgents, terrorists, etc) order of battle requires a lot of data and analysis to provide an accurate and timely picture to the combat commander.
The British Army and UK forces use ORBAT to describe the structure of both friendly and enemy forces.
