List of military strategies
This article is a list of military strategies that are commonly recognized and referenced. Military strategies are methods of arranging and maneuvering large bodies of military forces during armed conflicts.
Offensive strategies
- Attrition warfare - A strategy of wearing down an enemy to the point of collapse through continuous loss of personnel and matériel
- Bait and bleed - A military strategy similar to the concept of divide and conquer
- Battle of annihilation - The goal of destroying an opposing army in a single planned pivotal battle
- Bellum se ipsum alet - A strategy of feeding and supporting an army with the potentials of occupied territories
- Blitzkrieg - An attack that uses concentrated force and rapid speed to break through enemy lines, named after the German World War II strategy
- Blockading - An attempt to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, usually taking place by sea
- Clear and hold - A counter-insurgency strategy
- Counter-offensive - A strategic offensive taking place after an enemy's front line troops and reserves have been exhausted, and before the enemy has had the opportunity to assume new defensive positions
- Counterforce - A strategy used in nuclear warfare of targeting military infrastructure (as opposed to civilian targets)
- Countervalue - The opposite of counterforce; targeting of an opponent's cities and civilian populations
- Distraction - An attack by some of the force on one or two flanks, drawing up to a strong frontal attack by the rest of the force
- Encirclement - Both a strategy and tactic designed to isolate and surround enemy forces
- Feint - To draw attention to another point of the battle where little or nothing is going on
- Flanking maneuver - Involves attacking the opponent from the side, or rear
- Human wave attack - An unprotected frontal attack where the attacker tries to move as many soldiers as possible into engaging close range combat with the defender
- Interior lines - Placing ones forces in between the enemy forces and attacking each in turn in order to allow ones forces to have better communications and allows one to mass all of ones forces against a part of the enemies
- Penetration - A direct attack through the enemy lines, then an attack on the rear once through
- Pincer ambush - A "U"-shaped attack with the sides concealed and the middle held back until the enemy advances, at which point the concealed sides ambush them
- Pincer maneuver - Allowing the enemy to attack the center, sometimes in a charge, then attacking the flanks of the charge
- Raiding - Attacking with the purpose of removing enemy's supply or provisions
- Refusing the Flank - Putting the minimal number of troops required to hold out against an enemy attack while the rest of the army launches a counterattack through the enemy flank
- Scorpion Attack - A Pincer Attack that is supplemented by an air strike
- Siege - Continuous attack by bombardment on a fortified position, usually by artillery
- Shock and awe - A military doctrine using overwhelming power to try and achieve rapid dominance over the enemy
- Turning maneuver - An attack that penetrates an enemy flank, then curls into its rear to cut it off from home
Defensive strategies
- Defence in depth - A strategy to delay rather than prevent the advance of an attacker by buying time and causing additional casualties by yielding space so that the momentum of the attack is lost
- Boxing maneuver - A strategy used to "box in" and force and attack on all sides at once
- Withdrawal - A retreat of forces while maintaining contact with the enemy
- Fortification
- Fabian strategy - Wearing down an enemy by using attrition warfare and indirection, while avoiding pitched battles or frontal assaults
- Military district, also known as Wehrkreis in German
- Scorched earth - Destroying anything that might be of use to the enemy while retreating, or advancing
- Turtling - Continuous reinforcement of an army until it has reached its full strength, then an attack with the now-superior force
See also
External links