ADP 3-90, page 11

31 July 2019 ADP 3-90 1-1 Chapter 1 Tactical Fundamentals Commanders consider their actions strategic, operational, or tactical based on whether they achieve a strategic, operational, or tactical objective. This chapter addresses the tactical level of warfare, the art and science of tactics, solving tactical problems, and hasty versus deliberate operations. TACTICS 1-1. Tactics is the employment, ordered arrangement, and directed actions of forces in relation to each other. ADP 3-90 is the primary publication for the offense and defense at the tactical level. It is authoritative and provides guidance in the form of combat-tested concepts and ideas modified to take advantage of Army and joint capabilities. It focuses on the tactics used to employ current capabilities to prevail in combat. Tactics are not prescriptive. Tacticians use creativity to develop solutions for which enemy forces are neither prepared nor able to cope. 1-2. Tactics always require judgment and adaptation to a situation’s unique circumstances. Techniques and procedures are established patterns or processes that can be applied repeatedly with little judgment to various circumstances. Together, tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) provide commanders and staffs with the fundamentals to develop solutions to tactical problems. The solution to any specific problem is a unique combination of these fundamentals, current TTP, and the creation of new TTP based on an evaluation of the situation. Commanders determine acceptable solutions by mastering doctrine and current TTP. They gain this mastery through experiences in education, training, and operations. THE TACTICAL LEVEL OF WARFARE 1-3. The tactical level of warfare is the level of warfare at which battles and engagements are planned and executed to achieve military objectives assigned to tactical units or task forces (JP 3-0). Activities at this level focus on achieving assigned objectives through the ordered arrangement, movement, and maneuver of combat elements in relation to each other and to enemy forces. The strategic and operational levels of warfare provide the context for tactical operations. (See JP 3-0 and ADP 3-0 for more discussions on strategic and operational levels of warfare.) Without this context, tactical operations become disconnected from operational end states and strategic goals. 1-4. An engagement is a tactical conflict, usually between opposing lower echelon maneuver forces (JP 3-0). Brigades and lower echelon units generally conduct engagements. Engagements result from deliberate closure with or chance encounters between two opponents. 1-5. A battle is a set of related engagements that lasts longer and involves larger forces than an engagement. Battles affect the course of a campaign or major operation, as they determine the outcome of a division or corps echelon achieving one or more significant objectives. The outcomes of battles determine strategic and operational success and contribute to the overall operation or campaign achieving a strategic purpose. The outcomes of engagements determine tactical success and contribute to friendly forces winning a battle. 1-6. Echelons of command, sizes of units, types of equipment, or components do not define the strategic, operational, or tactical levels of warfare. Instead, the level of warfare is determined by what level objective is achieved by the action. National assets, including space-based and cyberspace capabilities previously considered principally strategic, provide important support to tactical operations.