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Combined arms is an approach to warfare that seeks to integrate different combat arms of a military to achieve mutually complementary effects—for example, using infantry and armour in an urban environment in which each supports the other.[1]
According to the strategist William S. Lind, combined arms can be distinguished from the concept of "supporting arms" as follows:
Combined arms hits the enemy with two or more arms simultaneously in such a manner that the actions he must take to defend himself from one make him more vulnerable to another. In contrast, supporting arms is hitting the enemy with two or more arms in sequence, or if simultaneously, then in such combination that the actions the enemy must take to defend himself from one also defends himself from the other(s).[2]
Though the lower-echelon units of a combined arms team may be of similar types, a balanced mixture of such units are combined into an effective higher-echelon unit, whether formally in a table of organization or informally in an ad hoc solution to a battlefield problem. For example, an armoured division, the modern paragon of combined arms doctrine, consists of a mixture of infantry, tank, artillery, reconnaissance, and helicopter units, all of which are co-ordinated and directed by a unified command structure.[3]
Also, most modern military units can, if the situation requires it, call on yet more branches of the military, such as infantry requesting bombing or shelling by military aircraft or naval forces to augment their ground offensive or protect their land forces. The mixing of arms is sometimes pushed down below the level at which homogeneity ordinarily prevails, such as by temporarily attaching a tank company to an infantry battalion.
^ADRP 3-0: Unified Land Operations(PDF). Department of the Army. 16 May 2012. pp. 1–14. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 March 2016. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
^Lind, William S. (1985). Maneuver Warfare Handbook. Westview Press. p. 12. ISBN 9780813346298.
^Combined Arms Breach (video). OEC G&V. c. 2015. This visualization was developed for the Maneuver Center of Excellence and is closely based upon the National Training Center Breach and Assault exercise executed circa 1990. This visualization demonstrates viable TTPs as discussed in ATTP 3-90-4 for the conduct of the combined arms breach against a hypothetical enemy.
Lind, combinedarms can be distinguished from the concept of "supporting arms" as follows: Combinedarms hits the enemy with two or more arms simultaneously...
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force is expected to need 120 hours. The Stryker brigade is an organic combinedarms unit of lightly-armored, medium-weight wheeled vehicles, and is organized...
arms, such as artillery and combat engineers, as combinedarms units. Allied armored formations included a mechanized infantry element for combined arms...
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divisions are usually infantry or armored (sometimes referred to as combinedarms brigades). In addition to combat units, they may include combat support...
Combined-Arms Brigade 35th Heavy Combined-Arms Brigade 160th Heavy Combined-Arms Brigade 235th Heavy Combined-Arms Brigade 178th Medium Combined-Arms...
irregularly armed populace used in frontal assaults to current employment of combinedarms concepts with highly trained regular troops using a wide variety of...
of combinedarms tactics outlined above, British commanders were late to this realisation. Successful combinedarms tactics require the fighting arms to...
Command (TRADOC) by managing and maintaining the home of the US Army CombinedArms Center (CAC). CAC's mission involves leader development, collective...
constant combat preparedness had already been created. Among them are the combined-arms brigade, missile brigades, assault brigades and electronic warfare brigades...