Theoretical principles of military engineering.

The main motive for my contribution was the virtual absence of the formal status and general theory (principles) of military engineering.

The main and obvious proof of this is that the latest military encyclopedias do not have such fundamental notions as military engineering, science and art; they describe them in vague and contradictory terms for which reason the essential meaning of engineering support and its organization in some guideline documents is less than perfect.

For the sake of comparative analysis of existing and suggested notions this paper cites definitions found in open encyclopedic and other publications.

Military affairs [voennoye delo], or the military is generally described as a historically established, multiaspect and broadly functional organized system of training for and implementing the state's armed activities.

The latest, 1994, edition of the Military Encyclopedia defines it briefly as follows: "Military affairs is a theory and practice of force organization and activities of the state's military organization, armed forces in peacetime and wartime, as well as preparing the population in the event of war."

Military engineering is an auxiliary, supporting constituent part (branch) of military affairs. Its latest definition appears in the 1976 Soviet Military Encyclopedia: "Military engineering (obsolete) is a branch of military affairs comprising theory and practice of military-engineering preparation of the state and its Armed Forces for war, including engineering preparation of theaters of military operations, equipping and employing the engineering troops, as well as questions of engineering support of combat action of troops. The term used today is 'military-engineering art ...'" (1)

"Military-engineering art is a branch of military art embracing theory and practice of military-engineering preparation of the state's territory for war, organizational development and armament of the engineering troops and their employment in combat and operations, engineering support of combat action. Military-engineering art includes a number of branches relating to fortification, obstacles, demolitions ..." (2)

A simple analysis of the latter definition reveals that it is groundless and unsound to replace the fundamental notion "military engineering" with a partial manifestation of its essential properties--"military-engineering art," to identify as branches of military-engineering art which represent a body of military-engineering knowledge, not to mention some other less important methodological drawbacks.

For the sake of analysis of the sphere of military engineering, we can single out three main interconnected and organized areas comprising this sphere: the science-oriented area, the organization-training area, and the combat application area. The first and second areas function in peacetime, all three function in wartime (Fig. 1).

The science-oriented functional area is the source of a great variety of specialized military-engineering, scientific and practical knowledge and particular theories that form military-engineering science as the theoretical basis of military engineering.

The organization-training functional area is represented by scientific-practical processes of the organizational-structural forming and equipping the engineering troops, military-engineering training of the Armed Forces, special-purpose participation in the development and production of engineering equipment and fitting out the Armed Forces with it, the building and expanding the state's engineering infrastructure.

The combat application functional area is a direct and practical process of profession-specific "engineering" support of preparation for and conduct of military operations by the state's Armed Forces, the efficiency of which is predetermined by the overall efficiency of all research and organizational-training components of military engineering.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

The functional status of military engineering and the competence of engineering support are established by the higher administration bodies of the state.

The occupational specifics of military engineering are substantiated and determined by military-engineering science.

Based on our analysis and a rough description of military engineering we can briefly define its essence as follows.

Military engineering is a historically established composite part (branch) of military affairs with a certain functional status and occupational specifics that embrace indissolubly related to military-engineering science and scientific practice of organizational development of the branch and engineering activities of the state's military organization in peacetime and wartime.

Really functioning at the present time, military-engineering science has not been formally defined or confirmed as existing in a document.

Analyzing the meaning of military-engineering science and various approaches to interpreting and defining its essence it is possible to find that the main specific feature of the subject we are trying to define is its close methodological link to military science and its being firmly rooted in natural and technical sciences transformed and singled out as basic military-engineering knowledge.

Regarding military-engineering science as a specific component of military science and basic sciences, let us turn to existing definitions.

"Military science is a system of knowledge about laws, strategic character of war, the ways to prevent it, organizational development and training of the armed forces and the country for war, methods of conducting armed struggle." (3)

"Science is a sphere of human activities whose function is to accumulate and theoretically systematize objective knowledge about reality; it includes both activities to acquire new knowledge and their result--a scope of knowledge that underlies a scientific picture of the world ... Its immediate objectives are to describe, explain and predict processes and phenomena of reality on the basis of laws discovered by it." (4)

Summing up the results of analysis and encyclopedia definitions and concretizing them on the basis of appropriate subjects of military engineering, we can decide on the following interpretation.

Military-engineering science is a special component of generality of military and fundamental sciences; an aggregate, determined by functions and contents of military engineering, of basic scientific knowledge; approved general and particular scientific and practical theories the stated objectives of which are to describe, explain and predict military-engineering processes, as well as provide scientifically substantiated recommendations in matters of the state's military-engineering development, organization and training activities of its functional entities, organization and implementation of engineering support of preparation for and conduct of military operations of the Armed Forces (Fig. 2).

The aggregate of basic military-engineering knowledge essentially forms a fundamental division of military-engineering science, which is "military engineering."

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

An appropriate range of scientific and practical theories coupled with basic knowledge of military-engineering science forms its separate division: "military-engineering art."

"Art is a high degree of ability, mastery in any sphere of activity." (5)

"Military art is theory and practice of preparing for and conducting military operations ... It includes strategy, operational art and tactics which are closely interconnected and interdependent." (6)

"Military theory is a system of generalized ideas, provisions, scientific knowledge about phenomena of war and military affairs. It is formed on the basis of military practice, reveals its regularities and tendencies and serves its purposes." (7)

Military practice is a type of social practice; material, sensual-object, goal-establishing activity concerned with creating and employing military force.

Military-engineering art is a specific organic component of military art with the only distinction that it finds its reflection not only in peacetime but also in wartime during the process of creating and developing the state's military infrastructure, in particular, engineer equipment on its territory. Theoretical principles of military-engineering art are studied and developed in the system of military-engineering science.

Military-engineering art becomes a criterion for validity of military-engineering theories in organizing and implementing engineer support and it is assessed in terms of quality and effectiveness of implementing the appropriate measures and tasks.

Based on the above, we offer for your consideration the following brief interpretation of "military-engineering art."

Military-engineering art is theory and practice-based on scientific knowledge, historical experience and creative approach--of high professional skills of military-engineering foresight and forecasting, organization and implementation of engineer preparation of the state's territory, preparing for and conducting military action of its Armed Forces on strategic, operational and tactical scales (Fig. 3).

Military operations represent an organized process of armed struggle between sides. Description and interpretation of any military processes in military sciences are methodologically supposed to determine their essence, general and particular objectives and methods of achieving them, contents of combat missions, preparatory measures and organization of accomplishing them. "Tsel" [Russian term that can mean aim, goal, objective] is defined in the Ozhegov Russian Dictionary: "Tsel is the object aspired to, something you need to achieve, what is desirable to achieve."

In accordance with principles of military science theory, general goals of military operations are defined as striving to achieve a certain positive result. Additional goals are to preserve and upgrade the condition of troops and their performance.

Further descriptions and interpretations of the essence of military operations appear to be logical derivatives of different factors defined in accordance with the nature and conditions of military operations, functions assigned to troops, comparative combat potentials of the opposing forces, etc.

Military operations as a process usually consist of two main and consecutive phases: their preparation and conduct, whose cycle--depending on the nature and duration of fighting--is likely to repeat itself continuously until the fighting ends.

[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]

Phase one consists of planning preparations and conduct of fighting and getting the troops in full readiness to perform the assigned missions. Phase two consists in direct performance of combat missions of different types and scale.

Engineer support is essentially a component and simultaneously a functioning part of the process of military operations. It consists in organized performance of its special measures and tasks to effectively help the troops to achieve their strategic and operational-tactical objectives (Fig. 4).

The latest edition of the Military Encyclopedia defines the essence of engineer support as follows.

[FIGURE 4 OMITTED]

"ENGINEER SUPPORT is a type of operational (combat) support of combat operations of troops (forces); a package of engineer measures and tasks performed for the purposes of creating for the troops favorable conditions for timely and undetected movement to contact, deployment for battle, the carrying out by them of a maneuver and for the performance of the assigned combat missions, for increasing their protection from various modern weapons, especially nuclear and precision weapons, as well as for inflicting losses on the enemy and hamper its operations. (8)

"Under modern conditions, ENGINEER SUPPORT of combat and operation includes: engineer reconnaissance of the enemy, terrain and installations; engineer preparation of the terrain; search for and destruction (defusing) of enemy nuclear mines; destruction of detected reconnaissance and signaling devices of the enemy; clearing and maintenance of lanes through artificial obstacles and rubble from collapsing buildings; clearing the terrain and installations of mines; preparation and maintenance of lines of march, supply and evacuation routes; building and maintenance of crossing facilities for the crossing of water obstacles; procuring and purification of water and building water supply points; engineer measures to conceal troops and installations; support the operation of helicopter subunits attached to units (combined units); enable the troops to negotiate areas of destruction, control floods and contain fires; taking measures against integrated reconnaissance and strike systems and other precision weapon systems of the enemy and neutralizing the aftermath of the employment by the enemy of weapons of mass destruction, destruction of nuclear power and chemical industry facilities." (9)

Analyzing this definition, it is necessary to note that the EI objectives detailed in it, while being scholastic to some extent and tautological, do not reflect the overall qualitative impact of EI on the process of preparation and conduct of military operations. As for the description of the essence of engineer support, it represents a conglomeration of partial operational-tactical contents of EI, some of the functional missions of EI and elementary engineer tasks, which is unacceptable methodologically.

Therefore, based on the generality of military operations and engineer support and cognizant of methodological principles, it may be appropriate to define the contents of engineer support as follows.

Engineer support of preparing and conducting military operations has as its aim to create the necessary conditions for putting the troops in full readiness for the performance of assigned missions and direct assistance in upgrading their survivability, maneuverability, dynamic quality of offensive and stability of defense, as well as containing the enemy or obstructing its operations by inflicting upon it engineer-related damage and creating a tactical situation conducive to its effective and comprehensive defeat.

These objectives are achieved through staying always on top of the engineer situation; being fully equipped and having highly trained personnel and operation-ready assets of engineer munitions and equipment; maximal protection, concealment and prepared field locations of troops; the possibility to move forward and negotiate natural and artificial obstacles in appropriate sectors at an appropriate rate; the ability to oppose the enemy by effective engagement of its troops and installations using engineer munitions, skilful application of engineer knowledge, personnel and assets.

Like military operations, the process of engineer support has two stages: preparation of engineer support and its implementation.

Preparation of engineer support involves planning and a number of practical activities to get the troops in full readiness for the performance of EI missions.

The planning of engineer support is the main theoretical component of EI preparation consisting in detailed development of a thoroughly substantiated, carefully adjusted plan of engineer support and its preparation with respect to every stage of military operations.

It is easy to see from analysis of history of the development of engineer support organization that there occurred, in the 1970s, a distortion of the essence and contents of its questions by directly identifying them with the theory of organization of combined-arms combats and operations. This distortion still persists in existing documents and is found in drafts of new guideline and training documents of the engineer troops. In particular, we can see there the "concept of engineer support," "concept and procedure of performing engineer support missions," and so on which are not defined logically enough. As for "planning," a fundamental notion, it still remains part of a detailed elaboration of plans of engineering chiefs. Furthermore, included as belonging to EI organization for some reasons are engineer reconnaissance activities, whereas organization of engineer-technical support is described not as a basic part of EI organization but as a separate area of engineer-technical activities.

It would be appropriate in this connection to somewhat amend the wording of the principles of engineer support organization (in a general way) and describe it as a process of systematic theoretically supervised and practically guided activity to prepare and implement measures and perform missions to successfully achieve the assigned goals.

NOTES:

1. Sovetskaya voennaya entsiklopediya, Vol. 2, Voenizdat Publishers, Moscow, 1976, p. 221.

2. Ibidem.

3. Voennaya entsiklopediya, Vol. 2, Voenizdat Publishers, Moscow, 1994, p. 130.

4. Rossiiskiy entsiklopedicheskiy slovar, Book 2, Nauchnoye izdatelstvo "Bolshaya Rossiiskaya entsiklopediya," Moscow, 2001, p. 1027.

5. Rossiiskiy entsiklopedicheskiy slovar, Book 1, Nauchnoye izdatelstvo "Bolshaya Rossiiskaya entsiklopediya," Moscow, 2001, p. 595.

6. Voennaya entsiklopediya, Vol. 2, p. 150.

7. Ibid., Vol. 8, p. 60.

8. Voennaya entsiklopediya, Vol. 3, Voenizdat Publishers, Moscow, 1995, p. 341.

9. Ibid., p. 341.

Col. V.V. IVASHKOV (Res.)

Col. Viktor Vassilyevich IVASHKOV was born on 20 May 1949. Educated at Kaliningrad Military Engineering School (1969) and the Military Engineering Academy (1984). Winner of the 1984 All-Union Competition for the best military engineering paper, author of military engineering research papers and publications. Served in the Airborne Troops in positions ranging from underwater demolition platoon commander to deputy chief of Airborne Troops military engineering troops to lecturer of the Military Engineering Academy.

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