Recommendations on Implementing an Approach to Defense Combat Planning by the National Guard Forces of Ukraine
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Defensive combat is one of the main types of combined arms combat, which can be organized and conducted both by the forces and means of a separate unit and by the combined efforts of different branches and types of troops. The advantage in defensive combat is formed and consists in creating conditions under which the enemy will not be able to continue advancing and (or) will suffer excessive losses during an attempt to break through. It is necessary to simultaneously calculate a significant number of indicators and criteria for the effectiveness of building defense, which should take into account: the most competent organization of defensive positions and their engineering equipment; use of terrain advantages: heights, natural obstacles, forest areas, deliberate blockages and destruction; information advantage: control over communications, obtaining intelligence data by all available means, organization of close interaction, active cooperation with the local population; high mobility of reserves, rapid response to breakthroughs by maneuvering forces and means; organizing fire ambushes in weak points of the enemy’s battle formation or conducting short-term counterattacks; carrying out measures to maximally exhaust the enemy; careful planning, and others. In order to provide greater independence for the performance of the combat mission of organizing defense, other units may be added or allocated to support the main forces. The added units (forces), firepower shall be temporarily subordinate to the commander of the main unit and shall perform the tasks assigned by him. Their withdrawal from subordination shall be carried out on the instructions of the senior command. The supporting units shall remain subordinate to their direct superiors and shall perform the tasks assigned by them, as well as the tasks assigned by the commander of the supported forces, within the resources (team) allocated to him. In order to improve and increase the efficiency of the defensive battle planning process by the command bodies, an approach was proposed that takes into account the distribution of available forces and means according to the most important combat tasks using the developed table. The developed approach can allow the commander and the command body to make a rational decision on the organization of the defensive battle and the formation of the most effective battle formation, as well as to more clearly see possible gaps if they are allowed during planning.
Authors: Valerii Vlasiuk, Roman Nahornyy
Institution: Kyiv Institute of the National Guard of Ukraine
Language: English
Subfield: Control and Systems Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4412057697