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This article presents a way for leaders who are supporting a maneuver task force and for task force engineers and operations officers to understand, incorporate, and execute the five breaching tenets. It also describes the breaching tenets and presents breaching trends observed at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California. Finally, it presents tools and methods to assist leaders during the planning and rehearsal process of combined arms breaching.
The breaching tenets are-
* Intelligence.
* Breaching fundamentals.
* Breaching organization.
* Mass.
* Synchronization. 1
Intelligence consists of developing obstacle information requirements such as location, size, type of mines, and potential point of breach (POB). To gather the intelligence necessary for success in combined arms breaching, it is necessary to determine the available reconnaissance capabilities, such as an unmanned aerial vehicle, scout platoon, scout weapons team, or engineer reconnaissance team. Once identified, the assets must be focused on developing obstacle intelligence. It is critical that task force engineers work closely with battalion intelligence officers to ensure that information collection assets focus on intelligence, which provides the critical information necessary to plan and execute the second breaching tenet- breaching fundamentals.
Breaching fundamentals describe actions on the objective, otherwise known as SOSRA:
* Suppress means to provide effective direct and indirect suppressive fires on the objective.
* Obscure means to employ smoke on and between enemy positions and the reduction area.
* Secure means to hold the obstacle with appropriate combat power.
* Reduce means to use explosive, mechanical, and/or physical means to destroy the obstacle.
* Assault means to destroy the enemy on the far side of the obstacle. 2
SOSRA actions are vital to combined arms breaching, but they can only be accomplished if the maneuver task force is task-organized properly using the third breaching tenet- breaching organization.
Breaching organization consists of three main forces: support, breach, and assault. The support force suppresses all direct and observed indirect enemy fires in and around the POB or reduction area. The breach force consists of a reduction element and a security element. The reduction element reduces the obstacle by creating and marking lanes; and the security element secures the near side and far side of the obstacle. The assault force attacks through the obstacle and seizes...