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America's current and potential adversaries have learned several lessons from watching more than .10 .years of in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of these lessons involves attacking the overwhelming U.S. technological advantage with relatively simple, low-tech improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and other explosive hazards (EHs). Our enemies will use explosive devices during any foreseeable future and the U.S. Army can expect to conduct route clearance missions as a key enabling task to allow freedom of movement and maneuver for the combined arms team. Our current application of doctrine treats route clearance as a mission that is separate from combined arms breaching, but future military operations will require less distinction between them. Combined arms teams will be called on to apply the breaching fundamentals of suppress, obscure, secure, reduce, and assault repeatedly against EHs to get maneuver units to their objective with combat power intact. Route clearance should be defned as the detection and neutralization of EHs in support of a combined arms movement or maneuver to or from a specifed objective.
Addressing the Definition of Route Clearance
Route clearance is typically understood to be a mission that is conducted to remove all obstacles along a given path so that friendly forces can travel safely. This defnition does not imply that follow-on forces will maneuver along this route at a particular time or for a particular purpose. Route clearance, as often conducted in recent is simply keeping a route open because the commander requires mobility along that route at some unspecifed point with some unspecifed force. This defnition is problematic since it leaves room for interpretation. Furthermore, a clear route implies that all obstacles.to include IEDs and other EHs.have been completely removed.1
The current defnition of route clearance requires revision since enabling friendly maneuver along a route implies that the route must be cleared and must remain under surveillance.2 This defnition is also overly broad, encompassing aspects of the counter-IED fght ranging from predictive analysis to forensic evidence exploitation. The defnition of route clearance should be amended to read that the neutralization of IEDs, EHs, and other obstacles is conducted in direct support of a separate unit's movement or maneuver.
Defning the purpose of route clearance as the elimination of a threat along a route is at...