Theater (warfare)

For other uses, see Theatre of War (disambiguation).

War
Part of a series about
History Prehistoric Ancient Medieval Early modern Industrial Modern Fourth-generation warfare
Battlespace Air Cyber Information Land Sea Space
Weapons Armor Artillery Biological Cavalry Chemical Conventional Cyber Electronic Infantry Nuclear Psychological Unconventional
Tactics Aerial Battle Cavalry Charge Counterattack Counter-insurgency Cover Foxhole Guerrilla warfare Morale Siege Swarming Tactical objective Trench warfare
Operational Blitzkrieg Deep operation Maneuver warfare Operational manoeuvre group
Strategy Attrition Counter-offensive Deception Defensive Goal Naval Offensive
Grand strategy Containment Economic warfare Limited war Military science Philosophy of war Strategic studies Total war
Organization Command and control Doctrine Education and training Engineers Intelligence Ranks Staff Technology and equipment
Logistics Arms industry Materiel Supply chain management
Related Asymmetric warfare Broken-Backed War Theory Court-martial Cold war Deterrence theory Irregular warfare Law of war Mercenary Military campaign Military operation Network-centric warfare Operations research Principles of war Proxy war Religious war Slavery Theater War crimes War film War games War novel Wartime sexual violence World war Colonial war
Lists Battles Military occupations Operations Sieges War crimes Wars Weapons Writers

Army units and organization

Subordinated element	Fireteam Ø Squad / Crew ● Section / Patrol ●● Platoon / Flight ●●●

Unit	Company / Battery / Troop \| Battalion / Cohort / Squadron \|\| Regiment \|\|\|

Formation	Brigade / Group / Wing x Division / Legion xx Corps xxx

Command	Field army xxxx Army group / Front xxxxx Region / Theater XXXXXX

Temporary	Detachment Patrol Task force Brigade group Flying column Field force Combat command Battlegroup Regimental combat team

In warfare, a theater or theatre (see spelling differences) is an area or place in which important military events occur or are progressing.^[1]^[2] A theater can include the entirety of the air space, land and sea area that is or that may potentially become involved in war operations.^[3]

Theater of war

In his book On War, Carl von Clausewitz defines the term as one that:

Denotes properly such a portion of the space over which war prevails as has its boundaries protected, and thus possesses a kind of independence. This protection may consist in fortresses, or important natural obstacles presented by the country, or even in its being separated by a considerable distance from the rest of the space embraced in the war. Such a portion is not a mere piece of the whole, but a small whole complete in itself; and consequently it is more or less in such a condition that changes which take place at other points in the seat of war have only an indirect and no direct influence upon it. To give an adequate idea of this, we may suppose that on this portion an advance is made, whilst in another quarter a retreat is taking place, or that upon the one an army is acting defensively, whilst an offensive is being carried on upon the other. Such a clearly defined idea as this is not capable of universal application; it is here used merely to indicate the line of distinction.^[4]

Theater of operations

Theater of operations (TO) is a sub-area within a theater of war. The boundary of a TO is defined by the commander who is orchestrating or providing support for specific combat operations within the TO.^[2]

Theater of operations are divided into strategic directions or military regions depending whether it's a war or peace time. The United States Armed Forces split into Unified Combatant Commands (regions) that are assigned to a particular theater of military operations. Strategic direction is a group of armies also known as task (field) forces or battlegroups.

Also in the US Armed Forces the term of strategic is often associated with missile command (troops) dropping word missile out of use such as the United States Strategic Command. However it is an important strategic command that could be effectively deployed in any theater of military operations. A strategic command or direction in general essence would combine a number of tactical military formations or operational command. In modern military, a strategic command is better known as a combat command that may be a combination of army groups.

Soviet and Russian Armed Forces

For example, a large geographic subdivision used by the Soviet and Russian Armed Forces to classify the continental geographic territories with their bordering maritime areas, islands, adjacent coasts^[5] and airspace. The division of large continental and maritime areas assists in determining the limits within which the plans for operation of strategic military groups of forces are developed, allowing conduct of military operations on specific significant strategic directions known as fronts which were named in accordance to their theater of operations, for example Southwestern Front (Russian Empire), 1st Ukrainian Front, Northern Front (Soviet Union). In a peacetime due to loss of a strategic direction fronts were transformed into military regions (districts) responsible for an assigned section of operations.

The Russian term is театр военных действий, teatr voennykh deistvii, abbreviated ТВД, TVD.

United States

Unified Combatant Command of the United States.

Chart 12.- Typical organization of a theater of operations as envisaged by War Department Doctrine, 1940.

The term "theater of operations" was defined in the [American] field manuals as the land and sea areas to be invaded or defended, including areas necessary for administrative activities incident to the military operations (chart 12). In accordance with the experience of World War I, it was usually conceived of as a large land mass over which continuous operations would take place and was divided into two chief areas-the combat zone, or the area of active fighting, and the communications zone, or area required for administration of the theater. As the armies advanced, both these zones and the areas into which they were divided would shift forward to new geographic areas of control.^[6]

References

↑ "Definition of theatre noun (MILITARY) from Cambridge Dictionary Online: Free English Dictionary and Thesaurus". Dictionary.cambridge.org. Retrieved 2011-08-31.
1 2 "Theater (warfare) - definition of Theater (warfare) by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia". Thefreedictionary.com. Retrieved 2011-08-31.
↑ http://www.wordwebonline.com/en/THEATREOFWAR
↑ "Carl Von Clausewitz, On War". Clausewitz.com. Retrieved 2011-08-31.
↑ See Военный энциклопедический словарь (ВЭС), Москва (М.), Военное издательство (ВИ), 1984 год (г.), 863 страниц (стр). с иллюстрациями (ил.), 30 листов (ил.), стр. 732;
↑ "Chapter VII: Prewar Army Doctrine for Theater". History.amedd.army.mil. Retrieved 2011-08-31.

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/18/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.