04 – Vertical Manoeuvre link with ATP 3.2.1.3 Definition
LTC Dennis Jahn, DEU (A)
NATO Mountain Warfare Centre of Excellence
Head of the Doctrine and Standardization Branch
Military Mountain Guide
Email: dennis.jahn@mwcoe.org
Summary
The Doctrine and Standardization Branch (DSB) of the MW COE is responsible for creating NATO regulations in order to establish common knowledge about tactics, techniques and general procedures in Mountain Warfare (MW). At the MW Congress 2023 the DSB was responsible for organizing and conducting the theoretical (presentation) part. The participants were offered a very diverse programme on the topic of vertical manoeuvre; 22 speakers from 10 countries and 4 COEs contributed to the topic, divided into joint functions: manoeuvre, fire, and sustainment. This gave the participants a comprehensive overview of various different approaches to the topic of the Congress: “Vertical Manoeuvre in Mountain Warfare”.
Background
As there is currently no official definition of vertical manoeuvre, it was the responsibility of the DSB to establish one, based on the available knowledge and experience.
The process of standardization is divided into three dimensions: Operational, Materiel and Administrative. One sub-topic within the administrative dimension is terminology. As we began to plan the Congress, our first question was: What does vertical manoeuvre mean? With this question the work for the DSB began.
We decided to divide the approach into three phases in order to find a definition for the term ‘vertical manoeuvre’.
First phase: Research: Maybe a definition already existed.
Second Phase: Brainstorming: If there was no definition, we had to create one.
Third Phase: Conclusion/Proposal
First, we checked the Official NATO Terminology Database on the NSO webpage for the term ‘vertical manoeuvre’. We are not giving away a secret when we say an official definition does not exist.
Next step: we only used the word vertical. There are many entries related to ‘vertical’, but none in connection with ‘manoeuvre’ or the mountainous environment. We began the next attempt with the word manoeuvre. First success: a definition exists which fits our topic. Manoeuvre: “Employment of forces on the battlefield through movement in combination with fire, or fire potential, to achieve a position of advantage in respect to the enemy in order to accomplish the mission.”
Then we checked the topic-related Doctrines/STANAGS, e.g. AJP-3.2 “Allied Joint Doctrine for Land Operations” or ATP-3.2.1 “Conduct of Land Tactical Activities” for the term vertical manoeuvre. We also checked our mountain-related documents, the ATrainP-6 “Mountain Training and Education” and ATP-3.2.1.3 “Conduct of Land Tactical Operations in the Mountainous Environment (Final Draft)”.
Result = no definition exists for the term vertical manoeuvre.
Next, we applied the same approach as to the NATO Terminology Database. First we checked the term vertical; there were some entries with the term vertical, but in the end they were not very helpful.
Then we scanned the doctrines for the term manoeuvre and came to the same result as before. Manoeuvre: “Employment of forces on the battlefield […]”. So we decided to retain the already existing definition for manoeuvre.
In the final step of the research phase we checked open sources for the term vertical manoeuvre. For the word manoeuvre the first challenge was the spelling: manoeuvre vs. maneuver; we checked both, but the result was the same. Most of the definitions are related to flight manoeuvre, aircraft performance or manoeuvre in general. For the term ‘vertical’, open sources provided the following definition: “vertical describes something that rises straight up from a horizontal line or plane”. However, the term ‘vertical’ is not necessarily limited to mountain terrain. The term is generally understood in relation to up and down movement in reference to a horizontal line.
With the definition of manoeuvre ‘in the backpack’, we moved on to Phase 2: Brainstorming. First, we wrote down all the terms related to the term ‘vertical’, with a focus on mountains, that came to mind. Then we did the same again for the terms ‘mountain’ and ‘mountainous environment’. The idea was to check whether the term ‘vertical’ is only related to mountains. Finally, we convinced ourselves that the term ‘vertical’ can be applied to various other environments, such as air, water, the urban environment, coastlines, and many more.
The term ‘vertical’ generally refers to deviations from a horizontal line upwards and downwards, regardless of the environment being considered. In the context of three-dimensional space, vertical refers to the up-and-down direction.
It does not matter at all whether it is mountainous terrain, a coastal region, a canyon or a city (urban environment); for movements up and down in these areas we face the same challenges: we must operate in difficult/extreme terrain. This means that specially trained forces with appropriate equipment are required. This does not only matter to land forces, it relates to all forces and services, for example air (helicopters), maritime (marines), logistics and so on.
If we now combine the definitions of ‘vertical’ and ‘manoeuvre’, this should result in a definition of ‘vertical manoeuvre’. We developed two options; the basis for both possibilities was the already exciting definition of “Manoeuvre”.
Taking into account all the other aspects mentioned earlier, we favoured the second option:
“Employment of forces in a mountainous environment or areas with significant changes in altitude through vertical movement (air, ground or even water) in combination with fire to achieve a position of advantage in respect of the enemy in order to accomplish the mission. Vertical Manoeuvre requires specially trained forces with appropriate equipment.”
This or alternative proposals needed to be discussed further. To achieve this, we distributed a sheet with our proposals and ran a survey, meaning that we asked the participants to work on it.
Twenty-one Congress participants agreed with the proposed definition; five did not agree and submitted the following remarks:
- Implement the difficult and extreme terrain according to ATrainP-6
- Air, ground or even water = all domains
- Difficult and extreme terrain (mountains, cliffs, urban…)
- Is fire always necessary?
- …or the potential of fire.
We subsequently analysed the results of the survey and used them as a basis for further discussion. Taking into account the insights from the research and brainstorming phases, as well as the survey, we decided on the following definition:
Definition of Vertical Manoeuvre
“Employment of forces in difficult and extreme terrain through vertical movement with a main focus on the domains Land, Air and Maritime in combination with fire, or fire potential, to achieve a position of advantage in respect of the enemy in order to accomplish the mission. Vertical Manoeuvre requires specially trained forces with adequate equipment.”
How does it proceed?
The Doctrine and Standardization Branch of the NATO MWCOE continues to invest its efforts in the area of terminology development, in particular in the building of mountain warfare standards and doctrines, which are the basis of interoperability within mountain warfare capabilities.
Next year, we are planning to conduct a workshop on the topic of terminology, where the definition of ‘vertical manoeuvre’ will be a subject. Finally, we will submit a definition of ‘vertical manoeuvre’ to the Senior Land Terminology Panel in the hope that it will be confirmed and incorporated into the NATO Standardization Office database.
References:
- Allied Joint Publication (AJP) – 3.2 “Allied Joint Doctrine for Land Operations”
- Allied Tactical Publication (ATP) – 3.2.1 “Conduct of Land Tactical Operations”
- ATP- 3.2.1.1 “Conduct of Land Tactical Activities”
- ATP- 3.2.1.2 “Conduct of Land Tactical Operations in an Urban Environment”
- ATP- 3.2.1.3 “Conduct of Land Tactical Operations in a Mountainous Environment”
- Allied Training Publication (ATrainP)-6 “Mountain Warfare – Training and Education”
- Mountain Warfare Concept 0.9 (Mountain Warfare Capstone Concept)
- NATO Mountain Warfare Centre of Excellence Publications: “Knowledge and Principles of Warfare in a Mountainous Environment”, “Physical and Psychological Performance of Mountain Warfare Soldiers”
- NATO Terminology Database
- Open sources: Oxford Reference, Wikipedia, Cambridge Dictionary, Vocabulary.com, Britannica.com, Dictionary.com