On Operational Art

Sa？etak The main purpose of any combat is to achieve a quick and decisive result and thereby avoid high losses in personnel and materiel. The enemy can be defeated by weakening his forces over time. However, such an approach to warfare would generally lead to high losses and require a lot of time. The gap between tactics on one hand and strategy and policy on the other cannot be overcome by physical combat alone. The tactical framework is too narrow to ensure the most decisive of one’s forces. This is the main reason for the need for an intermediate field of study in practice between strategy and tactics known as operations or operational art. This third component of art of war serves as both a bridge and an interface between policy and strategy on the one hand and tactics on the other. Generally, the smaller the forces, the more critical is to apply operational art properly. The history of past wars has demonstrated that neither superior technology nor superb tactics can ensure, by themselves, victory in a war