Great article to open the eyes of those of us locked in the mindset of conflict and violence do not change. Chris Flaherty offers some insight to the fact that tactics and operations do indeed change.

Convergent tactics defended with converging tactics. I say defense but not in the normal sense but a constant synergistic offense and defense responding accordingly within the environment…

As a cop I find this net-fighter verses net-fighter concept a lot like crime, criminals and cops and crime fighting. As you argue it takes interaction and engagement within the environment and its people to fight these forces. Force protection only methods allow easy surveillance by an adversary and hence an easier ability to exploit opportunities. Police see success when they actually engage and interact with their environment with the criminals and the community as do the most successful bad guys.

This is a very interesting piece of work viable in numerous environments. Riskier-and much less control, so more training and mutual trust needed to pull off successfully. With right leadership and personnel very doable. “Chaos and complexity” fought with “chaos and complexity” and the strange attractor being ultimately less conflict and violence!!!

Just my thoughts while sipping on my first cup of coffee this morning. I like the article and the ideas. Thanks to Chris and red team Journal for for posting.

Stay Oriented!

Fred

Interposing Tactics

This article builds on an historical operational problem first set by Liddell Hart in the interwar years. In this article, we will look at a new variation of this problem called net-fighter vs. net-fighter. As well, we introduce the concept of interposing tactics. The analysis will also contextualize interposing and 3D tactics.

Introduction

In 1934, Liddell Hart posed an operational problem with an analogy. He gave a classical example of combat drawing a comparison between the pairing of two types of ancient Roman gladiators.¹ This was the contest between the Retiarius (or net-fighter in Latin), which was a Roman gladiator who fought with equipment styled as that of a fisherman (with a net and a trident spear). His opponent in this example was the more heavily armed and armored Secutor, who fought at close quarters with sword and shield. In this particular contest, the net-fighter made up for his lack of armor by using his speed and agility to (a) avoid his opponent’s attacks and (b) wait for the opportunity to strike. He first would try to throw the net over his rival; if this succeeded, he then attacked with his trident while his adversary was entangled. Continue reading at Red Team Journal