text: Operations During Armed Conflict
  (cid:122) Maneuver—achieving and exploiting a position of physical advantage over an enemy force.
  (cid:122) Mass and concentration—creating overwhelming combat power at specific locations to support
  the main effort.
  (cid:122) Depth—engaging multiple enemy echelons, enemy long-range fires, sustainment, and C2.
  (cid:122) Preparation—preparing the defense before attacking enemy forces arrive.
  (cid:122) Security—conducting security, protection, information activities, operations security, and
  cyberspace and electromagnetic warfare tasks.
  (See ADP 3-90 for more information on the characteristics of the defense.)
  ENEMY OFFENSE
  6-180. Enemy tactics, capabilities, and probable courses of action all inform defensive planning. Defending
  commanders must see the terrain and their own forces from the enemy perspective in all relevant domains to
  anticipate both threat courses of action and friendly weaknesses that an enemy force could exploit. Defending
  commanders identify probable enemy objectives and possible enemy avenues of approach to achieve them.
  Understanding enemy capabilities in all domains is critical to devising the most effective friendly defensive
  schemes. Identifying enemy limitations helps determine opportunities to exploit friendly advantages.
  6-181. At the initiation of offensive operations, enemy forces seek to disrupt and destroy friendly C2, apply
  overwhelming firepower, and rapidly penetrate friendly rear areas. They use information warfare to attack
  information systems, deceive, and protect their own information systems. Enemy forces use electronic attack
  and long-range strikes against C2 systems, information collection systems, air defense systems, and aircraft.
  The enemy’s goal is to weaken or destroy the joint force’s decision-making, air and missile defense, and air
  combat capabilities, which creates opportunities for enemy forces to achieve early decisive success.
  6-182. A key to an enemy force’s ability to achieve early dominance is to strike first. General considerations
  that influence the enemy force’s decision to initiate offensive operations include when the enemy determines
  the joint force is unprepared for an attack, when the enemy identifies a weakness in the joint force that it can
  exploit, or when the enemy is fully prepared and can commit to operations at any time. The enemy’s decision
  is tied to factors that provide them with the greatest opportunity to win the first battle, which they believe
  greatly improves their chances for success in later operations.
  6-183. An enemy force seeks to establish early advantages in the air, space, and cyberspace domains to set
  conditions for dominance in the maritime and land domains. An enemy force aims to prevent the joint force
  from introducing additional forces into the conflict region and to disrupt the friendly logistics systems
  enabling forward-positioned forces. Enemy forces concentrate their long-range attacks on C2 nodes, logistics
  bases, and assembly areas to disrupt the joint force’s defensive operations and to degrade the joint force’s
  ability to prepare for offensive operations.
  6-184. When enemy leaders commit forces into ground combat during offensive operations, they typically
  attempt to conceal the location of their main effort with multiple fixing attacks on the ground, allowing them
  to isolate friendly forward units. Enemy forces use fires and electronic attack to disrupt critical friendly
  command posts, radars, and fire direction centers.
  6-185. Generally, enemy forces seek to reinforce success, massing capabilities at a vulnerable point to
  achieve large force-ratio advantages to enable a rapid penetration of friendly defenses. Enemy leaders use
  mobile forces to exploit a penetration rapidly to the maximum possible depth to make the overall friendly
  defensive position untenable. Enemy forces seek advantages in both volume and range of fires to
  simultaneously mass fires at the point of penetration to enable rapid closure and breakthrough, fix other
  friendly elements along the forward line of own troops, and target key friendly C2 and logistics nodes along
  the depth of the defense. Enemy forces prefer to use fires to fix, move around friendly battle positions when
  possible, and move through destroyed units when necessary. Enemy forces seek to maneuver tactically to a
  depth that achieves operational objectives in support of their overall strategic purpose. Enemy forces employ
  reconnaissance, electronic warfare, information warfare, and other capabilities at their disposal to both enable
  and exploit initial tactical gains. These are likely to include chemical weapons. (See figure 6-4 on page 6-34
  for an illustration of a notional enemy offensive operation.)