text: Chapter 2
  * Media.
  * Indigenous governmental security forces.
  * International and private security organizations.
  * Multinational corporations.
  * Joint, interagency, international, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations.
  Current and future combat operations require the BCT to fight and win in large-scale combat operations
  and limited contingency operations in various types of environments. These environments may be
  mountainous, urban, jungle, desert, arctic, Antarctic, or subterranean environments. Besides the physical
  challenges presented by complex terrain, the continuous interactions of numerous threats, each with their
  own agendas, objectives, interests, and allegiances, influence the operational environment and
  mission accomplishment.
  The human and political dynamics in a peer or near peer fight increases the complexity of BCT
  operations. Commanders and staffs work to understand the complex relationships and interactions between
  threats that produce tactical challenges and opportunities in their favor. Understanding a peer or near peer
  threat is critical to seizing, retaining, and exploiting each echelon in deep operations to consolidate tactical
  gains to achieve sustainable outcomes consistent with the mission.
  Nation-states organize, train, equip, and employ regular forces to defeat an enemy’s armed forces,
  destroy an enemy’s war-making capacity, seize territory, and defend territory. Regular forces often possess
  technologically advanced weapon systems that can match the capabilities of U.S. forces’ weapons systems.
  These weapon systems are integrated into mechanized or motorized combined arms formations as well as
  light infantry forces. BCTs are prepared to defeat enemy forces that include armored fighting vehicles,
  antiarmor systems, air defense systems, manned and unmanned aircraft, indirect fire systems, mines, digital
  communications systems, and cyberspace and electromagnetic warfare activities. (Refer to JP 3-85 for more
  information.) Regular forces also may possess CBRN capabilities and may have access to space capabilities.
  Regular forces’ organizations are hierarchical (for example, companies, battalions, brigades, and so forth)
  with a generally centralized command and control structure. Regular forces can conduct long-term
  campaigns and employ combinations of conventional and unconventional tactics. Examples of regular
  forces include—
  * People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China.
  * Russian Army.
  * North Korean People’s Army.
  * Islamic Republic of Iran Army.
  Note. Near peer threat comparison of the People’s Liberation Army combined arms brigade
  organization structure resembles that of a U.S. Army BCT to include the organic reconnaissance
  force. (Refer to ATP 7-100.3 for more information.)
  Enemy threat organizations employ conventional, unconventional, and terrorist tactics and methods to
  achieve their strategic goals and political aims. Nontraditional threats combine regular and irregular threats
  or criminal elements unified (or allied) to achieve mutually benefitting effects. Additional threats may include
  nation-states that employ regular as well as proxy forces. Conventional threats can operate under a centralized
  or decentralized command and control structure.
  IRREGULAR FORCES
  Irregular forces are armed individuals or groups who are not members of the regular armed forces,
  police, or other internal security forces. Irregular forces employ unconventional, asymmetric methods to
  counter U.S. advantages. Unconventional methods may include terrorism, tactics, and guerrilla warfare.
  Weaker enemy organizations often use unconventional methods to exhaust the United States collective will
  through protracted conflict. They usually employ sophisticated strategies that combine economic, political,
  and informational initiatives to subvert U.S. partners, strengthen their own organizations, and disrupt
  U.S. efforts to accomplish their mission. Irregular forces or complex threats are often combinations of