text: The Brigade Combat Team and the Operational Environment
  for relief-in-place by follow-on units and further offensive operations. Such successful
  examples create vivid and informative lessons which sharpen and define the Army’s
  understanding of how to consolidate gains on the future battlefield.
  Various
  2-59. Ultimately,the host nation must have the capability to ensure a safe and secure environment and must
  likewise develop the capacity to maintain acceptable conditions related to good governance,the rule of law,
  social well-being, and economic development. The BCT commander builds partner capacity through
  collaboration and empowerment that enhances the legitimacy of host-nation forces and government (see
  chapter 8,section I). Partner capacity must be sustainable and eventually independent of the BCT’s influence
  to maintain legitimate authority and perception of the rule of law and governance. (See ADP 3-0forfurther
  discussion.)
  Note.Consolidating gains is not the same as unit consolidation. BCT subordinate units routinely
  conduct consolidation upon occupying a new position on the battlefield or achieving mission
  success. (See paragraph 6-30for information on unit consolidation,to include reorganization.)
  SECTION IV – LARGE-SCALE COMBAT OPERATIONS
  2-60. Large-scale combat operations are extensive joint combat operations in terms of scope and size of
  forces committed, conducted as a campaign aimed at achieving operational and strategic objectives
  (ADP3-0). They are at the far right of the competition continuum and associated with war. Large-scale
  combat operations are intense, lethal, and brutal. Conditions include complexity, chaos, fear, violence,
  fatigue, and uncertainty. Battlefields will include operations across the entire expanse of the land, air,
  maritime, space, and cyberspace domains and noncombatants crowded in and around large cities. Enemies
  will employ conventional military tactics, terror, criminal activity, and information warfare to complicate
  operations further. Enemy activities in the information environment will be inseparable from ground
  operations. As in the past,large-scale combat operations present the greatest challenge for Army forces across
  the range of military operations,and asexpressed by U.S. Army LTG(retired) Michael D. Lundy:
  Large-Scale Combat Operations
  Since the Soviet Union’s fall in 1989, the specter of large-scale ground combat against a
  peer adversary was remote. During the years following, the U.S. Army found itself
  increasingly called upon to lead multinational operations in the lower to middle tiers of
  the range of military operations and competition continuum. The events of 11 September
  2001 led to more than 15 years of intense focus on counterterrorism, counterinsurgency,
  andstability operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. An entire generation of Army leaders and
  Soldiers were culturally imprinted by this experience. We emerged as an Army more
  capable in limited contingency operations than at any time in our nation’s history, but the
  geopolitical landscape continues to shift, and the risk of great power conflict is no longer
  a remote possibility.
  While our Army focused on limited contingency operations in the Middle East and
  Southwest Asia, other regional and peer adversaries scrutinized U.S. military processes
  and methods and adapted their own accordingly. As technology has proliferated and
  become accessible in even the most remote corners of the world, the US military’s
  competitive advantage is being challenged across all thewarfighting domains. In the last
  decade, we have witnessed an emergent China, a revanchist and aggressive Russia, a
  menacing North Korea, and a cavalier Iranian regime. Each of these adversaries seeks to
  change the world order in their favor and contest U.S. strategic interests abroad. The
  chance for war against a peer or regional near-peer adversary has increased
  exponentially, and we must rapidly shift our focus to successfully compete in all domains
  and across the full range of military operations.