text: Introduction
  Assured access is the desired conditions that the United States seeks to maintain in
  potential areas of strategic importance throughout the world. Assured access is the
  result of a combination of geopolitical factors that affect the United States’ability to
  exert influence and project power in a variety of political, economic, humanitarian,
  and military situations. While assured access includes the freedom of movement
  through the global commons of international airspace and oceanic sea lanes,
  operational access is the ability to project military force into an operational area with
  sufficient freedom of action to accomplishthemission.
  Operational access is the joint force contribution to assured access, the unhindered
  national use of the global commons and select sovereign territory, waters, airspace
  and cyberspace. Operational access challenges can be categorized in a number of
  ways. They can be classified in terms of geographical, military, or diplomatic access
  issues. They can be described in terms of anti-access challenges, capabilities
  designed to prevent entry into an operational area, or area-denial capabilities
  designedtolimitfreedom of actionwithintheoperationalarea.
  Army forces, as part of the joint force, contribute to projecting military force into an
  operational area and sustaining it in the face of armed opposition by defeatingenemy
  anti-access and area denial capabilities. Projecting and sustaining forces require the
  capability to secure multiple entry points into an operational area. As a major
  application of forcible entry, the joint force uses vertical envelopment (airborne and
  air assault operations), giving leaders flexibility and depth to set conditions for
  decisive action. Vertical envelopment capitalizes on mobility to surprise the enemy,
  seize a lodgment,and gaintheinitiative.
  The joint force establishes several precepts for gaining operational access. Foremost
  among them is “Conduct operations to gain access based on the requirements of the
  broader mission, while also designing subsequent operations to lessen access
  challenges.” Consistent with this precept, entry operations into enemy territory are a
  means to military or political objectives, rather than an end in themselves. Entry
  operations are planned within the larger context of the campaign’s overarching
  purpose. Without considering the impacts of entry operations on the larger objectives
  of a military campaign it is possible that entry may be gained through means that
  decreasethelikelihoodofachievingpoliticalandmilitaryobjectives.
  Operations during the last 25 years make clear that future entry of forces onto hostile
  or uncertain territory will be necessary for a number of purposes, one of which is the
  establishment of a lodgment. Joint doctrine defines forcible entry as the “seizing and
  holding of a lodgment in the face of armed opposition,” and a lodgment as “a
  designated area in a hostile or potentially hostile operational area that, when seized
  and held, makes the continuous landing of troops and materiel possible and provides
  maneuver space for subsequent operations.” Each service and functional component
  hasanimportantroleinhowjointforcibleentryoperationsovercomeopposedaccess.
  This manual provides doctrinal guidance for forcible entry operations at the
  operational and tactical levels. It describes relationships within the operational joint