text: Fundamentals of Operations
  tactical echelons below corps level, where more specific outcomes or a higher level of destruction might be
  necessary to ensure the overall defeat of enemy forces. As a purpose or an effect, defeat is often used to
  describe the ultimate outcome of an operation.
  3-102. Defeat inevitably leads to transition. Strategic defeat occurs when an enemy’s political leadership
  and national will acquiesce to the friendly political will, and the situation transitions to a more desirable form
  of competition below armed conflict. Operational defeat occurs when enemy forces no longer have the will
  or ability to pursue military objectives, and the friendly force has achieved most or all of its objectives. At
  the tactical level, an attacking force defeats an enemy defense when it causes enemy forces to transition to a
  retrograde and cease defending friendly objectives. A defending force defeats an enemy attack when it causes
  enemy forces to culminate and transition to the defense before achieving their objectives.
  3-103. When U.S. forces possess overwhelming advantages across all domains, the JFC is able to attack all
  elements of the enemy force with a high degree of simultaneity. Simultaneity disrupts the enemy’s C2 system
  and rapidly disintegrates each component of the threat warfighting system at the same time. However, peer
  threats, by definition, possess a scale and quality of warfighting capability that is too extensive to attack at
  once. When fighting a peer threat, commanders identify weaknesses between enemy units or in enemy
  formations and warfighting systems that provide opportunities to defeat them in detail.
  3-104. Defeat in detail is concentrating overwhelming combat power against separate parts of a force rather
  than defeating the entire force at once (ADP 3-90). Traditionally, commanders of a smaller force use this
  technique to achieve success against a larger enemy force. However, defeat in detail also applies to operations
  that focus effort on a specific enemy function, capability, echelon, domain, or dimension.
  3-105. Defeat in detail requires leaders to evaluate enemy forces in the context of all the relevant domains
  and dimensions of an operational environment. Commanders must understand the various parts of an enemy
  force and its vulnerabilities, and then discern the best ways to project combat power against those
  vulnerabilities. By comparing enemy weaknesses to friendly advantages, leaders begin to see opportunities
  and formulate options. Sometimes enemy vulnerabilities and friendly advantages intersect at a single place
  and time in a way that is decisive to mission accomplishment. That single place and time is a decisive point—
  key terrain, key event, critical factor, or function that, when acted upon, enables commanders to gain a marked
  advantage over an enemy or contribute materially to achieving success (JP 5-0). Decisive points help
  commanders select clear, conclusive, attainable objectives that directly contribute to achieving an end state
  through convergence or other means.
  DEFEAT AND STABILITY MECHANISMS
  3-106. A defeat mechanism is a method through which friendly forces accomplish their mission against
  enemy opposition (ADP 3-0). Army forces at all echelons commonly use combinations of four defeat
  mechanisms: destroy, dislocate, disintegrate, and isolate. Applying more than one defeat mechanism
  simultaneously creates multiple dilemmas for enemy forces and complementary and reinforcing effects not
  attainable with a single mechanism. Commanders may have an overarching defeat mechanism or
  combination of mechanisms that accomplish the mission, with supporting defeat mechanisms for components
  of an enemy formation or warfighting system. Defeat mechanisms can guide subordinate development of
  tactical tasks, purposes, and effects in their operations, facilitating control and initiative.
  3-107. During competition, commanders take actions that set conditions for the future application of defeat
  mechanisms and demonstrate the capability to impose the defeat mechanisms on enemy forces. These
  activities include posturing forces, penetrating enemy networks, and conducting exercises with allies and
  partners.
  3-108. Commanders determine the speed and degree to which a defeat mechanism must impact an enemy
  force or warfighting system. Although rapid defeat is typically desirable, it may be more feasible or
  acceptable to take a gradual approach to completing a defeat. Rendering an enemy incapable of achieving its
  objectives does not usually require total annihilation. To determine the degree of impact on the enemy force,
  commanders consider causing only minor degradation to a threat warfighting system or unit when it is
  sufficient to prevent the enemy from achieving its objective. This preserves friendly combat power and
  applies the economy of force principle. In other cases, especially main efforts against determined peer threat
  forces, commanders typically require a significant portion of an enemy’s force be destroyed.