As
a continent, Africa presents her armies with a vast, dynamic and
multidimensional operating environment. It has numerous complex and diverse
ethnic, religious, cultural and tribal interests and loyalties, along with many
multifaceted threat-drivers coupled to varied and infrastructure-poor terrain
plus vast climatic variations. The continent is, furthermore, characterized by
numerous half-won conflicts and wars fought by incorrectly structured,
inadequately trained and ill-equipped armies. For many reasons, these forces
have difficulty adapting to the complex, demanding and rapidly changing
environments they do battle in. Similarly, the armies have difficulty in
decisively defeating the various threats they face. Many of these problems stem
from the fact that numerous modern-day African armies are merely clones of the
armies established by their once-colonial masters, their Cold War allies or
their new international allies. Many of the principles and tactics, techniques
and procedures they were - and still are - being taught relate to fighting in
Europe and not in Africa. Some of these concepts are not even relevant to
Africa.
This book is intended as a guide and textbook for African soldiers and scholars who wish to understand the development of hostilities, strategy, operational design, doctrine and tactics. It also illustrates the importance of nonpartisanship and the mission and role of the armed forces. Officers, NCOs and their subordinates need to, furthermore, understand their role in defending and protecting the government and the people they serve. They additionally need to know how to successfully accomplish their numerous missions with aggression, audacity, boldness, speed and surprise. The book provides the reader with valuable information relating to conventional and unconventional maneuver. It also discusses how African armies can, with structured and balanced forces, achieve strategic, operational and tactical success. It covers the role of government along with operations related to war, operations other than war and intelligence operations and how these operations, operating in a coordinated and unified manner, can secure and strengthen a government.
This book is intended as a guide and textbook for African soldiers and scholars who wish to understand the development of hostilities, strategy, operational design, doctrine and tactics. It also illustrates the importance of nonpartisanship and the mission and role of the armed forces. Officers, NCOs and their subordinates need to, furthermore, understand their role in defending and protecting the government and the people they serve. They additionally need to know how to successfully accomplish their numerous missions with aggression, audacity, boldness, speed and surprise. The book provides the reader with valuable information relating to conventional and unconventional maneuver. It also discusses how African armies can, with structured and balanced forces, achieve strategic, operational and tactical success. It covers the role of government along with operations related to war, operations other than war and intelligence operations and how these operations, operating in a coordinated and unified manner, can secure and strengthen a government.
Composite
Warfare draws on the author's experiences and lessons in Central, Southern,
East, West and North Africa where he has served numerous African governments as
a politico-military strategist, division commander, division adviser, battalion
commander and special operations commander.