The balance between the tactical offense and the tactical defense has varied throughout history. On World War I's Western Front, the combination of magazine fed rifles, machine guns, and rapid fire artillery made the defense tactically dominant in land warfare. It was not until each side developed new tactics tied to new technologies that movement was restored. By adopting new technologies developed between the wars, the offense became dominant on land in 1940. Today, tactics built around the technology of pervasive surveillance, precision weapons in mass, and C2 systems that can exploit the two provide the tactical defense in land, air, and sea domains with major advantages. This chapter explores the question whether land warfare is again entering a period of defense dominance.

Read the chapter titled "The Rising Dominance of the Tactical Defense?" by T.X. Hammes in Beyond Ukraine: Debating the Future of War, which examines whether land warfare is once again entering a period of defense dominance.

T.X. Hammes is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Center for Strategic Research (CSR).

Learn more →