Critical Actions
No matter what technique the Commander chooses there are same basic actions that apply to each. These include:

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• Again, the Commander must clearly articulate his intent. This drives the unit’s planning preparation, and eventual execution.
• As discussed earlier, the transition to the defense can bring negative connotations within a unit. Thus, leadership must be present and be positive.
• You must maintain contact with the enemy. To keep physical contact with the enemy, the establishment of the security zone is vital.
• You must quickly develop a fire support plan. Effective indirect fires will afford you additional time in preparing your defense and will certainly inflict more casualties on your enemy. In developing this plan, you may find you need to reposition your fire support assets.
• You must ensure your defense is tied to the adjacent units on your flanks. Any holes can spell disaster.
• The priorities for your engineer assets will shift from mobility to counter-mobility and survivability.
• You must ensure air defense assets are positioned to protect your forces in the defense. During this transition, forces are extremely vulnerable to enemy air.
• The logistical priorities will change tremendously as you move to the defense. The focus must shift to barrier material, materials for constructing fighting positions, and stockpiling ammunition.
• The more preparation you can do in limited visibility the better.
• You must reorganize and consolidate as quickly as possible. As a refresher, let’s review these concepts.

Reorganize/Consolidate – We have got to the point where we have simply blended the two together to create the term reconsolidation. There is a difference between the two! To reorganize is to take measures to maintain the combat effectiveness of your unit or return it to a specific capability. These actions include cross-leveling supplies and ammunition, reforming smaller units, replacing key leaders, treating casualties etc…. To consolidate is the process of organizing and strengthening a position or objective you have just seized so you can defend it against a potential enemy counterattack. These actions include conducting recon, establishing security, repositioning forces, adjusting your fire plan, emplacing obstacles etc…. As you can see there is a difference between reorganize and consolidate!

SUMMARY 
The execution of a transition is truly a challenge! However, before you can even attempt the transition; the Commander must make the decision to execute. In terms of transitioning from the defense to the offense; the key is reading the indicators your opponent has culminated or is now vulnerable to an attack. The Commander must take advantage of this window of opportunity. Vice versa, the Commander must know his unit during the offense. If an attack is no longer viable for various reasons, he must make the right decision and transition to the defense. Continuing an attack when the conditions are not there for success is perhaps, the worst decision a Commander can make. In either case, they truly test the art of command! 

NEXT MONTH
In our next article, we are ourselves will conduct our own transition. We will shift our focus by beginning a mini-series on air assault operations. We will cover all realms of air assault including planning, preparation, and execution. The series will start with a primer on the basics of air assault. This will set the conditions for the rest of the series. There is only one thing left to say –

AIR ASSAULT!

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