Deployment of Troops

the formation of groupings of the armed services or combat arms and their arrangement in operational, or combat, order for combat action. Troop deployment may be strategic, operational, or tactical.

Strategic deployment involves transforming the country’s armed forces from peacetime to wartime status. Troops are placed in combat readiness, and mobilization measures are undertaken to bring the forces up to wartime strength. At the same time, units from battalion to division level and higher and operational commands are formed, strategic transports of troops are implemented, and the newly formed groupings are concentrated on selected axes. Strategic troop deployment may be carried out before the war, at the beginning of the war, or during military actions—whenever it becomes necessary to create new strategic groupings, such as fronts, armies, or flotillas.

Operational troop deployment consists in moving the troops of operational commands of various armed services onto the axes or into the regions of impending combat and arranging them in operational formation in accordance with the plan of the operation in progress.

Tactical troop deployment involves taking up attack and firing positions and arranging units of various sizes of all the armed services and combat arms in combat formation immediately before the attack. Tactical deployment may be carried out by moving troops from build-up or assembly areas, from areas of permanent location, or from the march.