Manoeuvre Warfare As A Challenge To The Former Strategic Concept Of Forward Defence

NATO's defence concept in the central region called for the Forward Defence close to the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. The aim was to achieve superiority through fire and movement through a manoeuvrist approach: manoeuvre combined with attritional effects. How this was to be achieved in battles of combined arms was assessed differently in the troop-contributing nations and within the NATO Command Structure. This led to discussions among concerned military authorities until harmonisation was reached shortly before the end of the Cold War.