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2019-09-12

The Human Impact on Military Action

History has shown that it is men who win wars, not weapons. As developed weapons and equipment may be, they are still dependent on the individuals using them.

In turn, modern weapons are technologically complex and require high technical efficiency to be deployed effectively. Although any country can buy arms, countries may face significant difficulties in maintaining them to the high level of capability necessary to engage in large-scale military operations and so sustain hostilities over sustained periods.

The Importance of Combatants

The human impact on military action is not limited to its operational aspect. The modern warrior is, by nature, also a military thinker who designs, innovates and enriches military science with his intellect and experience, adding new theories to solve problems and overcome operational difficulties.

We can thus think of a combatant as one who sets the strategic plans to confront the hostilities facing his side and who then turns these plans into professional training in order to implement an effective strategy. It is the individual combatant who makes correct estimates, continuously updating them within varying situations to make full use of the manpower and weapons that he or she possesses.

Efficiency with Combat Personnel

Combat efficiency is the optimal expression of the combat capability of individuals in their utilisation of equipment and weapons available to the armed forces. The role of efficiency in combat personnel is to ensure that individual combatants carry out their assigned combat missions successfully over a specified period and under differing circumstances.

Combat efficiency relies on two basic elements. Firstly, the fighter individual seeking efficiency through a high level of training while aspiring to attain a high level of morale. Secondly, the combatant gaining consistent access to weapons, equipment and high-efficiency vehicles.

The individual combatant is hence the foundation upon which both elements achieve success together. As an individual, he or she is responsible for the technical reliability of weapons and equipment, while also being an administrator providing for various administrative needs.

Yet the individual combatant is one also trained to reach the highest levels of efficiency and combat readiness. He or she endures the difficulties of continuous training in all its forms and levels, from individual combatant training to participating in manoeuvres across their entire armed forces. And in performing continuous evaluation of training at every stage, he or she acts as an administrator, trainer and manager identifying all the strengths and action points that require focus.

Moreover, the attainment of a high level of professionalism by a combatant has become an urgent strategic requirement necessitated by the conditions of modern battles if not by wars themselves. A professional fighter needs to be one who can quickly assess his or her position, reach a correct decision then insist on its implementation to destroy the appropriate target and impact upon the enemy’s efficiency, thereby preventing the enemy from achieving their objectives.

To achieve such a level of professionalism, fighters are trained in the difficulties anticipated to arise in a range of situations — including those they may encounter during battle — so that they can act automatically, skilfully and accurately. Hence, it is only upon reaching the required skill level in the implementation of combat tasks automatically and successfully that an individual attains an acceptable level of professionalism.

Significance of Human Power

Human power is one of the main components influencing the overall power of a nation-state, and particularly in its military forces. Being that its influences on the state as a whole has as its objective development in all areas of human life — political, economic, social, etc. —attention should be given to the question of human power when studying the overall power of the state.

The human element takes up the lead amongst the other aspects of state activity, given the importance of this factor at the time of peace and war. In peace, human power is an element of production, where a country with a shortage of manpower is forced to bring in foreign labour to contribute to national development.

Meanwhile, the importance of the human factor is even greater in war. Military power consists of many elements interacting with one another and yet, in its final output, it provides the military influence required to achieve the planned objectives.

But human population is inadequate as an indicator of the extent to which individuals influence the power of the state in different areas. Instead, it is necessary to determine the cultural homogeneity and general unity of a national population in terms of the sex, ethnicity and age groups which should be determined within the country’s demographic composition.

The rule tends to be ‘the greater the degree of homogeneity among citizens, the stronger the national unity of the state’. National unity hence has a positive impact on national strength because it will enhance the population’s cooperation in times of peace and increase the solidity of the home-front in times of war.

The vital issue for a population in its level of cultural unity is awareness amongst the people of the challenges or threats facing the state. External threats determine the effectiveness of the population as a unit of human power and the most important expression of the state’s strength.

The best indication of the effectiveness of human power is thus people’s understanding of their national responsibilities and sacrifices for the principles and values in which they believe. For instance, in the community’s acceptance of its sons joining the ranks of the armed forces and making the sacrifices that may amount to martyrdom.

Despite tremendous progress in the types of weapons and the techniques used, the human component of armed forces continues to be vital in shaping the state’s military power. The larger the human membership of the armed forces, the better able a country will be to engage in military operations, whether defensive or offensive.

A country with a large population is better placed to stand and fight for long periods. The human element thus remains crucial in the evaluation criteria of armies, owing to its impact on the progression of wars and their result.

At the same time, it is necessary to be conscious of the age groups in society and their varying contribution to the power of the State. Young people are doubtlessly the backbone of the State’s power, both in war and peace.

Important population indicators should thus be taken into consideration when assessing the military power of a country. The most important of these is the total population, which is used as a starting point for calculating all other population values, including military force:

- Total available manpower.

- The population available for military service; an important figure that strongly impacts upon the parameters for calculating military force.

- The number of people eligible for military service annually.

- The number of people currently fit for military service.

- The number of people who can constitute a reserve currently available for military service.

While conventional war relies on direct military confrontation with the armed forces of the target state to destroy their ability to impose the rival state’s will on their own state, non-conventional wars avoid direct military confrontation between armies. Instead, they aim to move the conflict into non-military fields to break up human power, which is the most important element of the critical mass of the country insofar as it seeks to turn the target state into a failed state and control it instead of engaging in an armed clash with the armed forces of the target country.

It is hence clear that population is the basis on which armed forces are built, being that they provide these forces with their most important element — the individual fighter. The aim of non-conventional wars is thus realised in attempts to penetrate the weak civilian sectors in the state and thwart their mission through exhaustion and slow erosion, as this form of warfare takes much longer than traditional wars.

To conclude, it is necessary to prepare every sector and stratum of human power, across all their ages, to confront this form of war; providing them with continued scientific awareness and developing a spirit of allegiance and sense of national belonging. Indeed, the positive impact of moral preparation of the people outweighs the impact of material preparation and helps people to withstand the adverse conditions of war.

Reference Text/Photos:www.army.mil,www.navy.mil

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