ABSTRACT
Three characteristics typify the nuclear battlefield: the defence is mobile, the battlefield is vast, and the troops, under the NATO concept, are dispersed. The three forms of defence—linear defence, position or area defence, and mobile defence—have all been applied in past wars, though often in a somewhat diluted form. In a conventional war in which nuclear deployment is adopted, the defence is based solely on manoeuvre; there will be no static elements to act as breakwater. An assessment of the advantages of the defence over the attacker in mobile warfare under nuclear deployment rules cannot therefore be based on previous experience. The conventional deployment pattern, with its contracted battlefield, concentrated infantry, armour and artillery and, usually, static defence features, is so unsuitable for nuclear war that it cannot be adapted by way of modification.
