The Soviet Concept of the Meeting Engagement.

In this paper the author presents Soviet views on the meeting engagement. It is the author's contention that from an analysis of Soviet military writings, the essence of current Soviet doctrine can be extracted. The author provides a general discussion of the Soviet concept of the meeting engagement, and then focusses on the Soviet tank battalion in the meeting engagement. The detailed description of the actions of the Soviet tank battalion commander personalizes the tactical problem. It is the author's intention to draw the US military reader into a personal consideration of the salient points of the Soviet concept. The author concludes that the Soviet emphasis on speed, aggressiveness, combined arms combat, and decisiveness in the meeting engagement requires reexamination of the US concept.