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An offensive is a military operation that seeks through aggressive projection of armed force to occupy territory, gain an objective or achieve some larger strategic, operational or tactical goal. Another term for an offensive often used by the media is 'invasion', or the more general 'attack'. The offensive was considered a pre-eminent means of producing victory, although with the recognition of a defensive phase at some stage of the execution.〔p.220, Glantz〕 A quick guide to the size or scope of the offensive is to consider the number of troops involved in the side initiating the offensive. Offensives are largely conducted as a means to secure initiative in a confrontation between opponents. They can be waged on land, at sea〔Edward Wegener; Henning Wegener, The Soviet Naval Offensive: An Examination of the Strategic Role of Soviet Naval Forces in the East-West Conflict, Naval Institute Press, 1976〕 or in the air. Naval offensives, such as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, can have wide-ranging implications for national strategies, and require significant logistical commitment to destroy enemy naval capabilities. It can also be used to interdict enemy shipping, such as World War II's Battle of the Atlantic. Naval offensives can also be tactical in nature, such as Operation ''Coronado IX''〔p.135, Fulton〕 conducted by the United States Navy's Mobile Riverine Force during the Vietnam War. An air offensive is an operation that can describe any number of different types of operations, usually restricted to specific types of aircraft. The offensives conducted with use of fighter aircraft are predominantly concerned with establishing air superiority in a given air space, or over a given territory. A bomber offensive is sometimes also known as a strategic bombing offensive and was prominently used by the Allies on a large scale during World War II.〔Longmate, pp.309-312〕 Use of ground attack aircraft in support of ground offensives can be said to be an air offensive, such as that performed in the opening phase of the Red Army's Operations ''Kutuzov'' and ''Rumyantsev'', when hundreds of Il-2 aircraft were used en masse to overwhelm the Wehrmacht's ground troops. ==Theatre offensive== A Theatre offensive can be a war and a dominant feature of a national security policy, or one of several components of a war if a country is involved in several Theatres such as the United Kingdom in 1941. In general Theatre offensives require over 250,000 troops to be committed to combat operations, including combined planning for different arms and services of the armed forces, such as for example air defence troops integrated into the overall plan for ground operations.〔Isby, p.52〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Offensive (military)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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