Ground combat is where wars are ultimately decided. Explore infantry tactics, combined arms operations, urban warfare, and the evolving nature of close combat in an era of precision weapons and networked battlefields.
Ground combat remains the ultimate arbiter of military conflict, no war is won until boots are on the ground and territory is held. Modern ground operations integrate infantry, armor, artillery, aviation, and electronic warfare into combined arms formations capable of overwhelming adversaries through coordinated firepower and maneuver. From large-scale mechanized offensives to urban close-quarters engagements, the complexity of fighting on the ground has never been greater.
Our ground combat coverage analyzes the tactics, formations, and technologies that determine success in land warfare. Explore how combined arms doctrine integrates tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and attack helicopters into cohesive fighting forces. Examine the challenges of urban warfare that defined battles in Fallujah, Mosul, and Mariupol, and understand how precision artillery, loitering munitions, and networked sensors are transforming the modern battlefield. We cover the full range of ground operations, from large-scale maneuver warfare to counterinsurgency and the hard-won lessons that only come from actual combat.
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On July 30, 2020, nine Marines and a sailor drowned when their 48-year-old amphibious vehicle sank during a routine training exercise. The vehicle had been in service since before any of them were born.
10 completely different military vehicles. One chassis. One engine. One set of spare parts. The Stryker's real innovation isn't armor or firepower, it's logistics.
France built the only Western tank with an autoloader, a 56-ton machine designed for speed and desert warfare. Everyone said the autoloader was a mistake. Then the UAE bought 388 of them and took them to war. Here's how the Leclerc defied its critics and why France chose a fundamentally different path than every other NATO nation.
The BMP-3 carries a 100mm cannon, a 30mm autocannon, and three machine guns on a vehicle that can swim across rivers. The Bradley carries one 25mm gun on a vehicle that weighs almost twice as much. Both designs reflect fundamentally different philosophies about what an infantry fighting vehicle should do, and Ukraine has stress-tested both in combat.
For 77 days in 1968, 6,000 Marines held a remote hilltop combat base against 20,000-30,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Operation Niagara dropped 110,000 tons of bombs around the perimeter. Resupply aircraft landed on a runway under constant shelling. The question isn't whether Khe Sanh was a tactical victory, it's whether it mattered.
Special operations teams do not drive what you think they drive. Forget the armored convoys and MRAPs, SOF units use ultralight tactical vehicles that fit inside helicopters, mini-submarines that deliver SEALs to targets underwater, and modified civilian trucks designed to blend in on foreign roads. These are the 10 vehicles that special operations forces rely on for missions the conventional military cannot do.
100+ IED blasts. Zero crew killed. The Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle's V-shaped hull deflected blast energy away from the crew compartment with such consistency that every single soldier inside survived. Here's how a 15-ton Australian vehicle became one of the most effective troop protection platforms ever deployed to combat.
A $500 drone with a grenade is destroying equipment worth 10,000 times its cost. Ukrainian forces produce tens of thousands per month. Every army on earth is scrambling to respond. The FPV kamikaze drone is the most disruptive weapon to appear on a battlefield since the machine gun.
Britain is rebuilding its main battle tank from the turret up, replacing the unique rifled gun, fitting a completely new turret, and modernizing every system. The result is one of the most capable tanks in NATO. They're building 148 of them. Poland is buying 250 Abrams in a single order.
China designed the Type 99A to match or exceed the M1A2 Abrams on every measurable specification. On paper, they might have succeeded. But paper and a real battlefield are very different things.
Nineteen armies on four continents chose the Leopard 2. No other Western tank comes close to this export record, and the reasons go far beyond German engineering.
The BMP-T Terminator carries more weapons than some warships. From unmanned turrets to 60mm mortars hidden inside tanks, these are the most heavily armed ground vehicles currently in military service.
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