Joint Doctrine for Amphibious Operations - Historic Naval Ships ...

Supporting, Advance Force, and Preassault Operationscommander the requisite staff and forcesto accomplish assigned tasks.•• A landing group commander will beused when offensive landings or strikesare conducted by landing force units ofthe advance force.•• A reconnaissance group commanderwill be used when the mission of landingforce units of the advance force is toconduct only reconnaissance andsurveillance.d. The decision on establishment of anadvance force operational area must be madeafter considering the advance force’s mission,forces, ability to control an assigned area, andthe threat.e. Depending on the scope of thesupporting operations taking place in thevicinity of the operational area, commandrelationships between the advance force andother forces in the area and coordinationmeasures must be established to ensuredeconfliction and unity of effort.f. SOF employed during advance forceoperations may be OPCON or TACON, or insupport of the CATF and CLF and the ATGcommander or landing and/or reconnaissancegroup commander depending on the locationand nature of the mission.g. Upon arrival of the amphibious force inthe operational area, the advance force isusually disestablished and forces revert tocontrol of CATF and CLF or other designatedcommanders. Certain tasks may dictate thatthe OPCON or TACON of SOF orreconnaissance teams remains with theadvance force to minimize disruptions priorto the decisive action. The most importantconsideration is to maintain as intact the SOFchain of command so that the gainingcommander can have available appropriatelevels of SOF C2 for the assigned or attachedSOF forces.4. Preassault Operationsa. Final preparations of the landing area areusually under the control of the CATF andCLF. These preparations are usually of a moreovert nature and may include the following.• Demolition of visible obstacles, clearanceof required mines, breaching of anyremaining seaward minefields andbarriers to the beach, overt marking ofusable channels, direct action missions,TA and spotting for NSFS, and initialterminal guidance for designated assaultlandings.• Air operations in accordance with airsupport plans, including EW, andpreplanned air strikes against adversaryinstallations en route to and in the vicinityof beaches, DZs, LZs, and targets ofopportunity.• NSFS in accordance with the NSFS plan,including destruction or neutralization ofadversary installations that mightinterfere with the approach and finaldeployment of the amphibious force orotherwise interfere with the operation.• Artillery support on landing areas inaccordance with artillery fire supportplans if artillery has been put in placeduring preassault operations.b. With the completion of preassaultoperations, the amphibious force will conductsurface and/or vertical assaults into the landingarea to accomplish the decisive action.XIII-3