Movement to Contact

Movement to contact is an offensive task designed to develop the situation and establish or regain contact. (Refer to FM 3-90-1 for more information.) It creates favorable conditions for subsequent tactical actions. The leader conducts a movement to contact when the enemy situation is vague or not specific enough to conduct an attack. Forces executing this task seek to make contact with the smallest friendly force possible. A movement to contact may result in a meeting engagement, which is a combat action occurring when a moving force engages an enemy at an unexpected time and place. Once making contact with an enemy force, the leader has five options: attack, defend, bypass, delay, or withdraw. Two movement to contact techniques are search and attack, and cordon and search.

Purposeful and aggressive movement, decentralized control, and hasty deployment of formations from the march to conduct offensive, defensive, or stability tasks characterize the movement to contact. The fundamentals of movement to contact:

1. Focus all efforts on finding the enemy.

2. Make initial contact with the smallest force possible, consistent with protecting the force.

3. Make initial contact with small, mobile, self-contained forces to avoid decisive engagement of the main body on ground chosen by the enemy. This allows the leader maximum flexibility to develop the situation.

4. Task-organizes the force and uses movement formations to deploy and attack rapidly in all directions.

5. Keep subordinate forces within supporting distances to facilitate a flexible response.

6. Maintains contact regardless of the course of action adopted once contact is gained.