Posted on Sep 11, 2018
Articles/doctrine pertaining to breakpoints and the Army? Where is the source?
1.9K
31
36
3
3
0
Is anyone familiar with the term breakpoints as it pertains to the Army and can point me to articles/doctrine about the subject?
Posted in these groups: 
Doctrine
Doctrine
Posted 6 y ago
Responses: 5
3
3
0
LT if you are talking about involuntary changes in combat posture this is what I know on the subject.
An enemy combat unit is considered suppressed after suffering 3% personnel casualties or material losses, neutralized by 10% losses, and destroyed upon sustaining 30% losses. The sources and methodology for deriving these figures is unknown - guessing this was derived from the the study by Clark - although these specific terms and numbers have been a part of Army doctrine for decades. Good luck in your research as one of the least studied aspects of combat is battle termination.
Link to the original breakpoint study done in 1954 by Dorothy Clark
http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD0059384
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/059384.pdf - link to the actual report appears to be dead
as well good book on the topic as well mentions the Clark study.
https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/potomac/ [login to see] 865/
An enemy combat unit is considered suppressed after suffering 3% personnel casualties or material losses, neutralized by 10% losses, and destroyed upon sustaining 30% losses. The sources and methodology for deriving these figures is unknown - guessing this was derived from the the study by Clark - although these specific terms and numbers have been a part of Army doctrine for decades. Good luck in your research as one of the least studied aspects of combat is battle termination.
Link to the original breakpoint study done in 1954 by Dorothy Clark
http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD0059384
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/059384.pdf - link to the actual report appears to be dead
as well good book on the topic as well mentions the Clark study.
https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/potomac/ [login to see] 865/
(3)
(0)
1LT Nyan Reynolds
SPC David S.
I find the resources you provided to be helpful. Thanks for taking the time to share these links and help educate this young LT on the subject. Appreciate it!
I find the resources you provided to be helpful. Thanks for taking the time to share these links and help educate this young LT on the subject. Appreciate it!
(1)
(0)
SPC David S.
1LT Nyan Reynolds - no problem LT - When I was in we used to do a lot of war gaming. I know it sounds nerdy but it was a great tool for teaching tactics, symbols, communication and more - we even did AA reports. We rolled dice to simulate battle damage The best is when we would replay historic battles that had gone badly - what happened as apposed what could have been done to prevent a break point. Easy to do as we just had a couple of folding tables with some plex pieces (drew grid with permanent marker) to fit on top and we would draw out the battle map on the grid with grease pencils. For troops and equipment we had a couple of small plex pieces to represent troops and other assets. Our troop CO would toss in some curve balls - bad intel enemy troop strength is 1000 not a 100 kind of stuff. Like I said great learning tool - as well where I learned the term break point. Curious if anyone is doing this kind of low tech training today.
(1)
(0)
2
2
0
1LT Nyan Reynolds if we are talking Class I Break points, ATP 4-41 Army Field Feeding and Class I Operations. Couple different thoughts:
- the supporting CSSB breaks class I from bulk to unitized breaks, ideally packing the reefers and containers of dry cargo in the order it should come out. A shortfall in the system is not having enough reefers to have two per BN.
- there is also the resupply of the supported Battalion, by what used to be the support Platoon, now FSC. Usually referred to as a LOGPAC, aka logistics package. You can find more info on that from CALL and numerous articles back to the early 1990s...older is,likely better since there was no FOB log then.
- the packaging of hot prepared UGR-A rations in mermites is done in "breaks" based on headcount and field feeder reports. So you are staging chow breaks for the headcount by feeding location as you do not stop, open up chow, feed, then pack it up for a new location. That is how you give an entire Battalion Task Force a food Bourne illness, aka the Feces FASCAM. No request for a break? No chow.
There is more to this, please ask specific questions if you need more info. You can have break points for any class of supply where you have to take bulk and unitize it. Sometimes the package of supply Class like IV and V at CTCs are run as a break point for the ease of recieve, store, issue, recovery, and billing from the CTC perspective. LTC (Join to see) may be another source of expertise here.
- the supporting CSSB breaks class I from bulk to unitized breaks, ideally packing the reefers and containers of dry cargo in the order it should come out. A shortfall in the system is not having enough reefers to have two per BN.
- there is also the resupply of the supported Battalion, by what used to be the support Platoon, now FSC. Usually referred to as a LOGPAC, aka logistics package. You can find more info on that from CALL and numerous articles back to the early 1990s...older is,likely better since there was no FOB log then.
- the packaging of hot prepared UGR-A rations in mermites is done in "breaks" based on headcount and field feeder reports. So you are staging chow breaks for the headcount by feeding location as you do not stop, open up chow, feed, then pack it up for a new location. That is how you give an entire Battalion Task Force a food Bourne illness, aka the Feces FASCAM. No request for a break? No chow.
There is more to this, please ask specific questions if you need more info. You can have break points for any class of supply where you have to take bulk and unitize it. Sometimes the package of supply Class like IV and V at CTCs are run as a break point for the ease of recieve, store, issue, recovery, and billing from the CTC perspective. LTC (Join to see) may be another source of expertise here.
(2)
(0)
1
1
0
1LT Nyan Reynolds How do you conduct maintenance mtgs at Bliss and how will you do them at NTC. This is important in a timing aspect. And do you have a FTP NLT time. I'd recommend NLT 0600. I'd sync this with CSSB miovements to the BSA. You may want to visit the SSA and talk with the SSA Warrant about his/her parts process and ask about the COOP list that will be avail at NTC. That should help you in determining parts you will need I'd not on hand.
(1)
(0)
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google