Attack Assault battles

[RERomine]

Originally Posted by noxiousnic

Don't have any quotes handy, but the modern ratio is 3 to 1 / 1 to 3 depending on role (and not, not the obvious), but that's what a typical combat arms battalion from NATO is expected to tackle.
And we didn't have the numbers advantage against the Warsaw Pact : which is why you'll read a US battalion is expected to take on 3 times as much OPFOR on the attack or defense.
If I can find time to unearth some quotes from FMs, I will.
Cheers !

I could be crossing up ratios for maintaining status quo and actually winning. I've got a web sight I can check for US Army field manuals, but those would be the most current and perspectives would likely to have changed. The numbers I'm thinking of are late 70s, early 80s, but I don't remember where I got them from. This would have been before the M1 Abrams was fielded in any significant quantities. The ratios will probably change every time someone fields a new weapon that gives one side or another a technological edge or reduces the edge.