Ochrona wojsk : wybrane aspekty teoretyczne

With the growth of the Polish Armed Forces’ engagement in expeditionary operations, we perceive a change in the character of threats facing task groups, which translates into searching new and better ways and procedures to counteract these threats. As coalition members, we are obliged to respect the allied terminology which in many situations is a novelty only seemingly. This also refers to problems discussed in the article, i.e. undertakings called Force Protection. Interestingly, in the Polish military terminology there is a notion of combat service support. These two notions are close in meaning; however, force protection seems to have a much wider range than combat service support undertakings. Force protection undertakings are deliberate activities which must be conducted according to fixed principles. According to the author, these should be classical Clausewitz’s rules of the art of war, not the ones which are elaborated specially for the needs of these undertakings. However, in order to respect these axioms, force protection undertakings cannot be treated as passive ones but have a pre-emptive maneuverable character, at the same time being an amalgam of protective, passive and active undertakings connected with high ability to recreate readiness to conduct operations in case of unexpected losses in particular force protection sub-systems. Undoubtedly, force protection issues, as an essential element of conducting contemporary combat operations are an interesting area of research penetration. Taking into consideration a small number of publications on this topic available in Polish, according to the author, there is a need to discuss undertakings to ensure force and asset protection during combat operations.