Chapter I
I-2 JP 3-34
(1) Combat engineering consists of those engineer activities that directly support
the maneuver of land combat forces and require close and integrated support to those forces.
Combat engineering consists of three types of activities: mobility, countermobility, and
survivability. Examples include combined arms breaching operations, assault gap crossing
operations, and constructing and maintaining combat roads and trails; emplacing barriers and
obstacles; and construction of fighting and protective positions. Combat engineering
requires forces able to integrate their activities with the maneuver of land combat forces.
Usually this requires combat engineers organic to most land combat forces at the brigade or
regimental level or its equivalent. Only combat engineers are organized, trained, and
equipped to perform the range of combat engineering tasks required by land combat forces;
to integrate their activities with the fires and maneuver of those forces; and to operate as part
of a combined arms team in close combat. Due to this consideration, JFCs do not routinely
assign combat engineering tasks to units trained and equipped to execute general engineering
tasks. Instead, the JFC ensures that engineering tasks are synchronized to maximize the
effectiveness of combat engineering. For example, tactical bridges are programmed for
replacement by more permanent, higher capacity line of communications (LOC) bridges.
(2) General engineering consists of those engineer capabilities and activities that
provide infrastructure and modify, maintain, or protect the physical environment. Examples
include the planning, construction, repair, and maintenance of infrastructure, storage area
requirements, LOCs and bases, protection of natural and cultural resources, terrain
modification and repair, disaster preparedness, and selected explosive hazard (EH) activities.
The general engineering requirements for an operation will often exceed the capabilities of
available military engineers, so JFCs may need to employ a combination of military
engineers, civilians, contractors, and multinational and host nation (HN) capabilities to fulfill
these requirements, based on the operational environment. Combat engineers are able to
perform some general engineering tasks, but their capabilities to do so are often limited by
their training and equipment. JFCs should be cautious about using combat engineers to
perform general engineering tasks without appropriate augmentation and training. Even with
such augmentation and training, the use of combat engineers to perform general engineering
tasks can create significant risk if it reduces the combat engineering capabilities and
capacities available to the joint force.
(3) Geospatial engineering consists of those engineer capabilities and activities
that portray and refine data pertaining to the geographic location and characteristics of
natural and constructed features and boundaries in order to provide engineering services to
commanders and staffs. Examples include terrain analysis, terrain visualization, digitized
terrain products, nonstandard tailored map products, precision survey, geospatial data
management, baseline survey data, identification of significant cultural sites and natural
resources, facility support, and force beddown analysis. Geospatial engineering tasks require
highly technical and specialized capabilities. These may include processing data from
disparate sources such as remote sensed imagery, field reconnaissance, digital data,
intelligence data, existing topographic products, and other collateral data. Geospatial
engineers also perform digital manipulation of topographic, hydrographic, and aeronautical
information by querying, viewing, evaluating, and downloading digital data. They support
operational needs such as the production of tactical decision aids or time and spatial analysis
to support the JFC’s decision cycle. They can assist in predictive analysis of the impact that