Sergeants Course Warfighting Practice Test

Area defense centers on holding a defined piece of terrain with fixed positions, obstacles, and fires to deny the enemy access and sustain the defense in that area. Mobile defense, by contrast, prioritizes speed and flexibility—avoiding prolonged fixed engagements and using movement to disrupt the attacker, then conducting counterattacks to defeat them and regain the initiative. This contrast—holding terrain versus using mobility and counterattacks to defeat the enemy—is what distinguishes the two approaches.