The Operational manoeuvre group (OMG) was a Soviet Army

Soviet Army

The Soviet Army is the name given to the main part of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1992. Previously, it had been known as the Red Army. Informally, Армия referred to all the MOD armed forces, except, in some cases, the Soviet Navy.This article covers the Soviet Ground...

 organisational maneuver warfare

Maneuver warfare

Maneuver warfare, or manoeuvre warfare , is the term used by military theorists for a concept of warfare that advocates attempting to defeat an adversary by incapacitating their decision-making through shock and disruption brought about by movement...

 concept created during the early 1950s to replace the Cavalry mechanized group

Cavalry Mechanized Group

A cavalry-mechanized group was a type of military formation used in the Red Army during World War II against Germany and Japan.- Organization :...

 which performed the deep operations

Deep operations

Deep battle was a military theory developed by the Soviet Union for its armed forces during the 1920s and 1930s. It was developed by a number of influential military writers, such as Vladimir Triandafillov and Mikhail Tukhachevsky who endeavoured to create a military strategy with its own...

 on the Eastern Front

Eastern Front (World War II)

The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...

 during the Second World War.

The deep operations theory developed in cooperation between the Red Army and Wehrmacht theorists in the 1930s later influenced the Blitzkrieg

Blitzkrieg

For other uses of the word, see: Blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg is an anglicized word describing all-motorised force concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery, combat engineers and air power, concentrating overwhelming force at high speed to break through enemy lines, and, once the lines are broken,...

 operations and echelon-based doctrine.

In the Soviet Army doctrine the Operational Manoeuvre Groups would be inserted to exploit a breakthrough by a Front

Front (Soviet Army)

A front was a major military organization in the Soviet Army during many wars. It was roughly equivalent to an army group in the militaries of most other countries except Germany...

 during a potential war against NATO in Europe. In the Soviet doctrine, after the motor-rifle units, heavily supported by artillery, helicopters and CAS

Close air support

In military tactics, close air support is defined as air action by fixed or rotary winged aircraft against hostile targets that are close to friendly forces, and which requires detailed integration of each air mission with fire and movement of these forces.The determining factor for CAS is...

 aircraft would have broken NATO front, the operational manoeuvre groups would be inserted to exploit the breakthrough using elements of, or whole tank armies.

At the Front level an Operational Manoeuvre Group could include two tank divisions and three to five motor-rifle divisions.

To counter the OMG's threat, NATO deployed a large number of special forces

Special forces

Special forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...

 units with the task of sabotaging and attacking the Rear Services (Russian 'tyl') logistical depots (in particular fuel) to slow the OMG advance, permitting NATO units to counter-attack the base of the insertion sector as was the practice of German commanders during the Second World War.