Hand to Hand Combatives in the US Army

The Modern Army Combatives Program was adopted by the U.S. Army in 2000. The program is the culmination of a directive by the Commander of 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment in 1995 to improve the Army's older and unused combatives program. Modern Army Combatives is a ground based fighting system that teaches soldiers to close the gap between him or herself, gain dominance and finishes the fight. The program's roots are in Brazilian Jujitsu, but is this the right program for the average soldier on today's battlefield? The attempt to answer this question was conducted by first analyzing the Army's program, then examining the Marine Corps, the Air Forces, the Russian military, the Israeli military, and the Korean military programs. Each forces program was then compared to Modern Army Combatives. In order to support the thesis of this paper, surveys and interviews from various organizations within the Army were conducted and in-depth interviews with martial arts experts from outside the military were used to provide a greater depth to the research. The current program has set the stage very well for the Army's hand-to-hand training, but through the half a dozen changes recommend in the thesis it can only get better.