In the
military of the United States,
strikes and raids are a group of military operations that, alongside quite a number of others, come under the formal umbrella of
military operations other than war (MOOTW). Ex-military authors Bonn and Baker describe them as "nothing more than the conduct of conventional combat missions on an individual or small-scale basis", and what they mean, specifically, depends from which particular branch of the military is using them. However, they do have formal, general, definitions in the
United States Department of Defense's
Joint Publication 1-02:
- strike
- An attack to damage or destroy an objective or a capability.
- raid
- An operation to temporarily seize an area in order to secure information, confuse an adversary, capture personnel or equipment, or to destroy a capability culminating with a planned withdrawal.