| LINE Combat System | |
| Aka: | Linear Involuntary Neural-override Engagement |
| Focus: | Hybrid |
| Country: |  United States |
| Creator: | Ron Donvito, USMC (Retired) |
| Parenthood: | various |
| Olympic: | No |
LINE is a close-quarters combat system, derived from various martial arts, utilized by the United States Marine Corps between 1989 and 1998, and then from 1998 to 2007 by US Army Special Forces. It was developed by Ron Donvito, USMC (Retired).
Officially, the name stands for "Linear Involuntary Neural-override Engagement"; this is, however, a backronym coined during the project's inception.[1]
The system was designed to be executed within specific and stringent combat-oriented conditions:
These parameters were viewed as the most likely conditions that a combat Marine or Soldier would face in close-range combat, since most close combat engagements were likely to occur at night or under reduced visibility, while the Marine or Soldier was fatigued and wearing their combat load, and when facing asymmetrical odds, such as a numerically superior force. These requirements meant that many flamboyant techniques, exotic kicks, or movements requiring extraordinary feats of strength or agility were excluded from consideration under the LINE system. Techniques like classic judo "hip throws", for instance, were excluded because of the possibility of entanglement on a practitioner's war-belt.
The system's techniques were designed to be easily learned and retained through repetition. The requirement and demands that the system be drilled, repeated, and constantly revisited led to some criticism since the primary usersmilitary, including special operations, personneloften had enormous demands upon their time, and as a consequence often lacked the ability to maintain high degrees of proficiency in the techniques.
LINE was adopted by the Marine Corps in 1989 at a Course Content Review Board (CRB) at Quantico, Virginia. All techniques were demonstrated for and deemed medically feasible by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner (given a single attack opponent) and a board of forensic pathologists from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in 1991. LINE was replaced by the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP) by Marine Corps Order 1500.54, published in 2002, although it had been actually dropped in 1998, as a "revolutionary step in the development of martial arts skills for Marines and replaces all other close-combat related systems preceding its introduction."[2]
The LINE System was adopted in 1998 by U.S. Army Special Forces at the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC). Primary instruction took place during phase II and was remediated in phases III and V at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. LINE was replaced by the Modern Army Combatives Program (MACP) in October 2007.
In 2007 the Chief of Staff of the Air Force read an article in the Air Force Times about Airmen training in the LINE system and ordered a review of all hand-to-hand combat in the Air Force [3] [4] which resulted in the Air Force adopting a program based upon the Modern Army Combatives Program (MACP).[5]
During its existence, units trained included (but were not limited to):