Art and practice of designing and building military works and of building and maintaining lines of military transport and communications.
It includes both tactical support (see tactics ) on the battlefield, including construction of fortifications and demolition of enemy installations, and strategic support (see strategy ) away from the front lines, such as construction or maintenance of airfields, ports, roads, railroads, bridges, and hospitals. Its most notable feat in ancient times was the Great Wall of China. The preeminent military engineers of the ancient Western world were the Romans, who maintained their power by constructing not only forts and garrisons but roads, bridges, aqueducts, harbors, and lighthouses. See also civil engineering .