Definition of "reconnaissance in force" []

• An offensive operation designed to discover or test the enemy's strength (or to obtain other information) (noun)

WordNet. Princeton University. 2010.

• "The twenty-ninth passed without execution of "Longstreet's scheme," but on May 30, D. H. Hill made a reconnaissance in force on the Williamsburg Road and found the enemy advanced to the west of Seven Pines."
• "On the morning of October 13 he received orders to make a reconnaissance in force toward Catlett's Station, the scene of one of his great adventures the preceding summer."