== Current usage? == 

 Is the term vanguard still in current usage or did it fall into disuse over time? For example, I know that vanguard can describe (even by modern historians) the leading wave of a fleet of sailing ships. Could it also describe, say, Operation Deadstick during D-Day? How about the aerial bombardment on Jan 17, 1991, just before the first Gulf War? The article sounds like it's describing formations that existed in medieval or Napoleonic times but are no longer used to describe modern warfare.