Fundamentals of Operations PDF

Chapter 3 Fundamentals of Operations There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard. There are not more than five primary colors, yet in combination they...

Chapter 3 Fundamentals of Operations There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard. There are not more than five primary colors, yet in combination they produce more hues than can ever been seen. There are not more than five cardinal tastes, yet combinations of them yield more flavors than can ever be tasted. Sun Tzu This chapter describes the Army’s operational concept, multidomain operations. It provides an overview of multidomain operations and describes it in terms of tenets, imperatives, an operational approach, a strategic framework, and an operational framework. SECTION I – MULTIDOMAIN OPERATIONS: THE ARMY’S OPERATIONAL CONCEPT 3-1. The Army’s operational concept is multidomain operations. Multidomain operations Multidomain operations are the combined arms are how Army forces contribute to and operate as employment of all joint and Army capabilities to part of the joint force. Army forces, enabled by joint create and exploit relative advantages that achieve objectives, defeat enemy forces, and capabilities provide the lethal and resilient consolidate gains on behalf of joint force landpower necessary to defeat threat standoff commanders. approaches and achieve joint force objectives. 3-2. The employment of joint and Army capabilities, integrated across echelons and synchronized in a combined arms approach, is essential to defeating threats able to contest the joint force in all domains. Army forces integrate land, maritime, air, space, and cyberspace capabilities that facilitate maneuver to create physical, information, and human advantages joint force commanders exploit across the competition continuum. Commanders and staffs require the knowledge, skills, and attributes to integrate capabilities rapidly and at the necessary scale appropriate to each echelon. 3-3. During competition, theater armies strengthen landpower networks, set the theater, and demonstrate readiness for armed conflict through the command and control (C2) of Army forces supporting the CCP. During crisis, theater armies provide options to combatant commanders (CCDRs) as they facilitate the flow and organization of land forces moving into theater. During armed conflict, theater armies enable and support joint force land component commander (JFLCC) employment of land forces. The JFLCC provides C2 of land forces and allocates joint capabilities to its corps and other subordinate tactical formations. Corps integrate joint and Army capabilities at the right tactical echelons and employ divisions to achieve JFLCC objectives. Divisions, enabled and supported by the corps, defeat enemy forces, control land areas, and consolidate gains for the joint force. Defeating or destroying enemy capabilities that facilitate the enemy’s preferred layered stand-off approaches are central to success. Ultimately, operations by Army forces both enable and are enabled by the joint force. 01 October 2022 FM 3-0 3-1 Chapter 3 3-4. Because uncertainty, degraded communications, and fleeting windows of opportunity characterize operational environments during combat, multidomain operations require disciplined initiative cultivated through a mission command culture. Leaders must have a bias for action and accept that some level of uncertainty is always present. Commanders who empower leaders to make rapid decisions and to accept risk within the commander’s intent enable formations at echelon to adapt rapidly while maintaining unity of effort. (See ADP 6-0 for a detailed description of mission command.) SECTION II – TENETS AND IMPERATIVES 3-5. There are no absolute rules for warfare. However, given analysis of the current strategic environment and assessments of the best ways to employ Army forces, doctrine emphasizes tenets and imperatives for operations that improve their prospects of success without dictating how exactly to solve a tactical or operational problem. TENETS The art of war has no traffic with rules, for the infinitely varied circumstances and conditions of combat never produce exactly the same situation twice. Mission, terrain, weather, dispositions, armament, morale, supply, and comparative strength are variables whose mutations always combine to form a new tactical pattern. Thus, in battle, each situation is unique and must be solved on its own merits. From Infantry in Battle 3-6. The tenets of operations are desirable attributes that should be built into all plans and operations, and they are directly related to how the Army’s operational concept should be employed. Commanders use the tenets of operations to inform and assess courses of action throughout the operations process. The degree to which an operation exhibits the tenets provides insight into the probability for success. The tenets of operations are— z Agility. z Convergence. z Endurance. z Depth. 3-7. The Army provides forces capable of transitioning to combat operations, fighting for information, producing intelligence, adapting to unforeseen circumstances, and defeating enemy forces. Army forces employ capabilities from multiple domains in a combined arms approach that creates complementary and reinforcing effects through multiple domains, while preserving combat power to maintain options for the joint force commander (JFC). Creating and exploiting relative advantages require Army forces to operate with endurance and in depth. Endurance enables the ability to absorb the enemy’s attacks and press the fight over the time and space necessary to accomplish the mission. Depth applies combat power throughout the enemy’s formations and the operational environment, securing successive operational objectives and consolidating gains for the joint force. 3-2 FM 3-0 01 October 2022  Fundamentals of Operations AGILITY 3-8. The ability to act faster than the enemy is critical for success. Agility is the ability to move forces and adjust Leaders seek to understand, decide, their dispositions and activities more rapidly than the and act or react faster than the enemy enemy. Agility requires sound judgment and rapid decision to gain a relative advantage and control making, often gained through the creation and exploitation of the terms and tempo of the battle. They information advantages. Agility requires leaders to anticipate ensure formations are flexible enough to needs or opportunities, and it requires trained formations able adapt to changing conditions and can move more quickly than the enemy. to change direction, tasks, or focus as quickly as the situation During competition, Army forces provide requires. Change may come in the form of a transition senior leaders flexibility and options between phases of an operation or the requirement to adapt to through their presence, access, and a new opportunity or hazard. influence. 3-9. The time available to create and exploit opportunities against adaptive threats is usually limited. Agile units rapidly recognize an opportunity and take action to exploit it. Speed of recognition, decision making, movement, and battle drills enable agility. During armed conflict, this often requires units to change their location and disposition rapidly. Units must be able to employ capabilities and then rapidly task-organize them again for movement or new tasks while remaining dispersed for survivability. C2 and sustainment nodes must maintain a level of functionality on the move and be able to rapidly emplace and displace in order to reduce the probability of enemy detection. Nodes that are critical to success and susceptible to enemy detection and destruction are most vulnerable, and they must be the most agile. 3-10. Below the threshold of armed conflict, security force assistance teams and forward-stationed and rotational forces provide agility to the CCDR because they are able to perform a wide variety of missions and create options for the combatant command. These forces expand situational awareness through their presence and access to key land areas and populations. Their influence assures allies and partners, and they improve interoperability and agility of the multinational force. 3-11. Agility helps leaders influence tempo. Tempo is the relative speed and rhythm of military operations over time with respect to the enemy (ADP 3-0). It implies the ability to understand, decide, act, assess, and adapt. During competition, commanders act quickly to control events and deny enemy forces relative advantages. By acting faster than the situation deteriorates, commanders can change the dynamics of a crisis and restore favorable conditions. During armed conflict, commanders normally seek to maintain a higher tempo than enemy forces do. A rapid tempo can overwhelm an enemy force’s ability to counter friendly actions, and it can enable friendly forces to exploit a short window of opportunity. CONVERGENCE 3-12. Convergence is an outcome created by the concerted employment of capabilities from multiple domains and echelons against combinations of decisive points in any domain to create effects against a system, formation, decision maker, or in a specific geographic area. Its utility derives from understanding the interdependent relationships among capabilities from different domains and combining those capabilities in surprising, effective tactics that accrue advantages over time. When combined, the complementary and reinforcing nature of each friendly capability presents multiple dilemmas for enemy forces and produces an overall effect that is greater than the sum of each individual effect. The greater degree to which forces achieve convergence and sustain it over time the more favorable the outcome. 3-13. Convergence occurs when a higher echelon and its subordinate echelons create effects from and in multiple Convergence creates exploitable domains in ways that defeat or disrupt enemy forces long opportunities that enable freedom of enough for friendly forces to effectively exploit the action and mission accomplishment. opportunity. Convergence broadens the scope of mass, synchronization, and combined arms, by applying combat power to combinations of decisive points, instead of just one, across time, space, and domains. Convergence is a way to balance the principles of mass, objective, and economy of force, massing combat power on some parts of the enemy force while employing different techniques against other decisive points to create cumulative effects the enemy cannot overcome. 01 October 2022 FM 3-0 3-3 Chapter 3 3-14. Convergence requires the synchronization of specific targets and broad objectives by the senior tactical echelon below the land component command. The degree to which a formation achieves convergence in an operation depends on how well leaders are able to— z Develop an understanding of the enemy system, its capabilities, requirements, decision processes, and vulnerabilities through effective surveillance that provides mixed, redundant, and overlapping coverage. z Determine the desired overall effect or opportunity and the individual effects and objectives that precipitate the opportunity. z Integrate Army and joint capabilities at the echelons where they are most effective. z Consider all domains and redundant methods of attack to increase the probability of success. z Synchronize the employment of each capability and echelon to generate simultaneous, sequential, and enduring effects against the enemy system. z Assess the individual effects and the probability that the desired overall effect has been achieved. Commanders prepare to re-attack or adapt a course of action if the desired effect is not achieved, or if other opportunities emerge. z Assume risk and rapidly exploit the opportunities convergence provides. (See figure 3-1 for a simplified illustration of convergence. See JP 3-60 for more information about targeting.) Figure 3-1. Convergence Integration 3-15. Convergence requires the integration of the capabilities at the echelons where their employment is most effective. Integration is the arrangement of military forces and their actions to create a force that operates by engaging as a whole (JP 1, Volume 1). Commanders generally integrate Army capabilities 3-4 FM 3-0 01 October 2022  Fundamentals of Operations through task organization and support relationships. Commanders allocate the employment of joint capabilities to subordinate echelons; integrating these capabilities requires an understanding of joint processes. The degree to which commanders effectively integrate joint and Army capabilities at all echelons directly influences success during operations. 3-16. Military forces comprise a wide variety of components that leaders must arrange into a coherent and effective whole. Army leaders integrate— z Joint capabilities. z Multinational, interagency, and interorganizational capabilities. z Echelons and staffs. z Different types of units to achieve a combined arms approach. 3-17. Almost every leader activity, in some way, orients on integrating parts of the force to achieve unity of purpose and unity of effort. There are many intellectual tools leaders use to facilitate integration. Common ones include— z The joint and Army targeting processes (which includes working groups, boards, and other activities to help integrate joint intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance [ISR] and fires). z Mission analysis to integrate the activities of multiple staff proponents. z The nesting concept advocated for in the mission command approach to C2 that helps lower echelons integrate their purpose with higher echelons. z Reception, staging, onward movement, and integration (RSOI) for new forces entering an operation. z Engagement area development to integrate all weapons systems into a defense. Synchronization 3-18. Once leaders have integrated the right capabilities, they must synchronize their employment and effects. Synchronization is the arrangement of military actions in time, space, and purpose to produce maximum relative combat power at a decisive place and time (JP 2-0). 3-19. Understanding the following factors enables leaders to determine when to initiate employment of a capability and how to adapt to changes in the operational environment during execution: z The desired overall effect over time. z How the individual effects complement each other over time. z The time it takes each capability or formation to generate its individual effects from the start of employment. z Whether each individual effect is enduring, simultaneous, or sequenced with the other effects. z The consequences of an individual effect not occurring at the planned time. 3-20. Individual effects can be enduring, simultaneous, or sequential. Enduring effects provide a continuous impact on the threat until they are no longer necessary. Enduring effects can have a debilitating effect on enemy forces, but they may require significant resources to sustain. Simultaneity is the execution of related and mutually supporting tasks at the same time across multiple locations and domains (ADP 3-0). Simultaneous effects, the result of attacking enemy forces in multiple domains at the same time and across the depth of the enemy’s echelons, can have a paralyzing effect on enemy decision making and the effectiveness of the enemy’s most critical systems for a limited period of time. They can degrade enemy reactions and facilitate the path to eventual culmination and defeat. Sequencing effects against a threat can create successive dilemmas and opportunities for deception when enemy forces begin to expect a pattern. 3-21. Leaders synchronize actions and effects through C2 and the operations process. The mission, commander’s intent, and concept of operations form the basis for detailed synchronization. Commanders determine the degree of control necessary to synchronize operations. They balance synchronization with agility and initiative, but they never surrender the initiative for the sake of synchronization. Excessive synchronization can lead to too much control, which limits the initiative of subordinates and undermines mission command. 01 October 2022 FM 3-0 3-5 Chapter 3 Achieving Convergence 3-22. Achieving convergence requires detailed, centralized planning and mission orders that enable decentralized execution. Redundant and resilient communications enable synchronized action. However, leaders must anticipate degraded communications and be prepared to rely on mission orders, accept risk, and make decisions to accomplish the mission. During execution, leaders seek to maintain the conditions of convergence through rapid transitions, adjusting priorities, shifting the main effort, or adapting to maintain momentum. Longer periods of convergence allow for greater opportunities to expand advantages and achieve objectives. 3-23. Leaders must understand the various processes for requesting joint capabilities and integrating them with ground maneuver. Air, space, and cyberspace tasking cycles operate on different time horizons and have different requirements for requesting effects. These cycles may vary depending on the theater and the situation. Whenever possible, leaders anticipate requirements for these effects during planning and provide ample time for the joint force to generate them. Leaders may request effects on shorter timelines, but they should not make them essential to mission success. 3-24. During competition, the theater army establishes conditions for convergence that enable deterrence, provide options during crisis, and enable success at the outset of armed conflict. Intelligence, sustainment, positioning of forces, and other activities to set the theater facilitate situational understanding, decision making, integration, and synchronization during armed conflict. The theater army requests cyberspace and space effects through the combatant command to ensure there is enough time to integrate and synchronize these capabilities. The theater army balances the use of these capabilities during competition with the need to preserve them for use by Army formations during crisis or armed conflict. When armed conflict occurs in a theater, the theater army continues to facilitate convergence by providing capabilities to the land component command and shaping the operational environment outside the joint operational area. 3-25. During armed conflict, the land component command apportions joint capabilities to subordinate echelons. Corps integrate joint capabilities with ground maneuver at the appropriate echelon where forces employ them to achieve convergence and achieve objectives. The advantages provided by maritime, air, space, and cyberspace capabilities will not be available all the time, so tactical echelons must be ready to exploit their effects when generated. (See FM 3-14 for more information on space effects. See FM 3-12 for more information on cyberspace effects.) 3-26. Convergence is most effective when its effects accrue and create a cycle of expanding opportunity. Employing multiple and redundant methods of attack increases the probability of success by avoiding dependence on a single method of detecting, tracking, and attacking. Success causes enemy forces to react and activate more of their capabilities, creating another opportunity in one or more domains. The corps and its subordinate echelons align their operations on land with the opportunities created by the effects generated by the other components of the joint force, preserving combat power to maximize their ability to exploit the opportunities convergence presents. ENDURANCE 3-27. Endurance is the ability to persevere over time throughout the depth of an operational environment. Endurance enhances the ability to project combat power and extends operational reach. Endurance is about resilience and preserving combat power while continuing operations for as long as is necessary to achieve the desired outcome. During competition, Army forces improve endurance by setting the theater across all warfighting functions and improving interoperability with allies and other unified action partners. 3-28. Endurance reflects the ability to employ combat power anywhere for protracted periods in all conditions, including Leaders account for the requirement to environments with degraded communications, chemical, preserve combat power while sustaining biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) contamination, people, systems, and formations over the and high casualties. Endurance stems from the ability to time and distance necessary throughout organize, protect, and sustain a force, regardless of the the depth of an area of operations. distance from its support area and the austerity of the 3-6 FM 3-0 01 October 2022  Fundamentals of Operations environment. Endurance involves anticipating requirements and making the most effective and efficient use of resources. 3-29. As forces fight through successive engagements, maintaining mutual support among units helps prevent them becoming isolated, being defeated in detail, and culminating early. Protection prevents or mitigates enemy effects and preserves combat power, postponing culmination and prolonging effective operations. One way Army forces preserve combat power is by maintaining dispersion to the greatest degree possible. Leaders can mass combat power from dispersed positions and generate the desired effects without concentrating forces any more than is necessary. During operations, commanders and staffs integrate, synchronize, and simultaneously apply protection capabilities. 3-30. Leadership and tactics contribute to endurance. Plans that allow for different units to be the main effort using follow and support or follow and assume techniques prevent early culmination in the units first committed to close combat. Realistically determining what tempo friendly forces can maintain given enemy resistance, weather, and physical distances and the impact they have on Soldiers, leaders, and equipment increases endurance over time. Schemes of maneuver that avoid enemy strengths and preserve combat power are less likely to negatively affect morale. 3-31. Sustainment operations are essential to endurance. Using all methods for continuously delivering sustainment through land, maritime, and air capabilities improves endurance. When possible, sustainment units employ a space- and cyberspace-enabled communications network to transmit sustainment requirements and coordinate the delivery of materiel or services. However, leaders must anticipate degraded communications and combine analog systems for communication with predictive analysis and disciplined initiative to ensure commanders can maintain acceptable tempo for as long as necessary. DEPTH 3-32. Depth is the extension of operations in time, space, or purpose to achieve definitive results (ADP 3-0). While the focus of endurance is on friendly combat power, the focus of depth is on enemy locations and dispositions across all domains. Commanders achieve depth by understanding the strengths and vulnerabilities of the enemy’s echeloned capabilities, then attacking them throughout their dispositions in simultaneous and sequential fashion. Although simultaneous attacks through all domains in depth are not possible in every situation, leaders seek to expand their advantages and limit enemy opportunities for sanctuary and regeneration. Leaders describe the depth they can achieve in terms of operational reach. 3-33. Operational reach is the distance and duration across which a force can successfully employ military capabilities (JP 3-0). Staffs assess operational reach based on available sustainment, the range of capabilities and formations, and courses of action compared with the intelligence estimates of enemy capabilities and courses of action. This analysis helps the commander understand the limits on friendly operations, the risks inherent in the mission, and likely points in time and space for transitions. 3-34. Below the threshold of armed conflict, the theater army creates depth by improving the infrastructure for force projection and by improving interoperability with multinational forces to the degree required by operation plans (OPLANs) and contingency operations. It also adds depth to its operations by expanding influence with allies and partners, populations, and other relevant actors through joint exercises, sustained forward positioning of advisor teams, and forward basing of combat formations. 3-35. During armed conflict, the JFLCC creates depth by facilitating access to Army and other joint capabilities, especially space and cyberspace capabilities that improve the protection of tactical formations and degrade enemy integrated air defense systems. The JFLCC also requests that the JFC influence the extended deep area in support of land operations. The corps directs fires into its deep area to defeat enemy long-range fires, disrupt enemy sustainment and C2, separate maneuver echelons, and shape the success of future close operations. Special operations forces operating in the extended deep area can detect targets and enable the employment of joint fires to support conventional operations. 3-36. Leaders enhance the depth of their operations by orchestrating effects in one dimension to amplify effects in the others. For example, a commander might decide to destroy an elite enemy formation first because it undermines the confidence of the enemy’s other units. Commanders exploit this through information activities to reduce the will of other enemy forces to fight. 01 October 2022 FM 3-0 3-7 Chapter 3 IMPERATIVES 3-37. Imperatives are actions Army forces must take to defeat enemy forces and achieve objectives at acceptable cost. They are informed by the operational environment and the characteristics of the most capable threats Army forces can encounter. Imperatives include— z See yourself, see the enemy, and understand the operational environment. z Account for being under constant observation and all forms of enemy contact. z Create and exploit relative physical, information, and human advantages in pursuit of decision dominance. z Make initial contact with the smallest element possible. z Impose multiple dilemmas on the enemy. z Anticipate, plan, and execute transitions. z Designate, weight, and sustain the main effort. z Consolidate gains continuously. z Understand and manage the effects of operations on units and Soldiers. SEE YOURSELF, SEE THE ENEMY, AND UNDERSTAND THE OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT 3-38. Commanders visualize operational environments in terms of the factors that are relevant to decision making. Operational environments are dynamic and contain vast amounts of information that can overload C2 systems and impede decision making. Commanders simplify information collection, analysis, and decision making by focusing on how they see themselves, see the enemy, and understand the operational environment. These three categories of factors are interrelated, and leaders must understand how each one relates to the others in the current context. 3-39. As part of the operations process, Army leaders use different methodologies to understand and weigh options. These methodologies include the Army design methodology, the military decision-making process, and the rapid decision-making and synchronization process. Each methodology provides a process that allows commanders and staffs to see themselves, see the enemy, and understand the operational environment. (See ADP 5-0 and FM 5-0 for more information on Army planning methodologies.) See Yourself 3-40. Commanders develop an understanding of their forces relative to mission requirements, enemy capabilities, and impacts from the operational environment. This understanding helps to inform current and potential future advantages relative to enemy forces, allowing staffs to develop and adapt courses of action that exploit advantages and mitigate disadvantages. Commanders and staffs maintain this understanding of their forces through running estimates, subordinate commander updates, and friendly forces information requirements (known as FFIRs): A friendly force information requirement is information the commander and staff need to understand the status of friendly force and supporting capabilities (JP 3-0). Friendly force information requirements identify the information the commander considers most important to make critical decisions during the execution of operations. The operations officer manages friendly force information requirements for the commander. 3-41. Leaders attempt to see themselves from the enemy perspective, in part by understanding essential elements of friendly information. An essential element of friendly information is a critical aspect of a friendly operation that, if known by a threat would subsequently compromise, lead to failure, or limit success of the operation and therefore should be protected from enemy detection (ADP 6-0). 3-42. Leaders see their formation in relation to their mission and in the broader context of the higher command, adjacent unit, and all domains. Part of “seeing yourself” is understanding how land-based operations enable operations in the other domains, and how capabilities from all domains can enable operations on land. (See paragraphs 2-66 through 2-67 for a discussion of joint interdependence.) 3-8 FM 3-0 01 October 2022  Fundamentals of Operations See the Enemy 3-43. Commanders see the enemy in terms of its combat power, advantages, and intentions within the operational environment and broader strategic context. Commanders develop their understanding of enemy forces from their individual knowledge, experience, and judgment honed through self-study, training, and education. From this base of knowledge commanders and staffs build shared understanding of enemy forces and environment through intelligence preparation of the battlefield. Intelligence preparation of the battlefield is the systematic process of analyzing the mission variables of enemy, terrain, weather, and civil considerations in an area of interest to determine their effect on operations (ATP 2-01.3). 3-44. Intelligence preparation of the battlefield provides commanders with awareness of information gaps about enemy forces and the operational environment. Staffs translate these gaps into information requirements and assist the commander in determining priority intelligence requirements. A priority intelligence requirement is the intelligence component of commander’s critical information requirements used to focus the employment of limited intelligence assets and resources against competing demands for intelligence support (JP 2-0). More importantly, priority intelligence requirements (known as PIRs) identify information about the threat and operational environment that a commander considers most important to making decisions in a specific context. Intelligence about civil considerations may be as critical as intelligence about enemy forces in some cases. The intelligence officer, in coordination with the rest of the staff, manages priority intelligence requirements for the commander. 3-45. Enemy forces attempt to hide from, deceive, disrupt, and deny friendly collection efforts to prevent friendly forces from perceiving the enemy’s true intentions. This requires commanders plan to develop the situation through action and fight for information. Information collection operations may require the commander to assume significant risk to determine enemy dispositions and anticipate enemy intentions. 3-46. Leaders do not limit their understanding of the enemy to those forces in their assigned area. Enemy forces are capable of employing capabilities from great distances and multiple domains. Leaders must be aware of those capabilities so they can take appropriate action. (See paragraphs 3-75 through 3-79 for more information on making enemy contact.) Understand the Operational Environment 3-47. Leaders view the operational environment in terms of domains, dimensions, operational variables, and mission variables that are relevant to their decisions. The most difficult aspect of an operational environment to understand is how the different factors interact to affect operations. 3-48. Understanding is, in the context of decision making, knowledge that has been synthesized and had judgment applied to comprehend the situation’s inner relationships, enable decision making, and drive action (ADP 6-0). Understanding is judgment applied to knowledge in the context of a particular situation. Understanding is knowing enough about a situation to make an informed decision. Judgment is based on experience, expertise, and intuition—and it informs what decision to make. Situational Understanding 3-49. Successful operations demand timely and effective decisions based on the information available. As such, commanders and staffs seek to build and maintain situational understanding throughout an operation. Situational understanding is the product of applying analysis and judgment to relevant information to determine the relationships among the operational and mission variables (ADP 6-0). Situational understanding allows commanders to make effective decisions and enables commanders and staffs to assess operations accurately. Commanders and staffs continually strive to maintain their situational understanding and work through periods of uncertainty, accepting that they cannot eliminate them. They train their staffs and subordinates to function in uncertain environments. Shared Understanding 3-50. A critical challenge for commanders, staffs, and unified action partners is creating common understanding of an operational environment, an operation’s purpose, its challenges, and the approaches to 01 October 2022 FM 3-0 3-9 Chapter 3 solving those problems. Shared understanding of the situation, which requires effective flow of information between echelons, forms the basis for unity of effort and subordinate initiative. 3-51. Effective decentralized execution depends on shared understanding. Shared understanding starts with Army doctrine and leader development that instill a common approach to the conduct of operations, a common professional language, and a common understanding of the principles of mission command. It is this shared understanding that allows even hastily task-organized units to operate effectively. Commanders and staffs actively create shared understanding throughout the operations process (of planning, preparation, execution, and assessment). They collaboratively frame an operational environment and its problems, and then they visualize approaches to solving those problems. (See ADP 6-0 for a more detailed description of shared understanding.) Common Operational Picture 3-52. A common operational picture (COP) is key to achieving and maintaining shared situational understanding in all domains and making effective decisions faster than the threat. The common operational picture is a display of relevant information within a commander’s area of interest tailored to the user’s requirements and based on common data and information shared by more than one command (ADP 6-0). Although the COP is ideally a single display, it may include more than one display and information in other forms, such as graphic representations or written reports. 3-53. The COP facilitates collaborative planning and helps commanders at all echelons achieve shared situational understanding. The COP must account for relevant factors in domains affecting the operation, and it provides and enables a common understanding of the interrelationships between actions and effects through the physical, information, and human dimensions. Shared situational understanding allows commanders to visualize the effects of their decisions on other elements of the force and the overall operation. 3-54. Command posts draw on a common set of shared and relevant information to create a digital COP. Units always maintain an analog COP in the event that the digital COP is compromised. During large-scale combat operations, communications are likely to be degraded or denied during the course of operations. Army forces maintain shared situational understanding by updating physical maps and graphics, and using rehearsed and reliable primary, alternate, contingency, and emergency (known as PACE) communication plans. Command posts are typically responsible for maintaining the digital and analog COP. Units develop standard operating procedures (known as SOPs), reporting timelines, and battle rhythm events to ensure the COP is accurate, relevant, and current. 3-55. The difficulty of maintaining a COP in a multinational environment varies based on training level, language differences, level of data sharing, technical compatibility of systems, restrictions based on classification, and other national caveats. Unified action partners may not have the technical capability or compatible systems to create and share a digital COP. Commanders must recognize and plan for this possibility by using alternate methods, such as liaison officers, messengers, and voice communication. ACCOUNT FOR BEING UNDER CONSTANT OBSERVATION AND ALL FORMS OF ENEMY CONTACT 3-56. Air, space, and cyberspace capabilities increase the likelihood that threat forces can gain and maintain That which can be detected can be targeted for attack and killed. continuous visual and electromagnetic contact with Army forces. Enemy forces possess a wide range of space-, air-, maritime-, and land-based ISR capabilities that can detect U.S. forces. Leaders must assume they are under constant observation from one or more domains and continuously ensure they are not providing lucrative targets for the enemy to attack. 3-57. Leaders consider nine forms of contact in multiple domains. They are— z Direct: interactions from line-of-sight weapon systems (including small arms, heavy machine guns, and antitank missiles). z Indirect: interactions from non-line-of-sight weapons systems (including cannon artillery, mortars, and rockets). 3-10 FM 3-0 01 October 2022  Fundamentals of Operations z Non-hostile: neutral interactions that may degrade or compromise military operations (including civilians on the battlefield). z Obstacle: interactions from friendly, enemy, and natural obstacles (including minefields and rivers). z CBRN: interactions from friendly, enemy, and civilian CBRN effects (including chemical attacks, nuclear attacks, industrial accidents, and toxic or hazardous industrial materials). z Aerial: interactions from air-based combat platforms (including attack helicopters, armed unmanned aircraft systems [UASs], air interdiction, and close air support). z Visual: interactions from acquisition via the human eye, optical, or electro-optical systems (including ground reconnaissance, telescopic, thermal, and infrared sights on weapons and sensor platforms such as unmanned aircraft systems and satellites). z Electromagnetic: interactions via systems used to acquire, degrade, or destroy using select portions of the electromagnetic spectrum (including radar, jamming, cyberspace, space, and electromagnetic systems). z Influence: interactions through the information dimension intended to shape the perceptions, behaviors, and decision making of people relative to a policy or military objective (including through social media, telecommunications, human interaction, and other forms of communication). 3-58. In all contexts, direct, indirect, non-hostile, CBRN, and aerial contacts are sporadic. However, Army forces are typically in continuous visual, electromagnetic, and influence contact with adversaries. Army forces are under persistent visual surveillance by space and other capabilities. Army forces and individuals are in constant electromagnetic contact with adversaries who persistently probe and disrupt individual, group, and Army capabilities dependent on space and cyberspace. Army forces are subject to adversary influence through disinformation campaigns targeting Soldiers and their family and friends through social media and other platforms. 3-59. During competition, adversary forces employ multiple methods of collecting on friendly forces to develop an understanding of U.S. capabilities, readiness status, and intentions. They do this in and outside the continental United States. They co-opt civilians and employ space-based surveillance platforms to observe unit training and deployment activities. They also penetrate networks and gain access to individual and group cyberspace personas to create options for future intimidation, coercion, and attack. Soldiers and their families should use telecommunications, the internet, and social media in ways that do not make them or their units vulnerable to adversary surveillance. 3-60. During armed conflict, enemy networked land-, maritime-, air-, and space-based capabilities enable threats to detect and rapidly target friendly forces with fires. Forces that are concentrated and static are easy for enemy forces to detect and destroy. Dispersing forces has multiple survivability benefits. It increases opportunities to use cover and concealment to reduce probability of detection. In the event the enemy detects elements of the friendly force, dispersion acts as a form of deception, helping to conceal the intentions of the friendly force. Leaders only concentrate forces when necessary and balance the survivability benefits of dispersion with the negative impacts dispersion has on mission effectiveness. In addition to dispersion, leaders integrate and synchronize deception, operations security, and other actions to thwart enemy detection efforts. (See JP 3-13.3 and ATP 3-13.3 for detailed information on operations security. See FM 3-13.4 for more information on deception.) 3-61. Command posts are extremely vulnerable to detection from air and space, as well as in the electromagnetic spectrum. Army forces must ensure their command posts are difficult to detect, dispersed to prevent a single strike from destroying more than one node, and rapidly displaceable. Once a command post is detected it has only a few minutes to displace far enough to avoid enemy indirect fire effects. Leaders should focus command posts on the minimum functions necessary to retain their mobility and do everything possible to avoid detection. When the risk of enemy fires is high, commanders consider making their operations more decentralized, dispersing command post nodes into smaller component nodes, and greater dispersion of electromagnetic signatures. Use of existing hardened structures and restrictive terrain to conceal headquarters equipment and vehicles, instead of tents organized in standard configurations, are options commanders have to improve command post survivability. 01 October 2022 FM 3-0 3-11 Chapter 3 Account for Constant Enemy Observation 3-62. Enemy forces possess a wide range of space-, air-, maritime-, and land-based reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities that can detect U.S. forces. To counter these robust and persistent capabilities requires counterintelligence efforts and the disciplined application of operations security. 3-63. Enemy forces employ UASs in large numbers and with a diverse array of capabilities. Leaders account for enemy capabilities and likely reconnaissance objectives as they develop their counter-UAS plan. Leaders implement techniques and procedures for countering enemy UASs based on their organic capabilities, attached capabilities, and the mission variables. 3-64. Leaders combine multiple measures, including deception, to make it more difficult for enemy forces to detect friendly forces. These measures include— z Counterreconnaissance, including counter-UAS operations. z Cover and concealment, both natural and manmade. z False battle positions and deception obstacles. z Obscuration. z Dispersion. z Noise and light discipline. z Limited visibility operations, particularly for sustainment functions and large unit movements. z Electromagnetic emission control and masking, to include social media and personal communication discipline. 3-65. Because Army forces employ an increasing number of capabilities that emit electromagnetic radiation that enemies can target, leaders must apply emission control measures, balancing the risks to the force with the risks to the mission. As risk to the force increases, leaders increase their emission control measures. There may be times that the risk of friendly emissions being detected and targeted is assessed as too high, causing Army forces to use methods of communications with no electromagnetic signature. Understanding threat systems, their capabilities, and their disposition supports effective planning and the execution of emission control measures including— z Minimizing length and frequency of radio transmissions. z Dispersing formations and command posts. z Using lowest effective power settings. z Establishing and enforcing the primary, alternate, contingency, and emergency communication plan. z Using remote antennas. z Using brevity codes, pro-word execution matrices, and communications windows. z Using secure landlines. z Using directional antennas. z Using data-burst transmissions. z Using proper encryption and equipment configuration. z Moving command posts and formations. z Masking emissions using terrain and manmade structures. z Recognizing and reporting jamming of Global Positioning System, radar, and satellite communications. z Employing deceptive emitters. Implementing Dispersion 3-66. Leader efforts to preempt and mitigate enemy detection are essential, but they cannot eliminate the risk of enemy massed and precision fires, including CBRN and weapons of mass destruction. To improve survivability from enemy indirect fires, Army forces maintain dispersion and remain as mobile as possible to avoid presenting themselves as lucrative targets to the enemy’s most capable systems. When mission 3-12 FM 3-0 01 October 2022  Fundamentals of Operations demands require units to remain static for more than short periods of time, those units must dig in to increase survivability. (See ATP 3-37.34 for information on survivability positions.) 3-67. Commanders have options for achieving dispersion. At the operational level, commanders maintain dispersion by employing multiple staging areas and multiple lines of communications. At the tactical level, commanders maintain dispersion by increasing the distance between subordinate formations and among the elements in those formations. In the attack, they use multiple routes and longer march intervals between formations to the objective and only concentrate forces enough to mass effects or generate favorable force ratios during close combat. In the defense, forces occupy areas away from prepared defensive positions until contact is imminent to prevent their detection and destruction by enemy deep fires. Defending forces also maximize dispersion by using terrain and employing the maximum supporting ranges and distances within acceptable risk criteria. 3-68. When concentrating forces is unavoidable or necessary, units remain concentrated at the lowest level and for the shortest time possible and then rapidly disperse. When the desired level of dispersion is not achievable, commanders place greater emphasis on imposing multiple, simultaneous dilemmas on enemy forces as they move within range of enemy weapons systems. This can reduce the risk of enemy forces efficiently massing their effects. Commanders also use speed and violence of action when dispersion is not possible to minimize exposure in high-risk areas. Second Nagorno Karabakh War: September–November 2020 During the six-week war, Azerbaijan exploited its technological advantage with lethal efficiency against Armenian forces. Azerbaijan used its UASs, in conjunction with Israeli loiter munitions and modified old Soviet AN-2 planes, to defeat Armenia’s older air defense systems. Azerbaijani forces flew the remotely piloted AN-2s to trigger engagements from Armenia’s air defense systems, while Azerbaijan’s UASs and loiter munitions remained at higher altitudes undetected or out of range. When the air defense systems engaged targets, Azerbaijan pinpointed the air defense systems locations and destroyed those systems with UASs, loiter munitions, or indirect fires. Azerbaijan’s tactics caused Armenia’s air defense network to collapse, and Azerbaijan gained local air superiority over the battlefield. With air superiority, Azerbaijan placed Armenian forces under continuous surveillance with its UASs. In addition, Azerbaijani forces had infiltrated special operations forces to conduct surveillance of Armenian positions. Armenian forces were unable to remain hidden, and Azerbaijan began destroying Armenian tanks, artillery, and vehicles at a significant rate. Although battle damage assessments vary, multiple sources reported that Azerbaijan destroyed hundreds of Armenian tanks, armored fighting vehicles, artillery systems, multiple launch rocket systems, and air defense systems. The inability to hide and fear of destruction had a demoralizing effect on Armenian soldiers. CREATE AND EXPLOIT RELATIVE PHYSICAL, INFORMATION, AND HUMAN ADVANTAGES IN PURSUIT OF DECISION DOMINANCE 3-69. The employment of lethal force is based on the premise that destruction and other physical consequences compels enemy forces to change their decision making and behavior, ultimately accepting defeat. The type, amount, and ways in which lethal force compels enemy forces varies, and this depends heavily on enemy forces, their capabilities, goals, and the will of relevant populations. Understanding the relationship between physical, information, and human factors enables leaders to take advantage of every opportunity and limit the negative effects of undesirable and unintended consequences. 3-70. Actions taken focused on one dimension can create advantages in the other dimensions. The physical dimension dominates tactical actions and the employment of destructive force to compel an outcome. Physical actions, particularly the employment of violence, usually generate cognitive effects in the human 01 October 2022 FM 3-0 3-13 Chapter 3 dimension. Information dimension factors inform and reflect the interaction between human and physical factors. The information dimension deals with how relevant actors and populations communicate what is happening in the physical and human dimensions. The human dimension is where perceptions, decision making, and behavior is determined, and is therefore the dimension that ultimately determines human will. Commanders combine, reinforce, and exploit advantages through all the dimensions, expanding them as they accrue over time. (See Chapter 1 for more information about physical, information, and human advantages.) 3-71. During competition and crisis, Army forces set conditions for armed conflict and physically exhibit combat readiness through training and exercises which is communicated by various means to create a deterrent effect in the human dimension. During armed conflict, tactical leaders typically focus on generating physical advantages and the immediate physical and cognitive effects they produce. However, leaders maintain awareness of the overall purpose of physical effects, ensuring they commit combat power to necessary objectives that produce advantageous results in all dimensions. At the strategic level, leaders focus more heavily on the information and human impacts of physical effects and how to convert them into desirable policy outcomes. 3-72. Successful military operations often depend on a commander's ability to gain and maintain the operational initiative by achieving decision dominance—a desired state in which a force generates decisions, counters threat information warfare capabilities, strengthens friendly morale and will, and affects threat decision making more effectively than the opponent. Decision dominance requires developing a variety of information advantages relative to that of the threat and then exploiting those advantages to achieve objectives. Commanders employ relevant military capabilities from all warfighting functions to create and exploit decision dominance. 3-73. Decision dominance is aspirational, situationally dependent, and always relative to an opponent. The goal is to understand, decide, and act faster and more effectively than the threat. It is not absolute speed that matters, but speed relative to the threat. Commanders can achieve this by interfering with an enemy force's C2 while enhancing, protecting, and sustaining their own C2. An advantage need not be large. A small advantage exploited repeatedly can contribute decisively to the success of Army forces. The ability and desire to generate a higher tempo does not mean commanders should act when the situation calls for waiting. The aim is meaningful—not merely rapid—action. A decision to act is meaningful only if the resulting actions by friendly forces create an advantage relative to the threat. 3-74. Adversaries and enemies pursue their own relative advantages, typically in asymmetric ways, while continually attempting to achieve decision dominance over friendly forces. Because threat forces adapt, and situations evolve, decision dominance is relative and transitory. Commanders therefore continuously make assessments to determine which forms of relative advantage are most important to pursue over time. MAKE INITIAL CONTACT WITH THE SMALLEST ELEMENT POSSIBLE 3-75. Army forces are extremely vulnerable when they do not sufficiently understand the disposition of enemy forces and become decisively engaged on terms favorable to enemy forces. To avoid being surprised and incurring heavy losses, leaders must set conditions for making enemy contact on terms favorable to the friendly force. They anticipate when and where to make enemy contact, the probability and impact of making enemy contact, and actions to take on contact. Quickly applying multiple capabilities against enemy forces while preventing the bulk of the friendly force from being engaged itself requires an understanding of the forms of contact. 3-76. During armed conflict at the tactical level, commanders seek to gain and maintain contact with the Units seek to make contact using sensors enemy using the smallest element possible, enabling rapid or unmanned systems first to minimize development of situational understanding, and using risk to Soldiers and key capabilities. maneuver and fires to attack enemy forces in the most advantageous way. Judicious employment of all available reconnaissance and security capabilities is the most effective way to make direct contact with the smallest possible friendly force. Friendly forces should attempt to make contact with sensors and unmanned systems first, incorporating them into their movement techniques. Employment of UAS and other platforms activates enemy systems and enables their detection without creating risks to manned friendly reconnaissance and maneuver forces. After detecting an enemy 3-14 FM 3-0 01 October 2022  Fundamentals of Operations capability, Army forces cue intelligence platforms from other domains to improve their understanding of enemy force dispositions and engage those forces on advantageous terms. 3-77. Identifying enemy locations may not provide enough information for Army forces to discern enemy intentions. Commanders develop the situation through action when they deliberately place forces in contact. Small maneuver forces are often the most effective way to compel enemy forces to react and show their intentions. Leaders exercise tactical patience and set conditions for success. They synchronize maneuver with complementary and reinforcing capabilities through the depth of an operational environment to generate situational awareness and detect opportunities to exploit. By combining friendly speed with multiple dilemmas, it is possible to rapidly disintegrate the coherence of an enemy formation before it can effectively respond. 3-78. Using capabilities from multiple domains, such as air and ground, commanders cause threat systems to activate or emit electromagnetic signals that reveal their capabilities and the locations of their critical nodes, such as sensors, shooters, and command posts. During competition, commanders and staffs use this information to improve understanding, update target lists, and refine plans for attacking threat vulnerabilities. By doing this, commanders and staffs set conditions for success during armed conflict. 3-79. There are situations in which it is not advisable to make contact with the smallest possible element. When commanders are confident they have superior forces, have the element of surprise, and know the enemy’s disposition and course of action, they make contact with as much combat power as possible to maximize surprise and shock effect against enemy forces. IMPOSE MULTIPLE DILEMMAS ON THE ENEMY 3-80. Imposing multiple dilemmas on enemy forces complicates their decision making and forces them to prioritize among competing options. It is a way of seizing the initiative and making enemy forces react to friendly operations. Simultaneous operations encompassing multiple domains—conducted in depth and supported by deception—present enemy forces with multiple dilemmas. Employing capabilities from multiple domains degrades enemy freedom of action, reduces enemy flexibility and endurance, and disrupts enemy plans and coordination. The application of capabilities in complementary and reinforcing ways creates more problems than an enemy commander can solve, which erodes both enemy effectiveness and the will to fight. 3-81. Deception contributes to creating multiple dilemmas, achieving operational surprise, and maintaining the initiative. Deception efforts by tactical formations seek to delay enemy decision making until it is too late to matter, or to cause an enemy commander to make the wrong decision. Deception requires an understanding of how to surprise enemy forces; time to plan, prepare, execute, and assess a deception operation; and the ability to properly resource the deception effort. 3-82. Deception inhibits effective enemy action by increasing the time, space, and resources necessary to understand friendly courses of action. Well-executed deception begins a cumulative effect on enemy decision-making cycles, and it can cause inaction, delay, misallocation of forces, and surprise as enemy forces react to multiple real and false dilemmas. Attempts to mislead enemy forces are fundamental to all courses of action development wherever possible. While commanders and staffs integrate deception as part of course of action development, they take operations security measures to obscure friendly intentions, make enemy forces account for multiple friendly courses of action for as long as possible, and ensure that enemy forces do not become aware of the deception effort. (See JP 3-13.4 and FM 3-13.4 for more information on military deception.) 3-83. Forcible entry operations and envelopments into locations offset from how enemy defenses are oriented can create multiple dilemmas by dislocating enemy forces’ prepared operational approach or exceeding their capability to respond. The capability to project power across operational distances presents enemy forces with difficult decisions about how to array their forces in time and space. Rapid tactical maneuver to exploit a penetration or envelopment defeats enemy attempts to reposition integrated fires networks or integrated air defense systems, which in turn are typically less effective when moving. 3-84. Creating multiple dilemmas requires recognizing exploitable opportunities. Understanding enemy dispositions, systems, and vulnerabilities, and the characteristics of the terrain and population, informs 01 October 2022 FM 3-0 3-15 Chapter 3 situational understanding and course of action development. Employing mutually supporting forces along different axes to strike from unexpected directions creates dilemmas, particularly when Army and joint forces simultaneously create effects against enemy forces in multiple domains. Commanders seek every opportunity to make enemy forces operate in different directions at the time and locations of their choosing. Commanders are not limited to destructive means for imposing multiple dilemmas on the enemy. For example, they can employ psychological operations and civil affairs capabilities to influence and garner the support of civilian populations. This creates a dilemma for enemy forces who must react and divert resources to counter passive or active resistance. ANTICIPATE, PLAN, AND EXECUTE TRANSITIONS 3-85. Transitions mark a change of focus in an operation. Leaders plan transitions as part of the initial plan or parts of a branch or sequel. They can be unplanned and cause the force to react to unforeseen circumstances. Transitions can be part of progress towards mission accomplishment, or they can reflect a temporary setback. Common transitions are— z Between competition, crisis, and armed conflict. z Between operations dominated by offense, defense, and stability. z Between types of offense or defense. z Between phases of an operation. z Between branches and sequels of a campaign or major operation. z Between command posts during emplacement, movement, and displacement of one or more nodes. z Shifts of the main effort, supporting effort, and reserve between units. z Task organization changes. z Passing responsibility for enemy units crossing unit or echelon boundaries. z Passing terrain responsibility between units. z Transferring responsibility for security and governance to legitimate authorities. z Change in mission from combat operations to reconstitution. z Moving forces in and out of theater. z Changes in the environment that cause a reframe of the mission or change in the purpose of the operation. 3-86. Transitions are critical planning responsibilities for commanders. They anticipate key transitions and issue planning guidance to their staffs. Staffs in turn suggest to their commanders when transitions may be necessary. Staffs monitor current operations and track conditions that require transition. Transitions are typically points of friction or opportunities, and leaders assign subordinate leaders specific responsibilities wherever transitions occur, for example, during passage of lines, at wet gap crossings, at contact points, and along unit boundaries. 3-87. Effective transitions require planning and preparation well before their execution, so the force can maintain the momentum and tempo of operations. Risks increase during transitions, so commanders establish clear conditions for their execution. Commanders establish decision points to support successful transitions during operations. The ability of echelons below brigade to execute battle drills mitigates some of the risks higher echelons face during transitions. 3-88. A transition occurs for several reasons. An unexpected change in conditions may require commanders to direct an abrupt transition. In such cases, the overall composition of the force remains unchanged despite sudden changes in mission, task organization, and rules of engagement. Typically, task organization evolves to meet changing conditions; however, transition planning must also account for changes in mission. Commanders continuously assess the situation, re-task, re-organize, and cycle their forces in and out of close combat to retain operational initiative. Commanders seek to shift priorities or the main effort without necessitating operational pauses that make friendly forces more vulnerable to enemy action. 3-89. Commanders identify potential transitions during planning and account for them throughout execution. Transition planning and preparation should include— 3-16 FM 3-0 01 October 2022  Fundamentals of Operations z Forecasting when and how to transition. z Arranging tasks to facilitate transitions. z Creating a task organization that anticipates transitions. z Rehearsing critical transitions, such as the transition from defense to offense. z Ensuring the force understands changes to rules of engagement during mission transitions. z Understanding potential unintended consequences and the risk they pose to successful transition. 3-90. Commanders and staffs account for the time required to plan, prepare, execute, and assess transitions, accounting for likely friction due to the environment, degraded communications, and enemy action. Assessment ensures that commanders measure progress toward such transitions and take appropriate actions to prepare for and execute them. DESIGNATE, WEIGHT, AND SUSTAIN THE MAIN EFFORT 3-91. Commanders frequently face competing demands for limited resources. They resolve these competing demands by establishing priorities. One way in which commanders establish priorities is by designating, weighting, and sustaining the main effort. The main effort is a designated subordinate unit whose mission at a given point in time is most critical to overall mission success (ADP 3-0). Commanders provide the main effort with the appropriate resources and support necessary for its success. When designating a main effort, commanders consider augmenting a unit’s task organization and giving it priority of resources and support. The commander designates various priorities of support, such as for air and missile defense (AMD), close air support and other fires, information collection, mobility and countermobility, and sustainment. Commanders and staffs anticipate sustainment requirements of the main effort as it shifts throughout the operation, and they position supplies and capabilities according to the situation. Commanders must balance forward positioning of sustainment assets with the need for freedom of action and operational reach when weighting the main effort. 3-92. Commanders shift resources and priorities as circumstances require. While there can be only one main effort at any given time, commanders may shift the main effort several times during an operation to increase the endurance of the overall force. They should allow time for the shift of support priorities prior to designating a unit as the main effort, since shifting the main effort may require movement of resources and the positioning of supporting capabilities. CONSOLIDATE GAINS CONTINUOUSLY 3-93. Leaders add depth to their operations in terms of time and purpose when they consolidate gains. Commanders consolidate gains at the operational and tactical levels as a strategically informed approach to current operations with the desired political outcome of the conflict in mind. During competition and crisis, commanders expand opportunities created from previous conflicts and activities to sustain enduring U.S. interests, while improving the credibility, readiness, and deterrent effect of Army forces. During large-scale combat operations, commanders consolidate gains continuously or as soon as possible, deciding whether to accept risk with a more moderate tempo during the present mission or in the future as large-scale combat operations conclude. (See paragraphs 6-98 through 6-105 for more information on consolidating gains during armed conflict.) 3-94. The multidomain aspects of an operational environment place increased strain on the ability of military forces to create enduring change, particularly in the human and information dimensions. The size, scale, and scope of an assigned area of operations (AO) may reduce the duration of effects, just as they dilute the potency of combat power. The speed and pervasiveness of enemy disinformation campaigns is a constant challenge that contests Army forces’ ability to change human will and behavior. The need to fix and bypass some enemy forces during operations designed to penetrate or envelop enemy echelons may leave significant enemy threats in rear areas and jeopardize gains made during offensive operations. Commanders therefore continuously assess when and how they will consolidate gains as they develop the situation. 3-95. Consolidating gains at every echelon leads to better transitions out of armed conflict and into post-conflict competition. It serves as a preventative against the rise of an insurgency by those wishing to prolong the conflict. 01 October 2022 FM 3-0 3-17 Chapter 3 UNDERSTAND AND MANAGE THE EFFECTS OF OPERATIONS ON UNITS AND SOLDIERS 3-96. Continuous operations rapidly degrade the performance of people and the equipment they employ, particularly during combat. In battle, Soldiers and units are more likely to fail catastrophically than gradually. Commanders and staffs must be alert to small indicators of fatigue, fear, indiscipline, and reduced morale, and they must take measures to deal with these before their cumulative effects drive a unit to the threshold of collapse. Staffs and commanders at higher echelons must take into account the impact of prolonged combat on subordinate units, which causes efficiency to drop, even when physical losses are not great. Leaders consider the isolation Soldiers experience when not being able to remain connected with family and friends via social media and other platforms for extended periods. Well-trained, physically fit Soldiers in cohesive units retain the qualities of tenacity and aggressiveness longer than those who are not. 3-97. Although all units experience peaks and valleys in combat effectiveness, well-trained, cohesive units under effective leaders have increased endurance and higher effectiveness than units that lack training and effective leaders. Leaders develop resilient subordinates. Staffs and commanders need to take this variance in performance into account in their planning by matching units to missions, rotating units through difficult tasks to permit recuperation, and by basing their expectations of a unit’s performance on accurate awareness of its current capabilities. Historically, during conflicts where tactical units are in contact with enemy forces on a continuous basis for weeks or more at a time, commanders and staffs at echelons above brigade rotated subordinate units out of enemy contact to reorganize, rest, and train on a regular basis. Continuously assessing the combat effectiveness of subordinate formations is necessary to inform such decisions in the future. SECTION III – OPERATIONAL APPROACH AND OPERATIONAL FRAMEWORK 3-98. The operational approach provides the logic for how tactical tasks ultimately achieve the desired end state. It provides a unifying purpose and focus to all operations. Sound operational approaches balance risk and uncertainty with friction and chance. The operational approach provides the basis for detailed planning, allows leaders to establish a logical operational framework, and helps produce an executable order. (See ADP 3-0 for more information on operational art. See ADP 5-0 for more information on planning.) 3-99. An operational framework organizes an area of geographic and operational responsibility for the commander and provides a way to describe the employment of forces. The framework illustrates the relationship between close operations, operations in depth, and other operations in time and space across domains. As a visualization tool, the operational framework bridges the gap between a unit’s conceptual understanding of the environment and its need to generate detailed orders that direct operations. OPERATIONAL APPROACH 3-100. Through operational art, commanders develop their operational approach—a broad description of the mission, operational concepts, tasks, and actions required to accomplish the mission (JP 5-0). An operational approach is the result of the commander’s visualization of what needs to be done in broad terms to solve identified problems. It is the main idea that informs detailed planning. When describing an operational approach, commanders— z Consider ways to defeat enemy forces in detail and potential decisive points. z Employ combinations of defeat mechanisms to isolate and defeat enemy forces, functions, and capabilities. z Assess options for assuming risk. DEFEATING ENEMY FORCES IN DETAIL 3-101. Armed conflict implies the need to defeat enemy forces. Defeat is to render a force incapable of achieving its objectives (ADP 3-0). When used as a task or effect in operations, defeat provides maximum flexibility to the commander in how to accomplish the mission. Senior leaders assign defeat as a task when the situation is still developing, or when the commander on the ground, by virtue of experience and proximity to the problem, is uniquely capable of deciding how to employ lethal force to accomplish objectives. As a task, defeat is appropriate for theater strategic and operational-level echelons, but it is often too vague for 3-18 FM 3-0 01 October 2022  Fundamentals of Operations tactical echelons below corps level, where more specific outcomes or a higher level of destruction might be necessary to ensure the overall defeat of enemy forces. As a purpose or an effect, defeat is often used to describe the ultimate outcome of an operation. 3-102. Defeat inevitably leads to transition. Strategic defeat occurs when an enemy’s political leadership and national will acquiesce to the friendly political will, and the situation transitions to a more desirable form of competition below armed conflict. Operational defeat occurs when enemy forces no longer have the will or ability to pursue military objectives, and the friendly force has achieved most or all of its objectives. At the tactical level, an attacking force defeats an enemy defense when it causes enemy forces to transition to a retrograde and cease defending friendly objectives. A defending force defeats an enemy attack when it causes enemy forces to culminate and transition to the defense before achieving their objectives. 3-103. When U.S. forces possess overwhelming advantages across all domains, the JFC is able to attack all elements of the enemy force with a high degree of simultaneity. Simultaneity disrupts the enemy’s C2 system and rapidly disintegrates each component of the threat warfighting system at the same time. However, peer threats, by definition, possess a scale and quality of warfighting capability that is too extensive to attack at once. When fighting a peer threat, commanders identify weaknesses between enemy units or in enemy formations and warfighting systems that provide opportunities to defeat them in detail. 3-104. Defeat in detail is concentrating overwhelming combat power against separate parts of a force rather than defeating the entire force at once (ADP 3-90). Traditionally, commanders of a smaller force use this technique to achieve success against a larger enemy force. However, defeat in detail also applies to operations that focus effort on a specific enemy function, capability, echelon, domain, or dimension. 3-105. Defeat in detail requires leaders to evaluate enemy forces in the context of all the relevant domains and dimensions of an operational environment. Commanders must understand the various parts of an enemy force and its vulnerabilities, and then discern the best ways to project combat power against those vulnerabilities. By comparing enemy weaknesses to friendly advantages, leaders begin to see opportunities and formulate options. Sometimes enemy vulnerabilities and friendly advantages intersect at a single place and time in a way that is decisive to mission accomplishment. That single place and time is a decisive point— key terrain, key event, critical factor, or function that, when acted upon, enables commanders to gain a marked advantage over an enemy or contribute materially to achieving success (JP 5-0). Decisive points help commanders select clear, conclusive, attainable objectives that directly contribute to achieving an end state through convergence or other means. DEFEAT AND STABILITY MECHANISMS 3-106. A defeat mechanism is a method through which friendly forces accomplish their mission against enemy opposition (ADP 3-0). Army forces at all echelons commonly use combinations of four defeat mechanisms: destroy, dislocate, disintegrate, and isolate. Applying more than one defeat mechanism simultaneously creates multiple dilemmas for enemy forces and complementary and reinforcing effects not attainable with a single mechanism. Commanders may have an overarching defeat mechanism or combination of mechanisms that accomplish the mission, with supporting defeat mechanisms for components of an enemy formation or warfighting system. Defeat mechanisms can guide subordinate development of tactical tasks, purposes, and effects in their operations, facilitating control and initiative. 3-107. During competition, commanders take actions that set conditions for the future application of defeat mechanisms and demonstrate the capability to impose the defeat mechanisms on enemy forces. These activities include posturing forces, penetrating enemy networks, and conducting exercises with allies and partners. 3-108. Commanders determine the speed and degree to which a defeat mechanism must impact an enemy force or warfighting system. Although rapid defeat is typically desirable, it may be more feasible or acceptable to take a gradual approach to completing a defeat. Rendering an enemy incapable of achieving its objectives does not usually require total annihilation. To determine the degree of impact on the enemy force, commanders consider causing only minor degradation to a threat warfighting system or unit when it is sufficient to prevent the enemy from achieving its objective. This preserves friendly combat power and applies the economy of force principle. In other cases, especially main efforts against determined peer threat forces, commanders typically require a significant portion of an enemy’s force be destroyed. 01 October 2022 FM 3-0 3-19 Chapter 3 3-109. When commanders destroy, they apply lethal force against an enemy capability so that it can no longer perform its function. Destroy is a tactical mission task that physically renders an enemy force combat- ineffective until it is reconstituted. Alternatively, to destroy a combat system is to damage it so badly that it cannot perform any function or be restored to a usable condition without being entirely rebuilt (FM 3-90-1). Destruction and the threat of destruction lie at the core of all the defeat mechanisms and make them more compelling. The other mechanisms work when friendly action has caused enemy forces to face a grim reality: their ability to fight and relative advantages are degraded, and their options are to surrender, withdraw, or be destroyed. 3-110. Dislocate is to employ forces to obtain significant positional advantage in one or more domains, rendering the enemy’s dispositions less valuable, perhaps even irrelevant. Typically, the impact of dislocation increases when the friendly force exploits advantages in multiple domains. Commanders often achieve dislocation through deception and by placing forces in locations where enemy forces do not expect them. Achieving dislocation requires an understanding how enemy forces are oriented and how quickly they can shift. Envelopments and turning movements enable physical dislocation. Deception can create and enhance psychological effects of dislocation. 3-111. Isolate means to separate a force from its sources of support in order to reduce its effectiveness and increase its vulnerability to defeat (ADP 3-0). Isolation can encompass multiple domains and can have both physical and psychological effects detrimental to accomplishing a mission. Isolating an enemy force from the electromagnetic spectrum increases the effects of physical isolation by reducing its ability to communicate and degrading its situational awareness. The ability of an isolated unit to perform its intended mission generally degrades over time, decreasing its ability to interfere with an opposing force’s course of action. When commanders isolate, they deny enemy forces access to capabilities that enable them to maneuver at will in time and space. 3-112. Disintegrate means to disrupt the enemy’s command and control, degrading the synchronization and cohesion of its operations. Disintegration prevents enemy unity of effort and leads to a degradation of the enemy’s capabilities or will to fight. It attacks the cohesion of enemy formations and their ability to employ combined arms approaches and work effectively together. Commanders can achieve disintegration by targeting enemy functions essential to the threat’s ability to act as a whole. They often achieve disintegration by specifically targeting an enemy’s command structure, communications systems, the linkages between them, and the capabilities they control. Disintegration can be achieved through the employment of the other three defeat mechanisms in combination, particularly when directed toward systems like integrated fires commands and integrated air defense systems heavily dependent upon C2 and sensor nodes. 3-113. Cyberspace, space, and electromagnetic warfare capabilities can help disintegrate enemy formations by degrading communications and disrupting the quality of enemy information and decisions. Separating enemy reserves and follow-on echelons from the main body with maneuver forces or fires is a physical way to isolate echelons, achieve favorable force ratios, and destroy those echelons. This in turn disintegrates the coherence of an enemy’s attack or defense. Destroying enemy sustainment capability separates enemy fires and maneuver from fuel and ammunition and delays resupply operations. 3-114. A stability mechanism is the primary method through which friendly forces affect civilians in order to attain conditions that support establishing a lasting, stable peace (ADP 3-0). As with defeat mechanisms, combinations of stability mechanisms produce complementary and reinforcing effects that accomplish the mission more effectively and efficiently than single mechanisms do alone. The four stability mechanisms are compel, control, influence, and support: z Compel means to use, or threaten to use, lethal force to establish control and dominance, affect behavioral change, or enforce compliance with mandates, agreements, or civil authority. z Control involves imposing civil order. z Influence means to alter the opinions, attitudes, and ultimately the behavior of foreign, friendly, neutral, and threat audiences through messages, presence, and actions. z Support establishes, reinforces, or sets conditions necessary for the instruments of national power to function effectively. 3-20 FM 3-0 01 October 2022  Fundamentals of Operations RISK 3-115. Commanders accept risk on their own terms to create opportunities and apply judgment to manage those hazards they do not control. Risk is an inherent part of every operation and cannot be avoided. Commanders analyze risk in collaboration with subordinates to help determine what level and type of risk exists and how to mitigate it. When considering how much risk to accept with a course of action, commanders consider risk to the force against the probability of mission success during current and future operations. They assess options in terms of weighting the main effort, economy of force, and physical loss in the context of what they have been tasked to do. 3-116. Leaders consider risk across all domains. Accepting risk in one domain may create opportunities in other domains. For example, the risk of seizing an airfield puts ground forces at risk, but it creates an opportunity to receive reinforcements and supplies that extend operational reach. During combat against an enemy with capabilities comparable to that of the United States, the greatest opportunity may come from the course of action with the most risk. An example of this is committing significant forces to a potentially costly frontal attack that fixes the bulk of enemy forces in place to set the conditions for their envelopment by other forces. Another is taking a difficult but unexpected route to achieve surprise. Accepting significant risk is necessary when seeking to create an advantage where none exists otherwise. 3-117. The unrealistic expectation of avoiding all risk is detrimental to mission accomplishment. While each situation is different, commanders avoid undue caution or commitment of resources to guard against every perceived threat. Waiting for perfect intelligence and synchronization may increase risk or close a window of opportunity. Mission command requires that commanders and subordinates accept risk, exercise initiative, and act decisively, particularly when the outcome is uncertain. 3-118. Commanders determine how to impose risk on enemy forces. Viewing the situation through the enemy’s perspective, commanders seek to create multiple dilemmas and increase the number and severity of hazards with which enemy forces must contend. Leaders consider the human and information factors that govern the manner in which enemy forces assess costs and benefits and calculate risk. Commanders disrupt this risk calculation when they increase perceived costs to enemy forces and reduce the perception of potential benefits. Commanders do this by imposing dilemmas on enemy forces, not based on what a U.S. or allied leader views as a problem, but on what an enemy commander views as detrimental. Some dilemmas are universally accepted as costly, but others are cultural or personal. Commanders rely on military intelligence and experience to develop this level of situational understanding. STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK 3-119. The strategic framework accounts for factors in the strategic environment and the connection of strategic capabilities to operational- and tactical-level operations. The strategic framework includes four areas: z Strategic support area. z Joint security area. z Extended deep area. z Assigned operational area. (See figure 3-2 on page 3-23 for a depiction of the operational framework in the context of the strategic framework.) STRATEGIC SUPPORT AREA 3-120. The strategic support area describes the area extending from a theater of operations to a base in the United States or another CCDR’s area of responsibility. It contains those organizations, lines of communications, and other agencies required to support deployed forces. It also includes the airports and seaports supporting the flow of forces and sustainment into a theater. Finally, a strategic support area may contain key operational capabilities, such as cyberspace assets, that are employed from outside an operational area but create effects inside it. Most friendly nuclear, space, and cyberspace capabilities and important network infrastructure are controlled and located in the strategic support area. 01 October 2022 FM 3-0 3-21 Chapter 3 JOINT SECURITY AREA 3-121. A joint security area is a specific area to facilitate protection of joint bases and their connecting lines of communications that support joint operations (JP 3-10). The joint security area (JSA) is inside, or immediately adjacent to, an operational area where significant forces and sustainment from two or more services are positioned to conduct or support operations. Joint security on land includes bases, mission-essential assets, lines of communications, and convoy security. A senior Army commander is often designated with responsibility for joint security operations on land. 3-122. The size of a JSA varies considerably and is highly dependent on the size of the operational area, mission-essential assets, logistics support requirements, threats, or scope of the joint operation. The JSA may be included in, be separate from, or be adjacent to the rear areas of the joint force land component commander. During large-scale combat operations JSAs typically are separate from land component or field army rear areas and associated support areas. (See JP 3-10 for more information on JSAs.) EXTENDED DEEP AREA 3-123. The extended deep area is comprised of operational and strategic deep areas. These areas typically do not fall within the land component command’s AO, but they are part of its area of interest because enemy capabilities and vulnerabilities in the extended deep area can have significant impacts on the outcomes of operations. Extended deep areas are typically the purview of the joint force headquarters or another combatant command. Typically, the joint force air component command (known as the JFACC) is the supported command in extended deep areas. Army forces may be tasked to support it with long-range precision fires. 3-124. Operational deep areas are generally inside the area of interest and immediately beyond the land component’s initially assigned AO. These areas may or may not be within the boundaries of a joint operations area (JOA) or a theater of operations. Operational deep areas are often beyond the feasible movement of conventional forces without significant support from the joint force. 3-125. Operational deep areas contain enemy supporting formations and capabilities for their main forces. Enemy forces can generate significant combat power from these areas, and the capabilities that reside there are often vital to their conduct of operations. In most campaign designs, operational objectives for friendly forces reside initially in the operational deep area. 3-126. Strategic deep areas are beyond the feasible range of movement for conventional ground forces or policy prohibits their operations. These areas are where the CCDR, other combatant commands, and national agencies can employ strategic intelligence capabilities, joint fires, special operations forces, and space and cyberspace capabilities. Many enemy space, cyberspace, and information warfare capabilities reside in strategic deep areas across international boundaries and outside the JOA, and they often comprise multiple areas of influence. (See figure 3-2 for a depiction of the operational framework.) 3-22 FM 3-0 01 October 2022  Fundamentals of Operations Figure 3-2. The operational framework in the context of the strategic framework OPERATIONAL FRAMEWORK 3-127. The operational framework is a cognitive tool used to assist commanders and staffs in clearly visualizing and describing the application of combat power in time, space, purpose, and resources in the concept of operations (ADP 1-01). Commanders build their operational framework on their assessment of the operational environment, including all domains and dimensions. They may create new models to fit the circumstances, but they generally apply a combination of common models according to doctrine. The three models commonly used to build an operational framework are— z Assigned areas. z Deep, close, and rear operations. z Main effort, supporting effort, and reserve. Note. Commanders may use any operational framework models they find useful, but they must remain synchronized with their higher echelon headquarters’ operational framework. ASSIGNED AREAS 3-128. The JFC assigns land forces an operational area within a joint organizational construct. The land component or ARFOR commander subdivides their AO into subordinate assigned areas to best support the desired scheme of maneuver. Commanders assign areas to subordinates based on a ra