Professional Knowledge Subjects

Professional Knowledge Subjects Principles of War DEFINE ACTION 1 OJECTIVE: Objective is focusing all efforts toward the decisive achievement of an obtainable endstate. An achievable end –state is critical to successful military operations. Ultimately it is the use of force or threat of use of force to influence a change in beliefs or political structure.

ACTION 2 OFFENSIVE: Speed is the rapid execution of all functions and operations related to war. Implied is speed are the current principles of offensive and maneuver. Speed enables a force to seize the initiative, deliver time critical strikes and plan and decide on the fly. ACTION 3 MASS: Concentration of effects, which replaces mass, is the focusing of conventional fires and other useful tools, such as electronics attack, and information operations, to defeat the enemy. The range and precision of advanced weapons, capability of long range sensors employment of space systems and unmanned vehicles and utility of non destructive tactics leaves mass with an increasingly narrow utility.

ACTION 4 ECONOMY OF FORCE: Economy of effects is employing the right number and combination of effects to neutralize or destroy an enemy and achieve the objective. Economy of force is replaced by economy of effects. Employ overwhelming force in military conflict rather than a strict economical force. ACTION 5 MANEUVER: Maneuver is the employment of forces, through movement combined with fire or fire potential, to achieve a position of advantage with respect to the enemy to accomplish the mission. Maneuver is the means by which commanders concentrate combat power to achieve surprise, shock, momentum and dominance. ACTION 6 UNITY OF COMMAND: Means that a single commander directs and coordinates the actions of all forces toward a common objective, cooperation may produce coordination, but giving a single commander the required authority unifies action. Efficiency of command is ensuring the force has no more divisions and layers of command than is necessary, and implies unity of command. War is divided into levels for good reason and the speed and scope of future conflicts argue for more authority in the hands of unit level commanders not less. In situations in which political concerns are significant, higher levels of command must provide clear guidance to subordinate commanders and trust them to act with good judgement. Political leaders must resist the temptation to let everyone play and unnecessarily widen the field of actors in the name of jointness.

ACTION 7 SECURITY: Is ensuring the safety and integrity of forces and certain noncombatants during all phases of the operation. The principle of security expands somewhat with the nature of war. It is that security remains an essential consideration in planing and execution future operations. In addition security of NGO and other agency personnel, persecuted minorities and refuges, politically and legally, may need to be provided as well. ACTION 8 SURPRISE: Is acting in an unpredictable fashion to leverage the utility of effects, and it retains some value in the updated principles of war. Strategic surprise is increasingly difficult in the information age when around the clock news on troop movements and the political process id available to anyone with a satellite dish or internet connection. However operational and tactical surprise remain undiminished, and by exploiting pervasive awareness, a flexible, creative military commander should always find opportunities to strike at a time and place and in a manner that an opponent cannot predict. ACTION 9 SIMPLICITY: Plans and orders should be simple and direct. Simple plans and clear, concise orders reduce misunderstanding and confusion. Simple plans executed on time are better than detailed plans executed late. Simple plans and orders minimize the confusion inherent in this complex environment. Multinational operation put a premium on simplicity due to language, doctrine and culture.