11-34. The military deception objective is the purpose of the military deception expressed in terms of what the enemy is to do or not to do at the critical time and location. Like the military deception goal, the military deception objective is also recommended in the running estimate and confirmed by the commander in the commander’s planning guidance at the conclusion of mission analysis.

3-45. Control measures are established under a commander’s authority; however, commanders may authorize staff officers and subordinate leaders to establish them. Commanders may use control measures for several purposes: to assign responsibilities, require synchronization between forces, impose restrictions, or establish guidelines to regulate freedom of action. Certain control measures belong to the commander alone, and may not be delegated. These include the commanders’ intent, unit mission statement, planning guidance, and CCIRs and essential elements of friendly information.

3-43. Decide is the first function in targeting and occurs during the planning portion of the operations process. It is the most important function, requiring close interaction between the commander, intelligence, plans, operations, the fires cell, and staff judge advocate. It begins during the mission analysis portion of the MDMP and continues throughout the operation. The staff develops (decide) information to address:

1-15. Leadership is the activity of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish the mission and improve the organization. Leadership as an element of combat power, coupled with information, unifies the warfighting functions (movement and maneuver, intelligence, fires, sustainment, protection and command and control). Leadership focuses and synchronizes organizations. Leaders inspire people to become energized and motivated to achieve desired outcomes. An Army leader is anyone who by virtue of assumed role or assigned responsibility inspires and influences people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish the mission and improve the organization.

3-66. Sustainment determines the depth and duration of Army operations. It is essential to retaining and exploiting the initiative and it provides the support necessary to maintain operations until mission accomplishment. Failure to provide sustainment could cause a pause or culmination of an operation resulting in the loss of the initiative. It is essential that sustainment planners and operation planners work closely to synchronize all of the warfighting functions, in particular sustainment, to allow commanders the maximum freedom of action.

2-49. Soldiers deployed overseas follow rules of engagement established by the Secretary of Defense and adjusted for theater conditions by the joint force commander. Within the homeland, Soldiers adhere to RUF (sometimes including SRUF). There are many similarities between them, such as the inherent right of self-defense, but they differ in intent. Rules of engagement are by nature permissive measures intended to allow the maximum use of destructive power appropriate for the mission. RUF are restrictive measures intended to allow only the minimum force necessary to accomplish the mission. (See Chapter 4, for more information on use of force in regards to DSCA tasks.)

1-24. Determining the appropriate level of control, including delegating decisions and determining how much decentralized execution to employ, is part of the art of command. The level and application of control is constantly evolving and must be continuously assessed and adjusted to ensure the level of control is appropriate to the situation. Commanders should allow subordinates the greatest freedom of action commensurate with the level of acceptable risk in a particular situation. The mission variables (mission, enemy, terrain and weather, troops and support available, time available, and civil considerations) influence how much control to impose on subordinates. Other considerations include—

4-106. CBRN personnel contribute to the overall protection of units located in defensive positions. CBRN personnel perform CBRN vulnerability assessments including a threat assessment and vulnerability analysis, and they recommend vulnerability reduction measures for commanders to consider before and after units move into their defensive positions. These assessments provide a list of preventive measures that can range from the use of obscurants, reconnaissance, mission-oriented protective posture, and other aspects of CBRN defense. (For more information on CBRN vulnerability assessment, see ATP 3-11.36. For more information on CBRN protection, see ATP 3-11.32.)

1-162. Decisive, shaping, and sustaining operations lend themselves to a broad conceptual orientation. The decisive operation is the operation that directly accomplishes the mission (ADRP 3-0). It determines the outcome of a major operation, battle, or engagement. The decisive operation is the focal point around which commanders design an entire operation. Multiple subordinate units may be engaged in the same decisive operation. Decisive operations lead directly to the accomplishment of a commander’s intent. Commanders typically identify a single decisive operation, but more than one subordinate unit may play a role in a decisive operation.

4-17. Force tailoring combines two complementary requirements—selecting the right forces and deploying the forces in the optimal sequence. The first—selecting the right force—involves identifying, selecting, and sourcing required Army capabilities and establishing their initial task organization to accomplish the mission. The result is an Army force package matched to the needs of the combatant commander. The second requirement of force tailoring establishes order of deployment for the force package, given the available lift and the combatant commander’s priorities. Tailoring the force is a complicated and intensively managed Army-wide process, and the theater army plays a critical role in it.

3-1. Success in operations demands timely and effective decisions based on applying judgment to available information and knowledge. Throughout the conduct of operations, commanders (supported by their staffs, subordinate commanders, and unified action partners) seek to build and maintain situational understanding. Situational understanding is the product of applying analysis and judgment to relevant information to determine the relationships among the operational and mission variables to facilitate decisionmaking (ADP 5-0).

4-26. An operational approach is a broad description of the mission, operational concepts, tasks, and actions required to accomplish the mission (JP 5-0). The purpose of an operational approach is to provide a framework that relates tactical tasks to the desired end state. It provides a unifying purpose and focus to all operations. It links conceptual planning with detailed planning by providing the main idea that outlines detailed planning and guides the force through preparation and execution. The operational approach enables commanders to begin visualizing and describing possible combinations of actions to reach the desired end state, given the tensions identified in an operational environment and problem frames. The staff uses operational approaches to develop courses of action during detailed planning.

2-57. The Financial Management Center is a modular and tailorable operational financial management unit whose mission is inextricably linked to the theater Army assistant chief of staff, finance. In order to provide adequate theater and national-provider responsiveness and support, the Financial Management Center maintains visibility of all financial management operations and placement of all operational and tactical financial management units in theater. The primary mission of the Financial Management Center is to provide technical coordination of all theater finance operations and serve as the principal advisor to the theater Army assistant chief of staff, finance and the TSC commander on all aspects of theater finance operations. Technical coordination of theater financial management units (financial management companies and their subordinate detachments) encompasses the provision of recommendations and advice to theater commanders and staff regarding the employment, integration, direction, and control of their financial management forces for the accomplishment of assigned missions. Other missions include but are not limited to: negotiations with HN banking facilities, advising unit commanders on the use of local currency, and coordination with national providers (i.e. Department of the Treasury, Defense Finance and Accounting Service, and Assistant Secretary of the Army [Financial Management & Comptroller], United States Army Financial Management Command) also known as U.S. Army Financial Management Command to establish financial management support requirements (FM 1-06).

4-5. The identification of potential, restricted targets and the selection of the best capability to achieve the desired effects both help mitigate unintended effects, to include unacceptable levels of collateral damage. Protection of noncombatant civilians and their property is a command responsibility and an essential element of the Army Ethic. Civilian casualty mitigation directly affects the success of the overall mission. In addition, the accountability, credibility, and legitimacy of a military operation, success of the overarching mission, and achievement of U.S. strategic objectives depend on the Army’s ability to minimize harm to civilians. Failure to minimize civilian casualties can undermine national policy objectives and the strategic mission, while assisting the enemy. In addition, civilian casualties can incite increased opposition to friendly forces (ATP 3-07.6).

1-58. Personnel information management encompasses collecting, processing, storing, displaying, reconciling, and disseminating relevant HR information about units and personnel. Commanders, HR professionals, and planners rely on personnel information databases when performing their mission. Refer to AR 25-22, The Army Privacy Program, for specific recordkeeping requirements under the Privacy Act.

1-33. A hazard is a condition with the potential to cause injury, illness, or death of personnel; damage to or loss of equipment or property; or mission degradation (JP 3-33). Hazards are usually predictable and preventable and can be reduced through effective risk management efforts. Commanders differentiate hazards from threats and develop focused schemes of protection and priorities that match protection capabilities with the corresponding threat or hazard, while synchronizing those efforts in space and time. However, hazards can be enabled by the tempo or friction or by the complacency that sometimes develops during extended military operations.

joint operations area – (DOD) An area of land, sea, and airspace, defined by a geographic combatant commander or subordinate unified commander, in which a joint force commander (normally a joint task force commander) conducts military operations to accomplish a specific mission. Also called JOA. (JP 3-0) Referenced in FM 4-40, FM 6-05, ATP 3-01.94, ATP 3-52.2, ATP 3-60.2, ATP 4-93.

10-35. Leaders use results of the war game to identify information requirements. Reconnaissance tasks seek to confirm or deny information that supports the tentative plan. They focus first on information gaps identified during mission analysis. Leaders ensure their leader’s reconnaissance complements the higher headquarters’ information collection plan. The unit may conduct additional reconnaissance tasks as the situation allows. This step may also precede making a tentative plan if commanders lack enough information to begin planning. Reconnaissance may be the only way to develop the information required for planning.

3-33. Determining what information or intelligence may be disclosed is based on the policies, directives, and laws that govern national disclosure policy and the release of classified information. While conducting operations, commanders and staffs ensure they know other nations’ positions on intelligence sharing and ensure that intelligence is shared to the degree possible, especially if required for mission accomplishment and force protection. Early information sharing during planning ensures that unified action partner requirements are clearly stated, guidance supports the commander’s intent, and the force uses procedures supportable by other nations. (See AR 380-10 for more discussions on foreign disclosure.)

4-6. Planning ensures that a force employs limited resources and capabilities according to priority of effort and assessed risks. Often requirements for stability operations outpace available resources and capabilities necessary to reestablish conditions of peace and stability. Planning involves focusing efforts toward accomplishing a mission while carefully balancing resources, capabilities, and activities across multiple lines of effort. While commanders typically focus resources on the decisive operation, they also provide sufficient resources to capitalize on unforeseen opportunities and to provide impetus for other efforts. The numerous stability operations tasks involved in the consolidation of gains of any operation require specific capabilities, and the availability of these capabilities is often limited. An effective plan judiciously applies these capabilities where and when forces need them most. Commanders synchronize the application of these capabilities in time and space to create the greatest effect, one that achieves broad success in one line of effort while reinforcing progress in the others.