1-16. Through practices in all domains of leader development, the philosophy of mission command becomes ingrained in the Army’s ethos and culture. Army leaders, Soldiers, and Civilians at every echelon throughout the operating force and the institutional Army apply mission command principles in the conduct of routine functions and daily activities.

1-51. As commanders build their situational understanding, they share their understanding across the forces and with unified action partners. Creating shared understanding is a principle of mission command and requires communication and information sharing from higher to lower and lower to higher. Higher headquarters ensure subordinates understand the larger situation to include the operation’s end state, purpose, and objectives. Staffs from lower echelons share their understanding of their particular situation and provide feedback to the higher headquarters on the operation’s progress. Communication and information sharing with adjacent units and unified action partners is also multi-directional. Several tools assist leaders in building situational understanding and creating a shared understanding across the force to include—

2-39. Subsequent versions of our Army’s operations manual have built on this idea. Mission command is the Army’s approach to command and control. Over time, changes within operational environments required the Army to decentralize operations to the maximum extent possible. Mission command allows for the empowerment of subordinates to exercise disciplined initiative and implement decisions based on their understanding of the commander’s intent rather than a directed order or task.

3-42. Subordinates empowered to make decisions during operations unburden higher echelon commanders from issues that distract from necessary broader perspective and focus on critical issues. Mission command allows those commanders with the best situational understanding to make rapid decisions without waiting for higher echelon commanders to assess the situation and issue orders.

2-109. Combat power has eight elements: leadership, information, mission command, movement and maneuver, intelligence, fires, sustainment, and protection. These elements are discussed in paragraphs 2-110 through 2-266.

2-116. An important aspect of assessing subordinates is determining the extent to which they are both willing and able to apply the mission command approach to the command and control of their units. Since commanders evaluate two echelons down during training and leader development, and observe subordinate leader behavior one and two echelons down during training and operations, under both garrison and field conditions, they have multiple opportunities for assessing internalization of the mission command approach. (See FM 6-22 for further discussion on assessing subordinates.)

mission orders – Directives that emphasize to subordinates the results to be attained, not how they are achieve them. (ADP 6-0) See also mission command.

4-87. One way to balance these demands is to observe unit integrity when organizing for command and control. Commanders must take into account the impact on mission command when task-organizing forces. Whenever possible, commanders should task-organize based on standing headquarters and habitually associated elements. When this is not feasible and organizations are formed from a wide variety of units, commanders must allow time for training and establishing functional working relationships and procedures.

6-55. Defending units use camouflage and concealment to hide defensive preparations. They limit EMS emissions and protect mission command systems and the integrity of data on those systems. They use terrain to mask emitters so as to reduce the probability of enemy SIGINT and EW detection, and offset emitters from CPs to increase survivability if they are detected. Information operations focus on encouraging the local civilian population to avoid interfering with unit operations in the close, support, and consolidation areas. (See FM 3-90-1 for additional information on the performance of preparation tasks associated with area defense operations.)

2-79. Commanders lead by example and personal presence. Leadership inspires subordinates to accomplish things that they otherwise might not. Where a commander locates within an area of operations is an important consideration for effective mission command. Through leadership, commanders provide purpose, direction, and motivation to subordinate commanders, their staffs, and Soldiers. There is no standard pattern or simple prescription; different commanders lead differently. Commanders balance their time among command posts and staffs, subordinate commanders, forces, and other organizations to make the greatest contribution to success. (See ADP 6-22 for a detailed discussion of leadership)

3-38. Commanders should assume that communications will be disrupted during operations. Commanders’ intent and orders should be written in a way that enables achieving objectives when communication is intermittent and situational awareness is problematic. Mission orders and application of the mission command approach to command and control mitigates the need for continuous communication.

1-2. A command post is a unit headquarters where the commander and staff perform their activities. The headquarters design, combined with robust communications, gives commanders a flexible mission command structure consisting of a main CP, a tactical CP, and a command group for brigades, divisions, and corps. Combined arms battalions are also resourced with a combat trains CP and a field trains CP. Theater army headquarters are resourced with a main CP and a contingency CP. (See appropriate echelon publications for doctrine on specific types of CPs and headquarters organizations.)

3-7. Sustainment staffs provide sustainment commanders with input and feedback that enable sustainment commanders to use the art of command and science of control to array sustainment support within the operational environment. Sustainment commanders use the philosophy of mission command to enable subordinate sustainment commanders to make decisions and adjustments within the supported commander’s intent. This ensures supported commanders receive continued sustainment support even as the tactical and operational situations change.

2-47. A theater army supporting large-scale combat operations is allocated an EOD group. An EOD group commander can exercise mission command for two to six EOD battalions. An EOD battalion conducts staff planning and staff control of EOD assets within a division AO. EOD groups and battalions position their EOD companies at locations where they can best provide support throughout an operational area. The EOD group headquarters commands all Army EOD assets and operations in a theater and can serve as the basis for a counter-improvised explosive device task force. The group may also form the core of a specialized combined JTF with the mission of providing various protection and exploitation enablers such as counter-improvised explosive device, exploitation, or countering weapons of mass destruction (CWMD) task forces. The group can also provide enabling support, analysis, and support to targeting efforts, theater exploitation, and CWMD. The senior EOD commander normally functions as the EOD special staff officer for the senior deployed Army headquarters. (See ATP 4-32.1 and ATP 4-32.3 for doctrine on explosive ordnance disposal.)

1-26. Some personnel and equipment redundancy is required for continuous operations. Redundancy allows CPs to continue operating when mission command systems are lost, damaged, or fail under stress.

4-78. The MEDCOM (DS) synchronizes all Army Health System operations and provides mission command of medical brigades (support), multifunctional medical battalions, and other Army Health System units providing force health protection and health service support to tactical commanders. The MEDCOM (DS) is composed of an operational command post and a main command post that can deploy autonomously into an AO. MEDCOM (DS)—

2-66. The MEDCOM (DS) integrates and synchronizes all AHS operations and provides mission command of medical brigades (support), medical battalions (multifunctional), and other AHS units providing force health protection and health service support to tactical commanders. The MEDCOM (DS) employs an operational command post and a main command post that can deploy autonomously into an operational area and is employed based on the size and complexity of operations or the support required. See ATP 4-02.1 and FM 4-02 for additional information.

1-29. The Army develops officers, at all echelons, to understand and practice the mission command philosophy to lead and execute unified land operations. The Army expects officers to integrate leader development practices with collective and individual training to accomplish the Army’s missions and develop subordinates for future responsibilities. They routinely operate at direct-level interactions with others and work at the organizational and strategic levels to plan, prepare, execute, and assess leader development policies, systems, and practices. Warrant officers serve at all echelons as the primary integrators and managers of Army systems. They bring an unequalled depth of knowledge, experience, and perspective in their primary areas of expertise. Warrant officers, at all echelons, understand and practice the mission command philosophy to execute unified land operations. See DA PAM 600-3 for descriptions of the full spectrum of developmental opportunities throughout a career.

5-50. Support area commanders defeat Level I and some Level II threats within their assigned bases and base camps. The commitment of a mobile security force, reserve, or a TCF becomes a significant mission command and potential fratricide problem that rehearsals and standing operating procedures can mitigate. Typically, the support area’s commander supervises the operations of the response force, the echelon reserve, and the TCF since these friendly forces may converge with other stationary friendly forces.

3-118. This chapter provided an operational context for unified land operations. It described the command and control of sustainment forces conducting unified land operations and how the philosophy of mission command allows sustainment leaders to make decisions relative to the tactical situation and within the supported commander’s intent. This chapter also discussed sustainment planning and planning considerations required for sustainment operations during unified land operations. The chapter continued by discussing how sustainment provides operational reach through APS, force projection, theater opening, and theater closing. It also described how sustainment supports freedom of action through sustainment preparation of the operational environment, and sustainment execution. This chapter concluded by describing how sustainment provided endurance through distribution, in-transit visibility, and retrograde.