Guide to Joint Warfighting, Operations & Planning

JFODS6 is the sixth revised edition of The Joint Forces Operations & Doctrine SMARTbook. JFODS6 is completely updated for 2023 with new/updated material from the latest editions of JP 3-0 Joint Campaigns and Operations (Jun ‘22), JP 5-0 Joint Planning (Dec ‘20), JP 3-33 Joint Force Headquarters (Jun ‘22), and JP 1 Volumes I and II Joint Warfighting and the Joint Force (Jun ‘20), Additional topics and references include Joint Air, Land, Maritime and Special Operations (JPs 3-30, 3-31, 3-32 & 3-05).

The ultimate purpose of the Armed Forces of the United States is to defend the homeland and win the nation’s wars. The four strategic uses of the military instrument of national power - assurance; both forms of coercion, deterrence and compellence; and forcible action - are implemented through campaigns, operations, and activities that vary in purpose, scale, risk, and intensity, and occur across a competition continuum.

The competition continuum describes a world of enduring competition conducted through a mixture of cooperation, competition, and armed conflict. Competition is a fundamental aspect of international relations; as state and non-state actors seek to protect and advance their interests in pursuit of influence, advantage, and leverage, they continually compete over incompatible aims. Armed conflict occurs when a state or non-state actor uses lethal force as the primary means to satisfy its interests. Armed conflict varies in intensity and ranges from crisis response and limited contingency operations to large-scale combat operations.

The capability of the Armed Forces of the United States to operate as a cohesive joint force is a key advantage in any operational environment. Integrating Service components’ forces under a single joint force commander (JFC) maximizes the effectiveness and efficiency of the joint force. The joint force conducts campaigns and operations in a complex, volatile, security environment characterized by contested norms and persistent disorder. National security threats are transregional, all-domain, and multifunctional.

Joint planning is the deliberate process of determining how (the ways) to use military capabilities (the means) in time and space to achieve objectives (the ends) while considering the associated risks. Joint planning ties the military instrument of national power to the achievement of national security objectives and transforms national strategic objectives into operational design/approaches, lines of operation, and operational objectives, which in turn are carried out through tactical actions.

A joint task force (JTF) is the most common command and control option for conducting joint operations. A JTF may be established when the scope, complexity, or other factors of the operation require capabilities of Services from at least two MILDEPs operating under a single JFC. Commanders must integrate the capabilities and synchronize the operations of air, land, maritime, space, special operations, and cyberspace forces to defeat peer enemies.

Planning for Planners (JIA1-3 / Third Edition)

JIA1-3 is the new third edition of our Joint/Interagency SMARTbook 1: Joint Strategic & Operational Planning (Planning for Planners), completely reorganized and updated with the latest joint publications for 2023 to include JP 3-0 Joint Campaigns and Operations (2022) and JP 5-0 Joint Planning (2020). At 420-pgs, JIA1-3 is designed to give the reader a thorough understanding of the joint planning and execution process, where the joint planning process (JPP) resides. Topics and chapters include planning fundamentals (strategic organization, campaigning & contingency plans, sequencing actions), planning functions (planning and plans, operational activities, planning functions), global force management (GFM overview and processes, force identification and sourcing, force planning), joint intelligence preparation of the operational environment (JIPOE), intelligence preparation of the information environment (IPIE), joint planning process (JPP), plan and order development (process, review, assessment), execution functions, and annexes.

The dawn of the 21st Century presents an increasingly complex global security environment. Within this environment United States national interest, citizens, and territories are threatened by regional instability, failed states, increased weapons proliferation, global terrorism, unconventional threats and challenges from adversaries in every operating domain. If we are to be successful as a nation, we must embrace the realities of this environment and operate with clarity from within. It is this setting that mandates a flexible, adaptive approach to planning and an ever-greater cooperation between all the elements of national power, supported by and coordinated with that of our allies and various intergovernmental, nongovernmental and regional security organizations. It is within this chaotic environment that planners will craft their trade.

Joint/Interagency SMARTbook 1: Joint Strategic & Operational Planning (Planning for Planners), 3rd Edition (JIA1-3), was developed to assist planners at all levels in understanding how to plan within this environment utilizing the Joint Planning Process (JPP); an orderly, logical, analytical progression enabling planners to sequentially follow it to a rational conclusion. By utilizing this planning process, which is conceptually easy to understand and applicable in all environments, any plan can come to life. Paramount to planning is flexibility. The ultimate aspiration of this book is to help develop flexible planners who can cope with the inevitable changes that occur during the planning process in any environment.

Planning for Planners has been utilized since 2007 by war colleges, joint staffs, Services, combatant commands and allies as a step-by-step guide to understanding the complex world of global planning and force management.

Activities, Tasks & Capabilities

INFO2 SMARTbook: Information Advantage (Activities, Tasks & Capabilities) is the second edition of our INFO SMARTbook, completely updated for 2024 to include ADP 3-13, Information (Nov '23) and JP 3-04, Information in Joint Operations (Sep '22). At 344 pages, INFO2 chapters and topics include information advantage (enable, protect, inform, influence, attack), information in joint operations (information joint function & OIE: operations in the information environment), information capabilities (PA, CA, MILDEC, MISO, OPSEC, CO, EW, Space, STO), information planning (information environment analysis, IPB, MDMP, JPP), information preparation, information execution, fires & targeting, and information assessment.

Information is central to everything we do—it is the basis of intelligence, a fundamental element of command and control, and the foundation for communicating thoughts, opinions, and ideas. Information is the building block for intelligence and is the basis for situational understanding, decision making, and actions across all warfighting functions. As a critical resource, Army forces fight for, defend, and fight with information while attacking a threat’s (adversary or enemy) ability to do the same.

We no longer regard information as a separate consideration or the sole purview of technical specialists. Instead, we view information as a resource that is integrated into operations with all available capabilities in a combined arms approach to enable command and control; protect data, information, and networks; inform audiences; influence threats and foreign relevant actors; and attack the threat’s ability to exercise command and control.

Army forces create and exploit informational power similarly to the joint force through five information activities (enable, protect, inform, influence, and attack). Army forces also consider information as a dynamic of combat power employed with mobility, firepower, survivability, and leadership to achieve objectives during armed conflict. As a dynamic of combat power, Army forces fight for, defend, and fight with information to create and exploit information advantages—the use, protection, and exploitation of information to achieve objectives more effectively than enemies and adversaries do.

The joint force uses information to perform many simultaneous and integrated activities. The joint force employment of information is of central importance because it may provide an operational advantage.

The elevation of information as a joint function impacts all operations and signals a fundamental appreciation for the military role of information at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels within today’s complex operational environment (OE).

Operations in the information environment (OIE) are military actions involving the integrated employment of multiple information forces to affect drivers of behavior by informing audiences; influencing foreign relevant actors; attacking and exploiting relevant actor information, information networks, and information systems; and by protecting friendly information, information networks, and information systems.

Creating Effects in Cyberspace and the EMS

CYBER/EW(2): The Cyberspace & Electromagnetic Warfare Operations SMARTbook, 2nd Ed. (Creating Effects in Cyberspace and the EMS) is the new second edition of our Cyber SMARTbook. All new for 2026, topics include strategic environment (intro, information advantage, OE, threats and hazards), cyberspace operations (offensive/defensive), electromagnetic warfare (EW) operations, joint electromagnetic spectrum operations (JEMSO), cyberspace electromagnetic activities (CEMA), converging effects in combined arms ops, cyber/EW operations planning & integration, cybersecurity, and incident response.

Modern warfare is increasingly defined by the struggle for advantage in cyberspace and the electromagnetic spectrum. These interconnected environments extend across geographic and political boundaries, linking military forces, critical infrastructure, communications systems, commercial networks, and global information flows into a single contested battlespace. Recent operations such as the 2026 U.S. raid into Venezuela—Operation Absolute Resolve—and Operation Epic Fury demonstrated how cyber, electromagnetic warfare (EW), space, intelligence, and kinetic capabilities can be fused into synchronized multidomain campaigns. In both operations, commanders employed layered nonlethal and lethal effects to disrupt enemy awareness, suppress air defenses, degrade communications, and create the operational access required for precision strikes and special operations forces to achieve strategic objectives with speed and surprise.

Cyberspace operations, electromagnetic warfare, and joint electromagnetic spectrum operations (JEMSO) now provide commanders with the means to influence, disrupt, deceive, and dominate within the information environment. These capabilities enable forces to attack or protect networks and communications, disrupt sensors and navigation systems, degrade enemy command and control, and shape conditions across multiple domains simultaneously. Within the Army, cyberspace electromagnetic activities (CEMA) provide the framework for integrating cyberspace and EW operations into combined arms maneuver. Through convergence, commanders combine lethal and nonlethal effects from joint, multinational, and organic capabilities to create cascading operational impacts across the battlespace. Disruptions to enemy communications, radars, sensors, and decision-making systems can produce second- and third-order effects that create relative advantages for maneuver and fires in other domains.

Operational success in contested environments also depends on resilient planning, cybersecurity, and incident response. Effective cybersecurity and cyberspace defense preserve operational continuity while enabling forces to detect, contain, and recover from malicious activity during high-tempo operations. Against peer adversaries capable of combining cyberattacks, electromagnetic attack, deception, information warfare, and kinetic fires into coordinated campaigns, the ability to integrate, defend, and rapidly adapt within cyberspace and the electromagnetic spectrum has become a decisive element of modern multidomain conflict.

Train, Advise, & Assist

TAA2: The Military Engagement, Security Cooperation & Stability SMARTbook (with Change 1*) is the re-titled and re-focused second edition of The Stability, Peace & Counterinsurgency SMARTbook. Topics and references include the Range of Military Operations (JP 3-0); Train, Advise & Assist (SFA/FID/IDAD/HN/FSF); Stability Operations (JP & ADRP 3-07); Peace Operations (JP & FM 3-07.3); Counterinsurgency Operations (JP & FM 3-24); Civil-Military Operations (JP 3-57); Multinational Operations (JP 3-16); and Interorganizational Cooperation (JP 3-08).

* Change 1 to TAA2 (Sept 2017) incorporates new material and text edits from JP 3-0 (Jan 2017), JP 3-07 (Aug 2016), JP 3-20 (May 2017), JDN 1-3 (Apr 2013), and JP 3-08 (Oct 2016). An asterisk marks changed pages.

In the complex, dynamic operational environments of the 21st century, significant challenges to sustainable peace and security exist. Sources of instability that push parties toward violence include religious fanaticism, global competition for resources, climate change, residual territorial claims, ideology, ethnic tension, elitism, greed, and the desire for power. These factors create belts of state fragility and instability that threaten U.S. national security.

Throughout U.S. history, U.S. forces have learned that military force alone cannot secure sustainable peace. U.S. forces can only achieve sustainable peace through a comprehensive approach in which military objectives nest in a larger cooperative effort of the departments and agencies of the U.S. Government, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, multinational partners, the private sector, and the host nation.

Military engagement, security cooperation, and stability missions, tasks, and actions encompass a wide range of actions where the military instrument of national power is tasked to support OGAs and cooperate with IGOs (e.g., UN, NATO) and other countries to protect and enhance national security interests, deter conflict, and set conditions for future contingency operations.

Use of joint capabilities in these and related activities such as Security Force Assistance and Foreign Internal Defense helps shape the operational environment and keep the day-to-day tensions between nations or groups below the threshold of armed conflict while maintaining US global influence.

Stability operations are various military missions, tasks, and activities conducted outside the US in coordination with other instruments of national power to maintain or reestablish a safe and secure environment, provide essential governmental services, emergency infrastructure reconstruction, and humanitarian relief.

Peace Operations are crisis response and limited contingency operations conducted by a combination of military forces and nonmilitary organizations to contain conflict, redress the peace, and shape the environment to support reconciliation and rebuilding and to facilitate the transition to legitimate governance.

A counterinsurgency campaign is a mix of offensive, defensive, and stability operations conducted along multiple lines of operations. It requires military forces to employ a mix of familiar combat tasks and skills more often associated with nonmilitary agencies and to be nation builders as well as warriors.

Civil-military operations are a primary military instrument to synchronize military and nonmilitary instruments of national power, particularly in support of stability, counterinsurgency and other operations dealing with asymmetric and irregular threats.