Planning, Executing, and Assessing FHA/DR Operations

Foreign humanitarian assistance (FHA), to include foreign disaster relief, consists of Department of Defense (DOD) activities, normally in support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) or Department of State (DOS), conducted outside the United States, its territories, and possessions to relieve or reduce human suffering, disease, hunger, or privation.

FHA activities conducted by US Armed Forces range from steady-state program activities supporting geographic combatant commanders (GCC) security cooperation and related programs to conducting limited contingency operations in support of another United States Government department or agency. FHA operations can be supported by other activities conducted by US military forces or they may be conducted concurrently with other types of related operations and activities such as dislocated civilian support, security operations, and foreign consequence management.

The Department of Defense has unique assets for effective response and can play a key role in foreign humanitarian crises. For example, the US military possesses exceptional operational reach that can be employed to enhance an initial response. Additionally, the US military augments private sector capability and thus limits threats to regional stability. Furthermore, the US military’s unmatched capabilities in logistics, command and control (C2), communications, and mobility are able to provide rapid and robust response to dynamic and evolving situations among vastly different military, civilian, and government entities.

Regardless of where the U.S. military conducts operations, the complex and ambiguous nature of today’s contemporary operational environment will often include large groups of displaced populations -- to include refugees, internally displaced persons, migrants, and stateless persons.

Population and resources control (PRC) consists of two distinct, yet linked, components: populace control and resources control. For practical and security reasons, military forces employ PRC measures of some type and to varying degrees across the range of military operations.

Noncombatant evacuation operations (NEOs) are conducted by the DOD to assist in evacuating US citizens and nationals, DOD civilian personnel, and designated persons whose lives are in danger from locations in a foreign nation to an appropriate safe haven, when directed by the Department of State.

Foreign consequence management (FCM) is assistance provided by the U.S. government to an impacted nation to mitigate the effects of a deliberate or inadvertent chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) incident.

This SMARTbook is currently in development, projected for release in the 2019-2020 timeframe.

Strategic, Interagency & Intergovernmental Planning

Joint operation planning consists of planning activities associated with joint military operations by combatant commanders (CCDRs) and their subordinate joint force commanders (JFCs) in response to contingencies and crises. It transforms national strategic objectives into activities of joint forces.

The Department of Defense (DOD) conducts interorganizational coordination across a range of operations, with each type of operation involving different communities of interests and structures. This is especially pronounced for domestic and foreign operations, which are governed by different authorities and have considerably different US Government (USG) governing structures and stakeholders.

This SMARTbook is currently in development, projected for release in 2019. The Lightning Press will offer three specific Joint-Interagency related titles, plus already offers “JFODS5: The Joint Forces Operations & Doctrine SMARTbook, 5th Ed.” and more than a dozen related and supporting “military reference” and “national power” titles! (See “related titles” below.)

Multi-Domain Guide to IO & Information-Related Capabilities

All military activities produce information. Informational aspects are the features and details of military activities observers interpret and use to assign meaning and gain understanding. Those aspects affect the perceptions and attitudes that drive behavior and decision making. The JFC leverages informational aspects of military activities to gain an advantage; failing to leverage those aspects may cede this advantage to others. Leveraging the informational aspects of military activities ultimately affects strategic outcomes.

The information function encompasses the management and application of information and its deliberate integration with other joint functions to change or maintain perceptions, attitudes, and other elements that drive desired behaviors and to support human and automated decision making. The information function helps commanders and staffs understand and leverage the pervasive nature of information, its military uses, and its application during all military operations. This function provides JFCs the ability to integrate the generation and preservation of friendly information while leveraging the inherent informational aspects of military activities to achieve the commander’s objectives and attain the end state.

The instruments of national power (diplomatic, informational, military, and economic) provide leaders in the US with the means and ways of dealing with crises around the world. Employing these means in the information environment requires the ability to securely transmit, receive, store, and process information in near real time. The nation’s state and non-state adversaries are equally aware of the significance of this new technology, and will use information-related capabilities (IRCs) to gain advantages in the information environment, just as they would use more traditional military technologies to gain advantages in other operational environments. As the strategic environment continues to change, so does information operations (IO).

Regardless of its mission, the joint force considers the likely impact of all operations on relevant actor perceptions, attitudes, and other drivers of behavior. The JFC then plans and conducts every operation in ways that create desired effects that include maintaining or inducing relevant actor behaviors. These ways may include the timing, duration, scope, scale, and even visibility of an operation; the deliberately planned presence, posture, or profile of assigned or attached forces in an area; the use of signature management in deception operations; the conduct of activities and operations to similarly impact behavioral drivers; and the employment of specialized capabilities -- e.g., key-leader engagements (KLE), cyberspace operations (CO), military information support operations (MISO), electronic warfare (EW), and civil affairs (CA) -- to reinforce the JFC’s efforts.

Inform activities involve the release of accurate information to domestic and international audiences to put joint operations in context; facilitate informed perceptions about military operations; and counter adversarial misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda. Inform activities help to assure the trust and confidence of the US population, allies, and partners and to deter and dissuade adversaries and enemies.

The joint force attacks and exploits information, information networks, and systems to affect the ability of relevant actors to leverage information in support of their own objectives. This includes the manipulation, modification, or destruction of information or disruption of the flow of information for the purpose of gaining a position of military advantage. This also includes targeting the credibility of information.

This SMARTbook is currently in development, projected for release in late 2019. The Lightning Press will offer three specific Joint-Interagency related titles, plus already offers “JFODS5: The Joint Forces Operations & Doctrine SMARTbook, 5th Ed.” and more than a dozen related and supporting “military reference” and “national power” titles! (See “related titles” below.)

Planning & Conducting Tactical Operations

SUTS3: The Small Unit Tactics SMARTbook, 3rd Ed. is the third revised edition of The Small Unit Tactics SMARTbook, completely updated for 2019 to include ADP 3-90 Offense and Defense (Aug ‘18), FM 3-0 Operations (Oct ‘17), FMs 3-90-1 & -2 (May ‘13), ATP 3-21.8 Infantry Platoon and Squad (Apr ‘16), ATP 3-21.10 Infantry Rifle Company (May ‘18), TC 3-21-76 The Ranger Handbook (Apr ‘17), and the latest versions of more than 20 additional references. Chapters and topics include tactical mission fundamentals, the offense, the defense, stability and counterinsurgency operations, tactical enabling tasks (security, reconnaissance, relief in place, passage of lines, encirclement, and troop movement), special purpose attacks (ambush and raid), urban and regional environments (urban, fortified areas, desert, cold region, mountain, and jungle operations), patrols and patrolling.

Tactics is the employment and ordered arrangement of forces in relation to each other. Through tactics, commanders use combat power to accomplish missions. The tactical-level commander uses combat power in battles, engagements, and small-unit actions.

The nature of close combat in land operations is unique. Combatants routinely come face-to-face with one another in large numbers in a wide variety of operational environments comprising all types of terrain. When other means fail to drive enemy forces from their positions, forces close with and destroy or capture them.

Offensive actions are combat operations conducted to defeat and destroy enemy forces and seize terrain, resources, and population centers. They impose the commander’s will on the enemy. A commander may also conduct offensive actions to deprive the enemy of resources, seize decisive terrain, deceive or divert the enemy, develop intelligence, or hold an enemy in position. The four primary offensive tasks are movement to contact, attack, exploitation, and pursuit.

A defensive task is a task conducted to defeat an enemy attack, gain time, economize forces, and develop conditions favorable for offensive or stability tasks. Although on the defense, the commander remains alert for opportunities to attack the enemy. A defending force does not wait passively to be attacked, aggressively seeking ways of attriting and weakening enemy forces before close combat begins. There are three basic defensive tasks—area defense, mobile defense, and retrograde.

The Small Unit Tactics SMARTbook translates and bridges operational-level doctrine into tactical application -- in the form of tactics, techniques and procedures -- and provides the “how to” at the small-unit level as a ready reference at the battalion, company, platoon, squad and fire team level.