Upgrade/update to the NEW 2nd Edition (MEU2)!

Upgrade/update to the NEW edition! The Marine Expeditionary Unit SMARTbook (Aug 2012) has been superseded by a newer 2nd edition MEU2 (Apr 2016). Always check our website for the most current and up-to-date SMARTbook edition! The Lightning Press is committed to providing the best and most relevant doctrinal material to our readers and are vigilant in reviewing new publications, anticipating upcoming doctrinal releases, and incorporating the updated material into our SMARTbook series!

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MEU2 is the 2nd printing of the MEU SMARTbook (1st printing ISBN 978-1-935886-18-1), featuring doctrinal updates to the text, a full cross-referenced index in place of the previous chapter 8, and our new updated perfect binding with spine in place of the previous plastic-comb binding. Chapters and topics include MEU Staff Functions, Mission Planning, Mission Essential Tasks, Standing Missions, MEU Liaison and Survey Elements, Appendices & Reference, and Abbreviations & Acronyms.

Guide to Battle Staff Operations & the Rapid Response Planning Process

MEU3 is the third edition of the MEU SMARTbook, updated for 2020 with 34 pages of updated/additional material and a return of the original GBC plastic-comb binding. The Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) SMARTbook is designed to be a reference for MEU and PHIBRON Commanders, MEU and PHIBRON staffs and the commanders and staffs of the Major Subordinate Elements (MSE) and Naval Support Elements (NSE) of the ARG-MEU team.

The Marine Corps Planning Process (MCPP) is the basis for MEU staff planning. Planning is the art and science of envisioning a desired future and laying out effective ways of bringing it about. In war, planning can be essential to the ability to seize the initiative. In order to seize the initiative, we must be able to anticipate events and act purposefully and effectively before the enemy can. Planning mitigates crises by dealing with crisis situations before they reach crisis proportions.

The Rapid Response Planning Process (R2P2) is an accelerated execution of MCPP geared to Crisis Action Planning. The R2P2 process allows the MEU/PHIBRON to anticipate potential missions, create a set of standardized responses through analytical decision-making, and rehearse their responses to achieve full capability within six hours of receipt of a warning or execute order.

Rapid planning requires extensive training in the techniques and procedures associated with R2P2. It requires standardized, detailed, parallel, and concurrent command and staff actions using Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that are understood by all members of the unit.

The Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) SMARTbook helps to generate tempo and staff synergy in time-compressed situations through the use of “playbooks” for rapid planning and templates for efficient briefings.

Guide to Planning & Conducting Marine Air-Ground Task Force Operations

The MAGTF Operations & Planning SMARTbook topics and chapters include Marine Corps roles & forces, the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF), expeditionary operations, Marine Corps operations (ROMO, offense, defense, tactical operations, reconnaissance & security, tactical tasks, etc), planning considerations, the Marine Corps Planning Process (MCPP & R2P2), integrating processes (IPB, collection management, targeting, operational risk management, information management), and the six warfighting functions.

Primary references include MDCP 1-0, Marine Corps Operations (2018); MCWP 5-10, Marine Corps Planning Process (2018); ATP 2-01.3/MCRP 2-3A, Intelligence Preparation of the Battlespace (2014); MCTOG Tactical Marine Air-Ground Task Force Integration Course (TMIC) Handbook (2018); MCTOG Operations & Tactics Instructor (OTI) Guide (2011), MSTP Pamphlet 5-0.4, MAGTF Officer's Guide (2010); and more.

The Marine Corps organizes its operational forces as Marine Corps components and as Marine Air-Ground Task Forces (MAGTFs) in order to provide task organized, self-sustaining, multipurpose forces to the joint force or naval expeditionary force. These uniquely organized Marine Corps forces are capable of responding to a wide range of operational and tactical missions and tasks, providing an unmatched combination of deployment and employment options.

Expeditionary maneuver warfare is the Marine Corps capstone operational concept. It applies the doctrine of maneuver warfare to Marine Corps expeditionary operations to achieve desired effects across the spectrum of conflict. Expeditionary maneuver warfare focuses on the application of expeditionary military power at the right place, at the right time, and at the right level.

The Marine Corps approach to the range of military operations (ROMO) links MAGTF capabilities with the collective, coordinated use of both traditional and non- traditional elements of national power into a cohesive foreign policy tool, and focuses on the ability to be expeditionary through forward-deployed naval forces. The Marine Corps employs several planning processes. For units with staffs, the Marine Corps planning process (MCPP) is most appropriate. If time does not allow use of the full, six-step MCPP, the commander and the planners may use the rapid response planning process (R2P2).

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 (Jul ‘19), FM 3-0 Operations w/Change 1 (Dec ‘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. SUTS3 also features a return of our premium GBC plastic-comb binding for a true open-flat reference experience!

At 344-pages, 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.

Guide to Designing, Planning & Conducting Maritime Operations

Providing an outline of Navy operational-level fundamentals and concepts, command, control, and organization, The Naval Operations & Planning SMARTbook covers essential Navy keystone warfighting doctrine and maritime operations at the JFMCC/CFMCC, Fleet and JTF levels. It bridges between the theory of operational art and the practical specific guidance that Navy commanders and staffs require to accomplish their mission. Chapters and topics include maritime forces, organization and capabilities; maritime operations; maritime headquarters (MHQ) and the maritime operations center (MOC); the maritime operations process; naval planning; naval logistics; and naval theater security cooperation!

Unlike the other components of the joint force, the maritime component routinely conducts operations across all of the domains, described as air, land, maritime, space, and the information environment. The maritime domain is defined as “the oceans, seas, bays, estuaries, islands, coastal areas, and the airspace above these, including the littorals.” This joint definition has fundamental implications for the Navy’s role in joint operations. The Navy is the principal warfighting organization that conducts operations over, on, under, and adjacent to the seas: overlying airspaces, surfaces, sub-surfaces, and the ocean bottom, as well as the shoreline infrastructures that affect maritime operations.

The maritime domain also contains social, economic, political, military, and legal components. About 70 percent of the world’s surface is covered by the oceans and seas. Naval forces operate from the deep waters of the open ocean to the generally shallower waters fronting the coastlines of the continental land mass and large offshore islands. About 50,000 large ships carry approximately 80 percent of the world’s trade. Each year 1.9 billion tons of petroleum, or some 60 percent of all oil produced, are shipped by sea. Some 75 percent of the world’s maritime trade and 50 percent of its daily oil consumption pass through a handful of international straits. There are some 4,000 ports involved in maritime trade, including 30 so-called mega-ports.

Navy forces demonstrate the nation’s resolve and intentions from international waters. Forward-deployed Navy forces are often times the nation’s first responders to events requiring military response outside the homeland. When adversarial action occurs beyond our borders, as a key element of the joint force that is readily capable of employing credible combat power forward, Navy forces are often times the first on-scene force to exercise the deterrence phase of a joint operation or campaign.

In contrast to the war on land, sea control is not obtained by occupying or capturing a certain ocean or sea area. It is not obtained through the permanent presence of one’s fleet. There are no front lines at sea and no fortified positions by which one can control the territory. The sea or ocean area is invariably abandoned by the victorious side regardless of whether the opponent was completely defeated or not. Sea control means that more or less by the destruction of the enemy fleet one can accomplish tasks without serious opposition from the enemy.

Multi-Domain Guide to Offensive/Defensive CEMA and CO

CYBER1-1: The Cyberspace Operations & Electronic Warfare SMARTbook (w/SMARTupdate 1*) (Multi-Domain Guide to Offensive/Defensive CEMA and CO) topics and chapters include cyber intro (global threat, contemporary operating environment, information as a joint function), joint cyberspace operations (CO), cyberspace operations (OCO/DCO/DODIN), electromagnetic warfare (EW) operations, cyber & EW (CEMA) planning, spectrum management operations (SMO/JEMSO), DoD information network (DODIN) operations, acronyms/abbreviations, and a cross-referenced glossary of cyber terms.

*SMARTupdate 1 to CYBER1 (Aug ‘21) updates the first printing of CYBER1: The Cyberspace Operations & Electronic Warfare SMARTbook (Oct ‘19) by incorporating new material from FM 3-12, Cyberspace Operations and Electromagnetic Warfare (Aug ‘21), ATP 3-12.3, Electronic Warfare Techniques (Jul ‘19), ATP 6-02.70, Techniques for Spectrum Management Operations (Oct ‘19), JP 3-85, Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Management Operations (May ‘20) and adding a new section on Cyberspace IPB (ATP 2-01.3, Jul ‘19). (Readers of the original/base CYBER1 can obtain SMARTupdate 1 at www.thelightningpress.com/smartupdates/)

United States armed forces operate in an increasingly network-based world. The proliferation of information technologies is changing the way humans interact with each other and their environment, including interactions during military operations. This broad and rapidly changing operational environment requires that today’s armed forces must operate in cyberspace and leverage an electromagnetic spectrum that is increasingly competitive, congested, and contested.

Cyberspace is a global domain within the information environment consisting of the interdependent network of information technology infrastructures and resident data, including the Internet, telecommunications networks, computer systems, and embedded processors and controllers. Operations in cyberspace contribute to gaining a significant operational advantage for achieving military objectives.

Cyber electromagnetic activities (CEMA) are activities leveraged to seize, retain, and exploit an advantage over adversaries and enemies in both cyberspace and the electromagnetic spectrum, while simultaneously denying and degrading adversary and enemy use of the same and protecting the mission command system (ADRP 3-0). CEMA consist of cyberspace operations, electronic warfare, and spectrum management operations.

Cyberspace operations (CO) are the employment of cyberspace capabilities where the primary purpose is to achieve objectives in or through cyberspace (JP 3-0). Cyberspace operations consist of three functions: offensive cyberspace operations, defensive cyberspace operations, and Department of Defense information network operations.

Electromagnetic Warfare (EW) (formerly "electronic" warfare) is military action involving the use of electromagnetic and directed energy to control the electromagnetic spectrum or to attack the enemy. EW consists of three functions: electromagnetic attack, electromagnetic protection, and electromagnetic support.

Spectrum management operations (SMO) are the interrelated functions of spectrum management, frequency assignment, host-nation coordination, and policy that enable the planning, management, and execution of operations within the electromagnetic operational environment during all phases of military operations. SMO are the management portions of electromagnetic spectrum operations (EMSO). EMSO also include electronic warfare.

Department of Defense information network (DODIN) operations are operations to secure, configure, operate, extend, maintain, and sustain DOD cyberspace.

Cybersecurity ensures the confidentiality, integrity, availability, authentication, and nonrepudiation of friendly information and information systems while denying adversaries access to the same information and information systems. Cybersecurity incorporates actions taken to protect, monitor, analyze, detect, and respond to unauthorized activity on DOD information systems and computer networks.

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.