what are the 7 warfighting functions

Great points, as always Bill. For the purposes of simplification and clarity I will define the human domain, not in terms of its content (the other), but in terms of the missions or environment most closely related to the concept. Where is that quote from? Protection may also encompass the surrounding population and environment. "Social" facts can be analyzed too, just not in the way you might analyze, say, a set of temperature readings. Eventually they actually do get attacked and the outcome is likely less than pretty without those external air attack and fires technical resources that some describe as micromanagement while others under fire appreciate as essential and lifesaving. It means preserving the force which includes personnel and physical assets of the United States as well as the host nation and any military or civilian allies. He graduated from The Citadel, has an MBA from George Mason University, and an MMAS from the School of Advanced Military Studies. Small Wars Journal is published by Small Wars Foundation - a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. The Inca Empire shared a fate similar to that of the Aztec, but at the hands of a conquistador more sinister than Cortez. Maybe I'm just becoming cynical in my old age, but it bothers me to no end that so many great people and huge amounts national capital have been expended in basically accomplishing what? "YOU (meaning the US military and agencies with which it works) are a part of the human domain and you cannot divorce yourselves from any of it. We will do all of this while we continue down a path that relegates us to being little better than our conventional brethren in terms of operational and strategic prowess. [iii] To best enable the forces that are engaged in this socially non-visible world, or the missions SOF call Special Warfare,[iv] it is my contention that we must discard the philosophy the military normally uses and turn towards something Curtis White calls the sublime in his book The Middle Mind: less of a faith that science and data can unlock the puzzles of humanity and more of a reliance on art. Students at the SWCS routinely repeat higher's intent- to establish a "legitimate" government in Pineland, for instance, and they never once question the implicit factors that are driving our use of force in the scenario. On a personal note, I remember when I was in Iraq in 2003, 2004/05, all the internet cafes on the FOBs that allowed our troops lots of free time when they were back inside the wire to communicate with family, friends etc. Wanat troops depending only on ground sensors and deprived of overhead surveillance the final night get slaughtered on OP Topside. To this end I don't necessarily understand the distinction you make between CF and SOF. Interestingly, this makes me wonder how we could have missed such an important aspect of the human domain and the military operations we undertook as a nation. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Overthrow a local government that is standing in the way of progress (the state and societal transformations we desire). 19 What are the 7 Army warfighting functions? Its certainly a sticky issue and Im not sure what the right mix of security and positive public affairs efforts are. I have read and heard many who claim that the Army Warfighting Functions just create more red-tape and are not needed. There were some interesting comments posted to Dave Maxwell's article on UW several weeks ago here in SWJ that are worth going back and re-reading. One cannot believe how many times I have heard the comment "we cannot template the insurgency"---my argument even to today was "yes we could as they were hiding nothing from us"---the CF just did not want to admit that the insurgency was a living, thinking, adapting group of people who were giving us a solid run for our money----or is anyone wanting and or willing to state we "won" the IED fight in Iraq and or AFG----Gen. P nor Nagel has ever mentioned anything on this front. Mission command should cascade down the ranks through the NCOs to the formations at large. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. [xl] Although I think it is terrible to see war in terms of three levels: tactical, operational, and strategic, I use these terms for communication purposes. Others, more inclined toward and adept at reflection-in-action, nevertheless feel profoundly uneasy because they cannot say what they know how to do, cannot justify its quality or rigor.. WFF are the physical means that tactical commanders use to execute operations and accomplish missions assigned by a superior commander. -- as produced by the enemy -- seems to be a step ahead of our own? The Chief of Staff of the Army, General Odierno, allegedly said recently, That is what I was missing in Iraq! ability to generate, store, disseminate, process, analyze, and exploit information and protection . Also see Paparone, Chris, COL (ret. RantCorp--now you understand the reason why we lost Iraq and AFG. A WFF is a group of tasks and systems (people, organizations, information, and processes) united by a common purpose that commanders use to accomplish missions and training objectives (FM 3-0). Right now it has yet to be named, although some of the early candidates have included Influence, Engagement, and Shape. To successfully incorporate informa - tion as a warfighting function, Marine leaders on all levels need to better un-derstand the information domain or how information flows in a metaphysi - cal realm. He has served in Korea, Afghanistan and South America. [xx] The U.S. military and SOF used to do this naturally prior to the Cold War by drastically drawing down the Army and doing away with SOF altogether after a war. If our young leaders of today had, as we may have had in our day, a good idea of what our national objective was, then might they be able to innovate, do mission command, and perform better? This is anathema to what is needed for building an SW force able to operate within the human domain, but alas we are beholden to a requirements process that is set up to facilitate the bureaucracy. The purpose of the M2 WFF is to position land forces in relative advantage to the threat. SF majors would offer SOF much more and gain greater experience if their main job was as a Theater Special Operations Command (TSOC) planner in my opinion, or perhaps a more broadening experience like working in an embassy or at the State Department. Neither did 202020 the Maya have a single emperor, though its kings were venerated as godlike, as in the Inca and Aztec cultures. Maneuver 3. Unfortunately, most people in the military are unaware of their own philosophy- or, at the least, the institutional philosophy that their doctrine, planning constructs, and systems and processes are founded upon. Destroy the enemys physical ability to fight and they must surrender. If our adversaries had that capability our TTPs in Afghanistan would have to rapidly and drastically change. The success of unified action depends on the application of capabilities that influence the perceptions, understanding, and actions of relevant populations To operate more effectively in the land domain while fully accounting for the human aspects of conflict and war, the Army requires a warfighting function to capture the tasks and systems that provide lethal and nonlethal capabilities to assess, shape, deter, and influence the decisions and behavior of a people, its security forces, and its government.. The protection warfighting function is the related tasks and systems that preserve the force so the commander can apply maximum combat power to accomplish the mission (ADP 3-0). Linear logic and metrics are required to justify and validate requirements; narrative and anecdote are abhorred by the bureaucracy. Every village that does not have the safety and security of the institutions that were formed to do so, can be armed in self-defense of their rights, their property, their lives. [xxx] If Operational Design is seen by ARSOF for what it really is: a methodology best belonging to the physical domains (at the tactical level mostly), rooted in technical rationality, and in direct contradiction with the human domain concept, then it is possible that a more applicable text could be produced. Administrative movement is related to the Sustaining WFF. Coupled with a chain of command that exploits their multi-generational familial ties, tribal ties and 30 years of shared camaraderie the HN practice a tactical and operational methodology they call Jihad and we call Mission Command. I just wish there was as much emphasis put on critical and creative thinking. SOF and those involved in the human domain are a force seeking to sense-make the world largely in an explicit way, but the world we want to operate in is instead socially constructed and filled with tacit knowledge. [xli] For just one example of how this affects SOF: US Army Special Forces (SF) majors are compared to Conventional Force (CF) majors for promotion to lieutenant-colonel as well as battalion command. Ancient pyramids inscribed with weathered glyphs and characters from the most advanced ancient alphabet in the western hemisphere now sit abandoned, obscured by centuries of jungle growth. Interesting assessment on what I'm calling asymmetric surveillance approaches and much more. These cookies do not store any personal information. Training them, advising them in raids (and in taking control of territory and then dealing with the inevitable retribution, extra-legal justice, and power struggles), especially in austere conditions, may well require a special task organization (i.e. RantCorp--just how many hours of any given day did either the AQI, the Sunni IAI or the Shia Iraqi Hezbollah spend just simply watching every move a BCT or Marine Regt made in Iraq---kind of like a pattern of life targeting process just in reverse and just how much times does the HiG or the Taliban spend watching our every move in AFG-----hours, days, weeks? The opposition in AF are not fit, they are poorly trained and they have clapped out gear. We in the military, in my opinion, follow the Behavioralist school of political theory as an institution- quite consciously, are unconscious Positivists in philosophical outlook- both individually and institutionally, and yet we pretend to be Rational Choice Theorists. I submit that art has a place in war, although many of us military types are a little uncomfortable about the word. Atahualpa offered a ransom for himself that consisted of a roomful of gold. Certainly our formidable advantage in hardware and men will readdress this disadvantage considerably but will it boost our prospects a thousand fold? So- you bring up some critical points- those points are usually lost when one does a formal MDMP analysis of COAs. So where are the pilots? I don't mean to sound cryptic but I don't want to open up a can of worms now when I plan to do some fishing later. [xli] If SOF is to be successful at the operational and higher tactical levels, absent a personnel system that allows for flexibility and mission focus, we must incorporate at the very least a rigorous testing and experimentation program to assist us in finding the right tools and philosophical approach for operating in the human domain. 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