WHAT MISSION COMMAND IS NOT

(Paper # 068)

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Murat Balci

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Department

Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA

mbalci@odu.edu

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Plan is nothing, planning is everything.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Dr. Andres Avelino Sousa-Poza

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Department

Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA

asousapo@odu.edu

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Agenda

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• Mission Command History
• Economics of Information
• Command and Control Landscape
• Command Approach
• Definition of Mission Command
• Six Principles of Mission Command
• Delegation of Authority
• What Mission Command is Not
• Conclusion

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Napoleon Bonaparte

(1769 – 1821)

Helmuth von Moltke

(1800 – 1891)

Frederick II

(1712 –1786)

Soviet Army 1930s

United States Armed Forces 1980s

Mission Command History

German Army WWII

(auftragstaktik)

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Trade-off between the richness and the reach

(Evans & Wurster, 1997)

Economics of Information

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Command and Control Landscape

Warfighting Functions

Command and Control

•Command arrangements (Assigned forces)

•Command (the commander)

•Command Support Systems (necessary to perform the C2 functions).

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Components of command and control system:

• Personnel,
• Information systems,
• Facilities and equipment,
• Networks,
• Processes and procedures

Command Approach

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NATO NEC C2 Approaches (Alberts et al., 2010)

• Command by order
• Command by plan
• Command by influence

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Definition of Mission Command

Mission command is defined by the US Army Doctrine [5] as

“the exercise of authority and direction by the commander using mission orders to enable disciplined initiative within the commander’s intent to empower agile and adaptive leaders in the conduct of unified land operations.”

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Six Principles of Mission Command

• Build cohesive teams through mutual trust.
• Create shared understanding.
• Provide a clear commander’s intent.
• Exercise disciplined initiative.
• Use mission orders.
• Accept prudent risk.

mission command [5, p. 2]:

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Delegation of Authority

“The commander’s order should only contain what is beyond the independent authority of the subordinate but no further details.”

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What Mission Command is Not

• Complexity as an excuse for mission command
• No single treatment can be prescribed
• The complexity of operatorial environments is not binary
• Limited exploration

Conducting expeditionary mission command and sustainment operations as part of an exercise [28]

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• The failure to identify differences between mission command and conventional command approaches.
• Mission-type orders are not sufficient to effectively apply mission command.
• Not fully developed and successfully exercised.
• In addition to the incomplete maturation process of mission command, command approach studies are limited

What Mission Command is Not

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The features required to apply mission command successfully are also needed for successful application of conventional command approach.

• A clear and concise statement of the intent and the desired end-state.
• Allocation of resources required for subordinates.
• Building trust with subordinates
• Eagerness for delegation of authority
• Acceptance of mistakes and failures
• Provide the conditions for effective and innovative solutions.

What Mission Command is Not

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• The conventional command approach attempts to deal with uncertainty centrally, while the mission command approach prefers to distribute uncertainty to subordinates.
• How they handle uncertainty is insufficient evidence to conclude that distributed handling of uncertainty results better in every situation.
• Mission command-related statements such as delegating authority to subordinates requiring higher information, knowledge, situational understanding, and collaboration capacity need further investigation since empirical studies do not sufficiently support such statements.
• Independence of subordinates exists and is required both for mission command and conventional command approach

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What Mission Command is Not

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Fundamental contradiction between the definition and implementation of the mission command approach.

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• Delegation of authority allows subordinates to make decisions as they see fit.
• Initiative is a temporary use of authority due to the situation’s urgency or ineffective communication.
• Current doctrine sees delegation of authority as an exception and puts additional barriers for a further limiting initiative by coining the term “disciplined initiative.”
• Although initiative employment is vital when a senior commander’s timely or direct influence is hindered, current doctrine and mission command studies give a small role to the initiative in the mission command structure.

What Mission Command is Not

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Conclusion

• Mission and conventional command approaches have multiple aspects but tend to associate them solely with the authority delegation.
• Some additional elements associated with mission command are either reconcilable or should be part of command and control studies.
• The inefficiency of developed mission command models motivates researchers to add more attributes to the mission command concept which is counterproductive.

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Conclusion

Developing fine-tuned definitions, clarified functions and roles may prevent confusion between command and control, and command approach or mixing mission command and conventional command approaches so that we can move forward by focusing on ways to implement these ideas.

Any questions ?

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Command and Control Landscape

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H1: Mission command and conventional command approaches perform differently in different operational conditions.

H2: If uncertainty does not exist or negligible, simple and centralized structures provide better management.

H3: Contextual specificity requires local management.

Hypothesis

Conventional Command

Mission Command

100%

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NATO NEC C2 Approaches

(Alberts et al., 2010)

C2 maturity levels with operational levels

(Moffat & Alberts, 2006)