WRITE OF CENTER
ART HUMPHRIES
KENDALL GOP PRECINCT CHAIR
It’s been fascinating to watch our president, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) reveal the planning and execution of the disablement of Iran’s nuclear threat.
Their after- action reports presented publicly and elsewhere have been amazingly transparent, the extent of which I’ve never seen.
But then, we now have a real leader who is totally confident in what he does, what he’s going to do, the wherewithal to “get it done” and the desire and ability to share it with his public.
But planning for such events, potential or immediate, doesn’t happen off-the-cuff. It’s the stuff of creative, predictive and amazingly well-informed minds at work in the Pentagon, the military war colleges, other government agencies and offices, think tanks, and more Interestingly, however, are the fundamentals of what to do and how to do it. They have been unclassified and available to the public for many years.
A chairman of the JCS wrote for example in a 1995 unclassified guide to his staff that to successfully fight and win wars and succeed in crises, planning must be the central focus.
While the new world security environment evolves, he said, diverse threats to our national interests frequently require large and complex operations. The larger and more complex the operation, the more it critically depends on a comprehensive planning system to ensure any measure of success.
The chairman said that future plans must be prudent and relevant to current and projected threats. Plans must clearly explain how and why forces are employed, in addition to what forces are to be deployed and when.
The products of our planning efforts must be able to stand up to the strongest scrutiny, including the ultimate test — execution.
As we saw recently with the president and his team, our nation’s disembowelment of Iran’s nuclear program has withstood the strongest scrutiny; except of course to the ill or misinformed antagonists and propagandists we suffer.
That framework for military operations is written in the Joint Operation Planning and Execution System (JOPES). It applies to the development and implementation of operation plans and operation orders prepared in response to crises or war.
It specifies the policies, procedures and formats to be used across the spectrum of deployment, employment, mobilization and sustainment activities. It would have been used in this most recent military action against Iran.
JOPES does not exist in a vacuum. There’s a sequence of key activities or decisions. The process starts with the president and his National Security Council (NSC). The NSC prepares national security directives that, with presidential approval, implement national security policy. These policy decisions provide the basis for both military planning and programming.
In the case of military action, the JCS chairman in turn prepares a draft execution order for the NSC and presidential approval.
It’s a logical sequence of events from there and usually pretty apparent publicly, especially with a tuned-in professional news corps. We don’t have room here for details, but here’s a snapshot. If you were watching, you might have at least sensed these steps:
• Situation Development. An event with possible national security implications occurs and is recognized and reported.
• Crisis Assessment. The diplomatic, military, economic and political implications of the crisis are weighed and often then leaked or planted publicly for reaction. A decision is made on a possible requirement for military force.
• Course of Action Development. The appropriate field or strategic commander is tasked to develop and recommend courses of action.
However, there are instances where the president and secretary of defense develop their own course of action and send it for execution.
• Course of Action Selection. The president and secretary of defense select a course. Often this leaks or is surmised by truly focused individuals and media.
• Execution Planning. A detailed operation order is prepared to support the selected course of action. The level of detail is proportional to the time available for planning.
• Execution. The president and defense secretary then call for the engagement of U.S. forces.
So, did you see all that roll out. One step then alerts us to the next. As you might imagine, there’s more to the story, more to the process. In any case, I thought you might be interested.
Art Humphries is a Kendall County Republican Precinct Chair. He’s also a former member of the senior staff of the JCS.
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