Military operation
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A military operation (op) is the coordinated
military plan to resolve the situation in the state or actor's favor. Operations may be of a combat or non-combat nature and may be referred to by a code name for the purpose of national security. Military operations are often known for their more generally accepted common usage names than their actual operational objectives
.
Types of military operations
Military operations can be classified by the scale and scope of force employment, and their impact on the wider conflict. The scope of military operations can be:
- politicalimpact of military goals on areas concerned.
- Campaign: this describes either a subset of the theatre of operation, or a more limited geographic and operational strategic commitment, such as the Battle of Britain, and need not represent total national commitment to a conflict, or have broader goals outside the military impact.
- Dardanelles Campaign, where about 480,000 Alliedtroops took part.
- Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev.
- Strike: this describes a single attack, upon a specified target. This often forms part of a broader engagement. Strikes have an explicit goal, such as rendering facilities such as airports inoperable, assassinating enemy leaders, or limiting the delivery of supplies to enemy troops.
Definition
Parallel to and reflecting this framework for operations are organized elements within the
units, the area within which they operate, and the scope of mission they perform, the correlation is not absolute. In fact, it is ultimately the mission that a unit performs that determines the level of war within which it operates.— David M. Glantz, Soviet Military Operational Art[1]
Operational level of war
The operational level of war occupies roughly the middle ground between the campaign's strategic focus and the tactics of an engagement. It describes "a distinct intermediate level of war between military strategy, governing war in general, and tactics, involving individual battles".[2] For example, during World War II, the concept applied to use of Soviet Tank Armies.[3]
See also
- Civil-military operations
- Effects-Based Operations(EBO)
- List of military operations
- Military operation plan
- Military operations other than war (MOOTW)
- Offensive (military)
- Operational View (OV)
Notes
References
- Armstrong, Richard N. Red Army Tank Commanders: The Armored Guards. Atglen, Penn.: ISBN 0-88740-581-9.
- Glantz, David M. Soviet Military Operational Art: In Pursuit of Deep Battle. London: Frank Cass, 1991. ISBN 0-7146-4077-8.
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