Staff (military)
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A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of
A commander "commands" through their personal authority, decision-making and leadership, and uses general staff to exercise the "control" on their behalf in a large unit. The traditional role of the general staff in control role has evolved from the simpler "
Most NATO nations, including the United States and most European nations, use the Continental Staff System which has origin in Napoleon's military. The Commonwealth Staff System, used by most of the Commonwealth, has its origin in the British military.[2]
Military staff functions
Information management
This section may be too technical for most readers to understand.(November 2021) |
One of the key purposes of a military staff is to provide accurate, timely information (which includes the results of contingency planning) on which command decisions are based. A goal is being able to suggest approaches or help produce well-informed decisions that will effectively manage and conserve unit resources.
In addition to generating information, the staff also manages the flow of communication within the unit and around it. While controlled information flow toward the commander is a priority, those useful or contingent in nature are communicated to lower-level units and/or through their respective staffs. If the information is not pertinent to the unit, it is redirected to the command level which can best utilize the condition or information.
Staffs are generally the first to know of issues that affect its group. Issues that require major decisions affecting the unit's operational capability are communicated to the commanding officer. However, not all issues will be handled by the commander. Smaller matters that arise are given to a more appropriate tasker within the unit to be handled and resolved, which would otherwise be an unnecessary distraction for the Commanding Officer who already makes numerous decisions every day.
In addition, a staff aims to carefully craft any useful situations and utilize that information.
Staff structure
In a generic command staff, more seasoned and senior officers oversee staff sections of groups organized by the needs of the unit. Senior Enlisted Personnel task personnel in the maintenance of tactical equipment and vehicles. Senior Analysts are tasked with the finalizing of reports, and their enlisted personnel participate in the acquisition of information from subordinate staffs and units. This hierarchy places decision making and reporting under the auspices of the most experienced personnel and maximizes information flow of pertinent information sent out of the command overall, clarifying matters overall. This frees up the most senior members of the command at each level for decision making and issuing direction for further research or information gathering (perhaps requiring men to put their lives at risk to gather additional intelligence).
Operations staff officers also are tasked with battle planning both for offensive and defensive conditions, and issuing contingency plans for handling situations anticipated during the foreseeable future.
History
Prior to the late 18th century, there was generally no organizational support for staff functions such as
Austria
When Karl Mack von Leiberich became chief of staff of the army under Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in the Netherlands, he issued the Instruktionspunkte für gesammte Herren Generals, the last of 19 points setting out the roles of staff officers, dealing with offensive and defensive operations, while helping the Commander-in-chief. In 1796, Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen augmented these with his own Observationspunkte, writing of the Chief of Staff: "he is duty bound to consider all possibilities related to operations and not view himself as merely carrying out those instructions".[5] On 20 March 1801, Feldmarschalleutnant Duka became the world's first peacetime Generalquartiermeister at the head of the staff and the wartime role of the Chief of Staff was now focused on planning and operations to assist the Commander. Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen himself produced a new Dienstvorschrift on 1 September 1805,[6] which divided the staff into three: 1) Political Correspondence; 2) the Operations Directorate, dealing with planning and intelligence; 3) the Service Directorate, dealing with administration, supply and military justice. The Archduke set out the position of a modern Chief of Staff: "The Chief of Staff stands at the side of the Commander-in-Chief and is completely at his disposal. His sphere of work connects him with no specific unit". "The Commander-in-Chief decides what should happen and how; his chief assistant works out these decisions, so that each subordinate understands his allotted task". With the creation of the Korps in 1809, each had a staff, whose chief was responsible for directing operations and executing the overall headquarters plan. The staff on the outbreak of war in 1809 numbered over 170. Finally in 1811, Joseph Radetzky von Radetz produced his Über die bessere Einrichtung des Generalstabs,[7] which prioritised the Chief of Staff's managerial and supervisory role with the departments (Political Correspondence, Operations and Service) under their own directors, effectively merging the Adjutants and General Staff officers. In this system lay the beginnings of a formal staff corps, whose members could specialise in operations, intelligence and logistics.[8]
France
Despite a short lived permanent staff under St-Cyr (1783–90), the French reverted to the old system in 1790, when the
Prussia
United Kingdom
Before the Crimean War staff work was looked at "with great disdain" in the British Army; the hardships of that war caused by disorganization led to a change in attitude.[11] The General Staff in Britain was formed in 1905, and reorganized again in 1908. Unlike the Prussian staff system, the British Army was thought too small to support separate staff and command career streams. Officers would typically alternate between staff and command.[11] Beevor, Inside the British Army, says instead that the terrible cleavages between staff and line units caused by the enormous losses during the trench warfare of the World War I meant that senior British officers consequently decided that all officers would rotate between staff and line responsibilities, preventing the development of a separate general staff corps.
United States
The
Continental Staff System (ContStaff)
The "Continental Staff System" (ContStaff), also known as the "General Staff System" (GSS), is used by most NATO countries in structuring their militaries' staff functions. In this system, which is based on one originally employed by the French Army in the 19th century, each staff position in a headquarters or unit is assigned a letter-prefix corresponding to the formation's element and one or more numbers specifying a role.
The staff numbers are assigned according to custom, not hierarchy, traceable back to French practice; i.e., 1 is not "higher ranking" than 2. This list reflects the SHAPE structure:[12]
- 1, for manpower or personnel
- 2, for intelligence and security
- 3, for operations
- 4, for logistics
- 5, for plans
- 6, for
- 7, for military education and training (also the joint engineer)
- 8, for finance and contracts. Also known as resource management.
- 9, for Civil-Military Co-operation(CIMIC) or civil affairs.
Since the original continental staff system only covered branches 1 through 6, it is not uncommon to see 7 through 9 omitted or having various meanings.[14] Common variation include merging of 3 and 5 to 3, Operations and Plans; omitting the training branch and utilizing 7 for engineering (as seen in US Military Sealift Command[15] and Multinational Forces-Iraq (MNF-I)[16]) and replacing 9 with a legal branch (making CIMIC a part of another branch, i.e. 2 or 4) as seen with the UK Permanent Joint Headquarters.[17]
Derived from the Prussian Große Generalstab (Great General Staff), traditionally these staff functions were prefixed by the simple G, which is retained in place for modern army usage. But the increasing complexity of modern armies, not to speak of the spread of the staff concept to naval, air and other elements, has demanded the addition of new prefixes. These element prefixes are:
- A, for air force headquarters;
- C, for combined headquarters (multiple nations) headquarters;
- F, for certain forward or deployable headquarters;
- G, for marine general staff sections within headquarters of organizations commanded by a general officer and having a chief of staff to coordinate the actions of the general staff, such as divisions or equivalent organizations (e.g., USMC Marine Aircraft Wing and Marine Logistics Group) and separate (i.e., non-divisional) brigade level (USMC MEB) and above;[18]
- J, for joint (multiple services) headquarters, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff[19]);
- N, for navy headquarters;
- S, for marines executive staff sections within headquarters of organizations commanded by a field grade officer (i.e., major through colonel) and having an executive officer to coordinate the actions of the executive staff (e.g., divisional brigades, regiments, groups, battalions, and squadrons; not used by all countries);[18] S is also used in the Naval Mobile Construction Battalions (SeaBees)[20] and in the Air Force Security Forces Squadron.[21]
- U, is used for United Nations military operations mission headquarters.
- CG, is unique to the US Coast Guard's Assistant Commandants (Headquarters staff), previously using the G prefix.
On some occasions the letter E can also be observed, though it is not an official term. In that case it is for element and it will be used to identify a small independent element, that is a part of a non-staff organization; i.e., an E3 is an operational element on a logistics site or an E4 is a logistics element on a forward medical support site.
Thus, the personnel officer of a naval headquarters would be referred to as N1. In reality, in large organizations each of these staff functions will require the support of its own large staff, so N1 refers both to the office and the officer in charge of it. The continental staff system can be carried down to the next level: J1.3 (or J13, sometimes the dot-separator is omitted) is thus the operations officer of the personnel office of a joint headquarters, but the exact definition of the roles at this level may vary. Below this, numbers can be attached following a hyphen, but these are usually only positional numbers assigned arbitrarily to identify individuals (G2.3-2 could be the budget officer in the operations section of the intelligence department; A1.1-1-1 might simply be a receptionist).
Manpower or personnel
The
Intelligence, security, and information operations
The
Operations
The operations office may include plans and training. The operations office plans and coordinates operations, and all things necessary to enable the formation to operate and accomplish its mission. In most units, the operations office is the largest of the staff sections and considered the most important. All aspects of sustaining the unit's operations, planning future operations, and additionally planning and executing all unit training, fall under the responsibility of operations. The operations office is also tasked with keeping track of the weekly training schedules. In most military units (i.e.,
Logistics
The logistics office is responsible for managing the wide scope of materiel, transport, facilities, services and medical/health support:
- Design, development, acquisition, storage, distribution, maintenance, evacuation, and disposition of materiel.
- Transport of personnel and materiel.
- Acquisition or construction, maintenance, operation, and disposition of facilities.
- Acquisition or furnishing of services.
- Medical and health service support.
By NATO doctrine, the logistic staff is tasked with overseeing logistic aspects and principles, where the focus is that "logistic support must be focused towards ensuring the success of the operation" and prescriptions of elements such as responsibility and authority.[22] A logistic staff may be divided into sections based on branch or geographic area. Each section may in turn also be divided into tasks and roles. The size of the logistic staff can vary greatly, depending on the environment and complexity of operations. NATO in example work with a "Multinational Joint Logistic Centre",[23] which exists outside of the force commander's staff, but runs as a separate entity/unit, with only a few logistic personnel in the commander's staff who act as liaisons.
Plans and strategy
The plans and strategy office is responsible for civil military operations (CMO) strategy planning. At the unit level, the S-5 is the primary adviser to the commander on the civilian-to-military and military-to-civilian impact of the mission/operation within the host nation's (HN) area of interest (AOI), area of operations (AO), or the target area of interest (TAOI). The G5 serves as the mission support office (MSO) at the division level and HHC[clarification needed] for civil military plans and strategy.
Signal (communications and IT)
The signal office directs all communications and is the point of contact for the issue of communications instructions and protocol during operations as well as for communications troubleshooting, issue, and preventative maintenance. Communications at this level is paired with digital as well as voice (radio, computer, etc.). At the unit level, S-6 is also usually responsible for all electronic systems within a unit to include computers, faxes, copy machines, and phone systems.
Training
The training branch will organize and coordinate training activity conducted by a Headquarters and also supervise and support subordinate units.
Finance
The finance branch, not to be confused with Administration from which it has split, sets the finance policy for the operation. Operationally, the Administration and Finance may be interlinked, but have separate reporting chains.
CIMIC: Civil-Military Co-operation
Commonwealth staff system
This section may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may interest only a particular audience.(January 2022) |
The "Commonwealth staff system", used by most Commonwealth nations, is largely based on the British military's staff system with nation-specific variations.[2]
Canada
The head of the Royal Canadian Navy, Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, is also titled as Chief of Naval Staff.
The head of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force, is also titled as Chief of Air Force Staff.
The head of the Canadian Army, Commander of the Canadian Army, is also titled as Chief of Army Staff.
United Kingdom
Army staff
Until 1984, when it began to use the continental or NATO system, the United Kingdom operated its own system, as follows:
- Three branches:
- G branch: The general branch, responsible for operations, intelligence and training.
- A branch: The administration branch, responsible for all aspects of personnel management.
- Q branch: The quartermaster branch, responsible for logistic and equipment support.
- Positions: positions were labelled as follows, may also be styled GSO I, GSO II, GSO III:
- GSO1, General Staff Officer (Grade 1): The chief of staff, ranked a lieutenant colonel or colonel. He was in charge of the general staff branch, responsible for training, intelligence, planning operations and directing the battle as it progressed. Most orders from the general officer commanding (GOC) were actually written up and signed by the GSO1.[25]
- GSO2, General Staff Officer (Grade 2): Ranked a major.
- GSO3, General Staff Officer (Grade 3): Ranked a captain.
In the British system, staff are outranked by command officers. The staff cannot in theory (and largely in practice) say "no" to a subordinate unit; only the commander has that ability. This ensured a clear chain of command, and reinforced the idea that staff do not command, but exercise control on behalf of their commander. By contrast, in the American system, commanders are frequently outranked by staff officers. For example, within a battalion, the S-3 is a major while
- Lieutenant colonels commanding battalions or units in a brigade outrank the brigade major and the deputy assistant adjutant and quartermaster general
- Brigadiers commanding brigades in a division outrank the colonel GS and colonel AQ
- Major generals commanding divisions outrank the brigadier GS and assistant adjutant general and assistant quartermaster general at a corps HQ
Brigade level
Branches as brigade were as follows. A and Q branches might be combined under a deputy assistant adjutant and quartermaster general, rank major (DAA&QMG).[11]
- G branch (operations) plans and executes operations.
The senior staff officer in brigade HQ held the appointment of brigade major (BM) with rank of captain or major, who coordinated the HQ. While the BM was responsible for the entire HQ, he concentrated mainly on "G" operational matters. A deputy BM GSO III generally looked after non-operational matters. Under the BM were several GSO III (rank captain) officers:- Operations (the senior captain)
- Intelligence
- Liaison. The Liaison section often had several lieutenants attached from the brigade's combat units.
- Air
- A branch:
It handled all personnel matters such as awards, postings, promotions, medical, chaplains, military police and so forth. There were usually one or two GSO III officers in A branch. - Q Branch:
It handled logistics, supply, transport, clothing, maintenance. There was usually one GSO III officer, with a learner captain or lieutenant, and several advisors, all captains:- Brigade Royal Army Service Corps Officer (BRASCO)
- Brigade Ordnance Officer (BOO)
- Brigade Electrical and Mechanical Engineer Officer (BEME)
Division level
G branch was under the colonel GS (a lieutenant-colonel).
The combined "A" and "Q" staffs was headed by a colonel AQ, who was assisted by an assistant adjutant and quartermaster general (AA&QMG, rank lieutenant-colonel).
Members of the G staff:
- A GSO II, acting as deputy to the GSO I. He was responsible for the preparation of orders and instructions as directed by the GSO I; the general organization and working of the "G" office; detailing of duty officers at the Div HQ; coordinating arrangements for moving the Main HQ; details of movement by road in consultation with the DAAG and DAQMG; and general policy regarding HQ defence and the preparation and promulgation of HQ standing orders. (In an armoured division headquarters, the GSO II was responsible for the division tactical HQ and the above duties were done by the GSO III (Operations).)
- The GSO III (Operations) was the understudy to the GSO II; he maintained the situation map; prepared situation reports; supervised the acknowledgement register; maintained the command matrix; prepared orders for the move of the orders group; and prepared orders for the move of the division's main HQ.
- The GSO III (Operations)(Chemical Warfare) was responsible for all matters dealing with chemical warfare that affected the division; coordinated courses; was responsible for the camouflage policy; maintained the war diary; prepared and maintained location statements; received and distributed codes, call sign lists and other signals information from the divisional signals; coordinated traffic control and organization of routes in the divisional forward area under the GSO II and APM; was understudy to the GSO III (Operations) on all matters less CW.
- The GSO III (Intelligence) coordinated all intelligence training and work in the division; coordinated the collection and collation of information about enemy dispositions, methods and intentions; prepared daily intelligence summaries; coordinated interpretation of air photographs with the Army Photographic Interpretation Section (APIS); effected liaison with the APIS, the field security office and the Intelligence Officer, Royal Artillery (at CRA); and was responsible for briefing and handling of press correspondents.
- The GSO III (Liaison) coordinated the work of the liaison officers, was responsible for the division information room and served as an understudy to the GSO III (Operations).
Corps level
G branch was headed by the brigadier general staff (BGS, rank brigadier). The BGS was usually superior to the AAG and AQMG, despite all three having the same rank.
A branch was headed by the Assistant adjutant general (AAG, rank brigadier). He was assisted by the deputy assistant adjutant general (DAAG, rank lieutenant-colonel).
Q branch was headed by the assistant quartermaster general (AQMG rank brigadier).
The G staff for a corps might appear as below:
- Operations and staff duties:
- GSO I
- GSO II (Ops)
- GSO II (Ops)(CW)
- GSO II (SD)—Staff Duties
- 2 × GSO III (SD)
- Air:
- GSO II (Air)
- Intelligence:
- GSO II (Int)
- 2 × GSO III (Int)
- Liaison:
- GSO II (L)
- 3 × GSO III (L)
- Royal Artillery:
- GSO II (RA)
- GSO II (AA)
- GSO III (RA)
The
The
See also
References
- ^ General staff definition, Encyclopædia Britannica.
- ^ a b c d e PK Mallick, 2011, Staff System in the Indian Army: Time for Change, Centre for Land Warfare Studies, New Delhi, vol 31.
- ^ Duffy, C. 'Instrument of War' p.381
- ^ Desfourt, François (1769). "VIII". Generalreglement, oder Verhaltungen für die kaiserliche königliche Generalität [General Regulations, or Behaviors for the Imperial Royal Generals] (in German). Vol. 1, part 2. p. 145f. Archived from the original on 21 September 2016. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
- ^ Osterreichische Militärische Zeitschrift (Streffleur, Vienna) 1860 III, 229-233
- ^ Regele, O.: Generalstabschefs aus vier Jahrhunderten (Vienna) 1966, p.55
- ^ Kriegsgeschichtliche Abteilung des k.u.k. Kriegsarchivs: Befreiungskriege (Kriegsarchiv, Vienna) 1913 Vol. V 'Leipzig'
- ^ Fremont-Barnes, G. (editor) 'Armies of the Napoleonic Wars' 2011; Kriegsarchiv Vienna, Nachlasse Wolf-Schneider, B/197, 6/IX
- ^ Vachee, 'Napoleon at Work' (1914) p.29ff
- ^ Lamarque, Jean Maximilien; Fririon, Franciois Nicolas baron (11 May 2018). "Le Spectateur militaire: Recueil de science, d'art et d'histoire militaires". Bureau de Spectateur militaire. Archived from the original on 23 September 2016 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b c "www.canadiansoldiers.com". www.canadiansoldiers.com. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015.
- ^ "NATO SHAPE structure". nato.int. Archived from the original on 9 January 2010.
- ^ Department of the Army (1997). Staff organization and Operations (FM 101-5) (PDF). pp. 4–16. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 November 2011. Retrieved 6 September 2010.
- ^ The Command and Staff System in the Information Age: Is the Continental Staff System Dead? Archived 10 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ MSC N7 Archived 14 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Ware, Jared L. (May–August 2009). "Joint Engineer-A Multinational Perspective" (PDF). Engineer. Fort Leonard Wood. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 December 2010.
- ^ "Permanent Joint Headquarters". Armed Forces Management of Defence. Archived from the original on 2 July 2014.
- ^ a b "DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms". Defense Technical Information Center. Archived from the original on 10 October 2016.
- ^ "J8 Force Structure, Resources, and Assessment Directorate". Joint Chiefs of Staff. Archived from the original on 24 February 2024.
- ^ "Figure 12-3.--Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) Organization". Storekeeper Basic. Navy Administration Training Manuals. Archived from the original on 17 December 2023.
- ^ "AFI38-101" (PDF). Department of the Air Force. 29 August 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 December 2023.
- ^ "AJP-4(A): Allied Joint Logistic Doctrine" (PDF). TRANSNET. December 2003. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 March 2013.
- ^ "Chapter 13: Multinational Logistics". NATO Logistics Handbook. October 1997. Archived from the original on 24 June 2013.
- ^ "FM 41-10" (PDF). Department of the Army. May 1957. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 November 2022 – via Berlin Information-center for Transatlantic Security.
- ^ Mallett, Ross (19 July 2001). "Division Headquarters". Archived from the original on 29 May 2002.
- ISBN 978-1843836551.
- ISBN 9781136340369.
- ^ Archives, The National. "The Discovery Service". discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. National Archives. Archived from the original on 31 January 2017. Retrieved 19 January 2017.
- ISBN 9781136340369.
Further reading
- Bartholomees, J. Boone Buff Facings and Gilt Buttons: Staff and Headquarters Operations in the Army of Northern Virginia, 1861–1865 (University of South Carolina Press, 1998) ISBN 1-57003-220-3.
- Crosswell, D.K.R. The Chief of Staff: The Military Career of General Walter Bedell Smith (Greenwood Press, 1991) ISBN 0-313-27480-0.
- Fremont-Barnes, G. (editor) Armies of the Napoleonic Wars (2011)
- Goerlitz, Walter History of the German General Staff 1657–1945 (Praeger 1954).
- Hittle, James Donald The Military Staff: Its History and Development (Military Service Publishing, 1944)
- Jones, R. Steven J The Right Hand of Command: Use and Disuse of Personal Staffs in the American Civil War (ISBN 0-8117-1451-9.
- Koch, Oscar W. G-2: Intelligence for Patton: Intelligence for Patton (Schiffer Aviation History, 1999) ISBN 0-7643-0800-9.
- Pigman, Robyn. "All Systems Green: A Concise History of Chicken Bak Bak and the S-6 Offensive" (Nelson Ltd) ISBN 978-9948150510.
- Regele, O.: Generalstabschefs aus vier Jahrhunderten (Vienna 1966)
- Watson, S.J. By Command of the Emperor: A Life of Marshal Berthier (Ken Trotman Ltd) ISBN 0-946879-46-X.
- Irvine, D.D. The French and Prussian Staff Systems Before 1870 in The Journal of the American Military Foundation Vol. 2, No. 4 (Winter, 1938), pp. 192–203 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3038792?seq=1#fndtn-page_scan_tab_contents)
External links