War Strategists: FM 3-0 Operations - Essay Example

? FM 3-0 Operations Task: FM 3-0 Operations Sources have regarded Clausewitz’s as an icon in strategy, political, as well as military leadership. Significantly, he disregarded geometry as a significant factor in strategy. He believed in the Napoleonic victory through battle and devastation of the conflicting force. However, he also postulated that, partial warfare could influence policy by wearing down the opposition through attrition. Centrally, Jomini emphasized on operational strategy, planning, and intelligence. He recognized the achievement of victory through absorbing the enemy’s land instead of destroying the army. Consequently, Jomini’s theory of strategy entirely relied on geometric considerations. He advocated concentrating alongside fractions of the enemy’s force before striking the critical objective. Significantly, Clausewitz and Jomini theories have immensely contributed to understanding today’s military profession1. Accordingly, the FM 3.0 represents a revolutionary departure from past theories. It has engaged in an operational of employing such principles as offensive, stability or civil support operations concurrently as part of an inter-reliant joint force to grab, retain and exploit the initiative, accepting practical risk thus generating opportunities for achieving decisive results. The FM 3.0 operations significantly initiated a comprehensive change in the army by capturing the solder’s experience over t numerous years of extensive combat. It therefore changed the army’s conceptualization of operations hence it adopted FSO as a central tenet of how it applies its capabilities. Consequently, the concept of FSO plays critical roles in the army. FM 3.0 reflects an inclusive understanding of the numerous impacts of myriad years of persistent conflict in army operations. It puts emphasizes on people over technology, hence focus on an initiative and responsibility at lower levels of command2. It is worth noting that, understanding the operational environment and the intriguing problems, requires a precise methodology that expands beyond the military decision making process. Currently, the operational environment has experienced an enormous emergency of hybrid threats hence profoundly increasing uncertainty in the operational environment. In response, it has called for the need of creating teams to work closely with joint interagency and multinational assets among modular forces. Additionally, working with host-nation partners, teamwork requires extensive personal cooperation instead of military command. Finally, the capability to transmit clear and concise messages to target audiences plays a critical role in delivering lethal combat work. Consequently, it calls for an appropriate strategy in order to ensure victorious success in FSO. In response, current research has revealed that, the FM 3.0 has adopted a peculiar strategy referred to as blitzkrieg war strategy. Additionally, the strategy has based its foundation on nine compressive principles for success in FSO3. The blitzkrieg strategy entails employment of lightning attacks, overwhelming the enemy with speed ad concentrated fire-force. Typically, blitzkrieg strategy largely relies on tanks, which combine with speed. Its basic principle entails bombardment of a weak point in the enemy defense followed by feints and thorough probes to find a breakthrough point, plus a follow-up encirclement to prevent flanking and capturing remaining forces. Accordingly, at the defeat of the enemy, a follow up force may hold the position, while the main force moves on quickly to the next target. Blitzkrieg strategy works entirely by shock and depends entirely the maneuver and surprise principles rather than wearing down the enemy by long bombardment or pitched battles. Consequently, it represents a typical cross-country technique for conquering large tracts of relatively defended land. In addition, it implies distracting a dispatched the enemy from dealing with your attacks4. Similarly, the FM 3.0 provides intellectual underpinnings about how an army organizes trains, and conducts its operations in a new environment. It strongly emphasizes that the army shall achieve victory in the changed environment of persistent conflicts, mainly through military operations in concert with diplomatic, informational, and economic efforts. In addition, it asserts that, battle success alone can hardly warrant final victory. Therefore, it has called for concurrent steadiness operations as the basis for lasting peace. Consequently, it has called for the need of extra principles such as perseverance, legitimacy, and restraint. In response, they couple together with the normal nine principles to make up the joint operations5. These nine principles represent the crucial nonphysical factors that influence the operations at the strategic, operational, and tactic levels. Objective entails unswerving military operation towards a clearly defined and attainable objective. Offensive principle encompasses seize, and destructing the initiative. The mass principle entails concentrating the impacts of combat power at the influential place and time. The economic force principle targets at allocating a significant minimum combat power to lesser efforts. The principle of maneuver encompasses placing the enemy in at a disadvantageous position by flexibly applying combat power. The unity of command postulates that, for every objective, the forces must ensure unanimity of effort under a single commander. The security principle asserts that, the army hardly permits the enemy to enjoy an unexpected advantage. In addition, the principle of surprise entails striking the enemy at a time as well as a place or in an unprepared manner. Significantly, simplicity encourages the preparation of clear, uncomplicated plans, concise orders thus ensuring a thorough understanding. Perseverance ensures the necessary commitment to attain national strategic and state. Legitimacy encompasses development and maintenance of the will to attain the national strategic as well as state. Lastly, restraint entails restricting collateral harm and preventing the unnecessary use force6. The full spectrum operations (FSO) relies specific fundamentals, which provide the conceptual foundations for execution in the field and leader in the classroom. Consequently, they provide the basis for efficient as well as effective generation, employment, and sustainment of army forces. In response, the knowledge as well as the weight of the fundamentals enhances the forces’ to be decisive across the varied military operations. Additionally, they provide the foundation for the FSO. Significantly, the capability of the force to fight and win implies success in its operations, irrespective of the nature of force applied. Consequently, in order to defeat an enemy, it requires increasing disparity between friendly and enemy forces hence reducing their combat power. In response, commanders harmonize the elements of friendly force power to formulate overwhelming impact at the decisive time as well as a place. Accordingly, focused combat power ensures success by denying the enemy the chances of maintaining coherent resistance. Concisely, combat power provides sufficient limiting of friendly casualties as well as swift ending of an operation. The combat power entails numerous vital components, which work harmoniously7. Maneuver entails employment of forces, through either fire movement or fie potential to achieve an advantageous position over the enemy in order to accomplish the mission. Accordingly, commanders emphasize on directed combat power in achieving surprise well as momentum and dominance. It entails placing the forces and resources at a crucial place in time hence achieving operational advantage. Additionally, the commanders must seek operational advantages before combating then exploit the tactical success afterwards. Ideally, operational maneuver guarantees positional advantage over the enemy by obstructing enemy maneuver or ensuring his destruction. Centrally, tactical maneuver guarantees success in battles as well as engagements. It employs both offensive and defensive principles hence positioning the army forces to close with as well as devastate the enemy. Consequently, it continually poses numerous problems to the enemy by rendering his reactions infective thus his eventual defeat8. Firepower supply the destructive forces essential to conquer the enemy’s capability as well as will to fight. Therefore, it entails the amount of fires that a weapons system or unit can deliver. Operational fires play vital roles in an operational plan. The commanders employ operational fires alongside the targets of the major operation. It encompasses allocating apportioned as well as air, ground, and sea means. Tactical fires raze the enemy’s forces, suppress their fires, and disrupt their movement9. Generally, leadership plays a central role in FSO hence the most dynamic component of combat power because it deals directly with forces. Significantly, confident as well as competent leadership serves as a catalyst hence creating conditions for success. Consequently, they initiate purpose and direction as well as motivation in all operations. Additionally, protection plays a significant role as a component of combat power. FSO create an inherently tense relationship among the casualties and accomplishing the mission. Mission accomplishment proceeds over avoiding the casualties. Lastly, information plays a crucial role as a component of combat power. For instance, it enhances and magnifies the efforts of the maneuver, the firepower, and the protection. Consequently, army leaders utilize the information gathered from numerous sources to boost their situational understanding before embarking on the engagement of the enemy. In addition, they employ offensive information operations (OIO) in shaping the operational environment hence creating the conditions for other components of combat power10. Concisely, despite the trends in strategic environment as well as operational concepts, soldiers have remained the centerpiece and foundation of the army. They constitute, Competent as well as proficient leaders, who can sufficiently adapt the numerous conditions across the conflict spectrum. In addition, they must be courageous enough to prevent enemy vulnerabilities as well as exploit numerous opportunities in the challenges and complexities of the operating environment. Therefore, they need to understand and proficiently employ soldiers in full spectrum operations (FSO). Concisely, leaders need to read, study, understand, and adopt the policy in FM 3.0. References Bulmer, M. Principles of statistics. Durham: Courier Dover, 1979. Department of defense. U.S. Army counterinsurgency handbook. Lincoln: Skyhorse Publishing, 2007. Greene, Robert. The 33 strategies of war. Columbia: Profile books, 2010. Greene, Robert. The concise 33 strategies of war. Columbia: Profile books, 2008. Green, Robert. The 48 laws of power. Columbia: Profile books, 2010. Gray, Colins. War, peace and international relations: an introduction to strategic history. Charlottesville: Routledge, 2007. Greenburg, Karen. The torture papers: The road to Abu Ghraib. Charlottesville: Cambridge university press, 2005. Hazelton, David. Exploring the principles underlying the global war on terror through army Officers. Ann Arbor: ProQuest, 2009. Rush, Robert. Nco guide. Harrisburg: Stackpole books, 2003. Wade, Norman. The army operations and doctrine smart book, 4th rev.ed: guide to FM 3-0 operations (2008) and the six warfighting functions. Doland: The lightning press, 2008. Read More