Mobile Computing Solutions for Effective and Efficient Generation and Dissemination of Tactical Operations Orders
Abstract
Leaders of all grades and occupational specialties in the Marine Corps and throughout the military issue operations orders to communicate intended action in tactical environments. Despite advances in communication and mobile computing technology, most leaders in austere environments still create orders with pen and paper and disseminate them verbally or with manual copying. This process is inefficient and error-prone. We propose an Android application, the Tactical Operations Order ToolHandheld (TOOTH), to increase the effective development and dissemination of tactical operations orders by expeditionary leaders. Our research utilizes the authors experience as an instructor and practitioner in conjunction with Marine Corps and Joint doctrine, to establish a new paradigm for capturing, storing and transmitting the informational elements of an operations order. We developed a working technology demonstrator that incorporates a new object-oriented data structure into existing open-source mobile technology to provide a framework for future development and testing. We received positive feedback on the initial application design, and early results indicate time savings over the manual process in excess of 50%. We believe that a fully implemented version of this capability has the potential to increase mission planning effectiveness, decrease errors, and save tens of thousands of person-hours annually.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2017
- Accession Number
- AD1046391
Entities
People
- Paul D Haagenson
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School