Do We Practice What We Preach? Recent Exercises and the Operational Art

Abstract

This nongraph explores current U.S. operational level doctrine and exercises conducted over the past four years. The principle research question is to what degree is Airland Battle doctrine being applied at the operational level in recent exercises. Research focuses on what we practice versus what we preach. What we preach includes current doctrine in Army field manuals and the views of a variety of contemporary authors. What we practice is extracted from exercises conducted over the last four years in an attempt to determine the extent of doctrinal application in these exercises. The exercises are from two potential mid- to high-intensity theaters: Europe and korea. Conclusions are that exercises tend to focus on the science of operational warfighting with little application of the art. Recommendation are to develop exercises specifically targeted to the operational commander and his staff by combining field exercises with computer simulations comparable to our tactical level exercise facilities.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 27, 1991
Accession Number
ADA235123

Entities

People

  • Michael R. Thompson

Organizations

  • United States Army Command and General Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Interdiction
  • Artillery
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Doctrine
  • Fire Support
  • Intelligence Collection
  • Lessons Learned
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Nuclear Weapons
  • Students
  • Surveillance
  • United States
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Instructional Design and Training Evaluation.
  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
  • Systems Analysis and Design