Planning in Time

Abstract

Clausewitz envisioned three components of combat; men, space and time. Of those, military literature has isolated and focused on men and space, but less on time. This paper discusses time as an element of planning for war. Time terms are defined as background for discussion, and examples are given. Relational event modeling serves as a vehicle for explaining how surprise and other time advantages may be achieved by planners. The Normandy Invasion of World War II is used as a vehicle to illustrate planning with regard to time at the operational level. The tactical use of these techniques is illustrated by an example from the movie Silence of the Lambs. The conclusion is that time in planning always has a direct influence on the outcome, but that only those who have exhibited a 'genius' for warfare have intuitively given it its place of prominence in their considerations of war.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 19, 1992
Accession Number
ADA253222

Entities

People

  • Ricky E. Hardie

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Counter WMD
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Armored Vehicles
  • Army
  • Consciousness
  • Doctrine
  • Fire Support
  • Fires
  • Friction
  • Human Behavior
  • Intelligence Collection
  • Measurement
  • Military Aircraft
  • Military Operations
  • Training
  • United States
  • Warfare
  • Weapons

Readers

  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.

Technology Areas

  • Space