Operational Deception and Counter Deception.
Abstract
Deception is a powerful tool used by all nations to gain advantage over, and defeat the enemy in war time. At the operational level, the success of deception plans can have a major impact on the outcome of the entire campaign. Therefore, operational commanders must consider the possibility of being deceived by the enemy, and take measures to detect and exploit their deception plans. This paper begins by exploring several approaches that enhance the successfulness of deception operations and how they have been used in the past. With an understanding of techniques and one's own vulnerabilities to deception, several lessons learned can be drawn to aid in the detection and exploitation enemy deception plans. The operational commander needs to be aware of these to provide force protection for troops and increase the chances of achieving operational objectives. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the operational commander recognizes and deals with enemy deception plans. Detection of the plan is the most difficult and important aspect of counter deception. Once discovered, the plan can be turned to one's advantage. Exploiting the discovered plan is dependent on the particular situation and well beyond the scope of this paper. Therefore, some of the requirements, assets, and methods available to the operational commander, to take full advantage of the discovery are given only a brief mention.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 12, 1996
- Accession Number
- ADA307594
Entities
People
- Stephen J. Heuser
Organizations
- Naval War College