Operation Just Cause: Concepts for Shaping Future Rapid Decisive Operations
Abstract
In April 2000, the 'Defense Planning Guidance' tasked U.S. Joint Forces Command to develop new joint warfighting concepts and capabilities. These capabilities should provide the U.S. military by 2015 the ability to defeat an enemy rapidly and decisively. Focused on winning high-end, small-scale contingencies (such as the Panama operation), 'fully networked and coherent joint forces' will employ superior knowledge, precision and mobility against an enemy's critical functions to 'create maximum shock and disruption, defeating his will and ability to fight'. In all, Operation JUST CAUSE, conducted over a decade ago, accomplished these same results. This study will examine how Southern Command and its warfighting Joint Task Force-South (JTFSO) organized, planned, prepared, and executed joint operations that resulted in the total, cataclysmic collapse of Manuel Noriega's Panamanian Defense Force (PDF). Using the factors that provided success, the final section of this study will suggest elements that should provide a guide to developing of future concepts and structure for RDO.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA401963
Entities
People
- James H. Embrey
Organizations
- United States Army War College