Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin - Federation of American ...

of the rule of law, there will be a number of tasks
that are given to units to support the legal system
in a region. The task and purpose for a unit could
be stated in such a way: Establish/fund judicial
training institutes in order to establish civilian trust
in the legitimacy of the judiciary system and to further
the establishment of the rule of law that fosters
the confidence of the people in the legal and judicial
systems.
In this case, the MOP and MOE could be:
MOPs: Numbers of judicial training institutes
established.
Amount of funding contributed for
institutes.
Establishment of accreditation agency for
law schools.
MOEs: Increase in public trust in the judiciary
system.
Increase in confidence in the legal and
judicial systems.
Another example from a support to civil authorities
mission could be in support of a line of effort
for public health and medical services. The task
and purpose for a unit could be stated in such a
way: Re-establish public health and medical services
in order to remove disease threat to save lives,
mitigate human suffering and restore critical services
and to enable the transfer of DOD relief operations
to civil authorities.
In this case, the MOP and MOE could be:
MOPs: Number of patients treated.
Number of hospitals operational.
Number of vaccines administered.
MOEs: Decrease in disease threat.
Restoration of critical services in the
community.
Increased ability of civil authorities to
respond.
In both of these cases, the MOPs relate to the
task, are primarily quantitative measures, and are
focused on the internal actions of the unit. MOEs,
on the other hand, relate to the purpose, are primarily
qualitative measures, and are focused on the
external effects that result from the unit’s actions.
Conclusion
Understanding how to apply MOPs and MOEs
for assessments is a critical task in both planning
and during operations. JP 3-0 provides the following
summary: Assessment is a process that measures
progress of the joint force toward mission
accomplishment. The assessment process begins
during mission analysis when the commander and
staff consider what to measure and how to measure
it to determine progress toward accomplishing
a task, creating an effect, or achieving an
objective. The assessment process uses measures
of performance to evaluate task performance at
all levels of war and measures of effectiveness to
measure effects and determine the progress of operations
toward achieving objectives. 8
Selecting appropriate MOPs and MOEs–and relating
them to task and purpose–can ensure that
actions are focused on the desired end state.
Endnotes
1. FM 3-07, Stability Operations, 6 October 2008, 4-69.
2. JP 5-0, Joint Operation Planning, 26 December 2006, III-61.
3. Ibid., III-60.
4. Ibid., III-60 – 61.
5. FM 3-0, Operations, 13 February 2008, 5-86 through 5-87.
6. FM 3-07, 4-67.
7. Ibid., 4-68.
8. JP 3-0, Joint Operations, 17 September 2006, xxi.
Colonel (Retired) Jack D. Kem is a Supervisory Professor
in the Department of Joint, Interagency, and Multinational
Operations at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff
College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He has served as a
Battalion S2, G2 Plans Officer, DTOC Support Element Chief,
and Battalion XO in the 82d Airborne Division; as a Brigade
S2 in the 3d Infantry Division; as a Company Commander and
Battalion S3 in the 3d Armored Division, and as the Battalion
Commander of the 319th MI Battalion, XVIII Airborne Corps.
Colonel Kem graduated from MI Officers’ Advanced Course, the
Army Command and General Staff College, the Air Command
and Staff College, the Joint Forces Staff College, and the
Army War College. He holds a BA from Western Kentucky
University, an MPA from Auburn University at Montgomery,
and a PhD from North Carolina State University. Readers may
contact the author via E-mail at jackie.kem@us.army.mil.
50 Military Intelligence