ATTP 5-0.1 Commander and Staff Officer Guide - Army Electronic ...

The Military Decisionmaking Process
with enemy maneuver battalion equivalents. Planners then compare friendly strengths against enemy
weaknesses, and vice versa, for each element of combat power. From these comparisons, they may deduce
particular vulnerabilities for each force that may be exploited or may need protection. These comparisons
provide planners insight into effective force employment.
4-85. In troop-to-task analysis for stability and civil support operations, staffs determine relative combat
power by comparing available resources to specified or implied stability or civil support tasks. This
analysis provides insight as available options and needed resources. In such operations, the elements of
sustainment, movement and maneuver, nonlethal effects, and information may dominate.
4-86. By analyzing force ratios and determining and comparing each force’s strengths and weaknesses as a
function of combat power, planners can gain insight into—
� Friendly capabilities that pertain to the operation.
� The types of operations possible from both friendly and enemy perspectives.
� How and where the enemy may be vulnerable.
� How and where friendly forces are vulnerable.
� Additional resources needed to execute the mission.
� How to allocate existing resources.
4-87. Planners must not develop and recommend COAs based solely on mathematical analysis of force
ratios. Although the process uses some numerical relationships, the estimate is largely subjective.
Assessing combat power requires assessing both tangible and intangible factors, such as morale and levels
of training. A relative combat power assessment identifies exploitable enemy weaknesses, identifies
unprotected friendly weaknesses, and determines the combat power necessary to conduct essential stability
or civil support tasks.
Generate Options
4-88. Based on the commander’s guidance and the initial results of the relative combat power assessment,
the staff generates options. A good COA can defeat all feasible enemy COAs while accounting for essential
stability tasks. In an unconstrained environment, planners aim to develop several possible COAs.
Depending on available time, commanders may limit the options in the commander’s guidance. Options
focus on enemy COAs arranged in order of their probable adoption or on those stability tasks that are most
essential to prevent the situation from deteriorating further.
4-89. Brainstorming is the preferred technique for generating options. It requires time, imagination, and
creativity, but it produces the widest range of choices. The staff (and members of organizations outside the
headquarters) remains unbiased and open-minded when developing proposed options.
4-90. In developing COAs, staff members determine the doctrinal requirements for each proposed
operation, including doctrinal tasks for subordinate units. For example, a deliberate breach requires a
breach force, a support force, and an assault force. Essential stability tasks require the ability to provide a
level of civil security, civil control, and certain essential services. In addition, the staff considers the
potential capabilities of attachments and other organizations and agencies outside military channels.
4-91. When generating options, the staff starts with the decisive operation identified in the commander’s
planning guidance. The staff checks that the decisive operation nests within the higher headquarters’
concept of operations. The staff clarifies the decisive operation’s purpose and considers ways to mass the
effects (lethal and nonlethal) of overwhelming combat power to achieve it.
4-92. Next, the staff considers shaping operations. The staff establishes a purpose for each shaping
operation tied to creating or preserving a condition for the decisive operation’s success. Shaping operations
may occur before, concurrently with, or after the decisive operation. A shaping operation may be
designated as the main effort if executed before or after the decisive operation.
4-93. The staff then determines sustaining operations necessary to create and maintain the combat power
required for the decisive operation and shaping operation. After developing the basic operational
organization for a given COA, the staff then determines the essential tasks for each decisive, shaping, and
sustaining operation.
14 September 2011 ATTP 5-0.1 4-17