A military operation plan (also called a war plan before
World War II) is a formal
plan for
military armed forces, their
military organization
Military organization or military organisation is the structuring of the armed forces of a state so as to offer such military capability as a national defense policy may require. In some countries paramilitary forces are included in a nation ...
s and units to conduct operations, as drawn up by commanders within the
combat operations process in achieving objectives before or during a
conflict. Military plans are generally produced in accordance with the
military doctrine
Military doctrine is the expression of how military forces contribute to campaigns, major operations, battles, and engagements.
It is a guide to action, rather than being hard and fast rules. Doctrine provides a common frame of reference across ...
of the troops involved. Because planning is a valuable exercise for senior military staff, in peacetime nations generally produce plans (of varying detail) even for very unlikely hypothetical scenarios.
Plan XVII and the
Schlieffen Plan are examples of
World War I military plans. The
United States developed a famous color-coded set of war plans in the early 20th century; see
United States color-coded war plans.
Military plans often have
code name
A code name, call sign or cryptonym is a code word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project, or person. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may also be used in industrial c ...
s.
United States
In the
U.S. military
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...
, an Operation Plan (OPLAN) is a complete and detailed plan for conducting
joint military operations.
[Joint Publication 5-0. ]
Joint Operation Planning
''. 26 December 2006. Accessed 21 August 2010. An OPLAN is developed by the Combatant Commander (CCDR) of a
Unified Combatant Command in response to actual or potential situations for which military operations may be required. An OPLAN is executed when the commander issues an
operations order
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...
(OPORD), or when the
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) is the presiding officer of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The chairman is the highest-ranking and most senior military officer in the United States Armed Forces Chairman: app ...
(CJCS) issues an execute order (EXORD) at the direction of the
United States Secretary of Defense (Secdef) to implement a decision by the
President to initiate military operations. A concept plan (CONPLAN) is an operation plan in concept form, often lacking the level of details normally found in other military plans.
Among publicly known U.S. Operations Plans are two which address possible events on the Korean Peninsula,
OPLAN 5027, the U.S. general war plan which has been regularly updated since at least the mid-1990s, and
OPLAN 5029, a plan catering to a sudden collapse of the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and ...
.
OPLAN 8044
The Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP) was the United States' general plan for nuclear war from 1961 to 2003. The SIOP gave the President of the United States a range of targeting options, and described launch procedures and target sets ag ...
and
OPLAN 8010
A military operation plan (also called a war plan before World War II) is a formal plan for military armed forces, their military organizations and units to conduct operations, as drawn up by commanders within the combat operations process in ach ...
are both successor plans to the
Single Integrated Operational Plan
The Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP) was the United States' general plan for nuclear war from 1961 to 2003. The SIOP gave the President of the United States a range of targeting options, and described launch procedures and target sets a ...
, the general plan for nuclear war from 1961 to 2003.
OPLAN 1003-98 was the pre-2002 plan for war with
Iraq.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
In
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) the successful planning of multinational military operations requires common doctrine. This doctrine is documented in Allied Joint Publication (AJP) five, which is aimed primarily at those engaged in operational-level planning, specifically commanders and staffs employed in joint force command headquarters and component command headquarters. It describes the fundamental aspects of planning joint operations at the operational level and provides an overarching framework of the key planning principles, considerations and process steps that are followed in operational-level planning.
See also
*
United States color-coded war plans
References
External links
Operation Plans (OPLAN)- from GlobalSecurity.org
Command and control
Military operations
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