By Ann Roosevelt
After three years of development, the Army March 26 released Field Manual (FM) 5-0 The Operations Process, a revision of previous doctrine to highlight understanding complex situations as fully as possible before trying to solve them.
“The intent of FM 5-0 is to encourage greater flexibility through critical thought, action and initiative,” Gen. Martin Dempsey, Commander of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) in the manual’s foreword. “Army leaders must not only develop effective plans, they must be able to convert those plans into timely action while maintaining the capability to reframe and adapt as the situation changes in an increasingly dynamic operational environment.”
The manual assists leaders with the “thinking” portion of command and control in operations that cover the spectrum: offense, defense, stability operations and civil support, often simultaneously.
Doctrine itself contains the enduring, fundamental principles guiding the use of military forces toward a common objective, and shapes education and training.
FM 5-0 introduces “design” into doctrine. It is to provide a framework for thinking about a situation from all aspects and ramifications to help commanders understand their environment, or frame the problem, before addressing a potential solution.
The new manual is important to the Army, said Clinton Ancker, director, Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate, Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., part of TRADOC.
“The last version of FM 5-0 was the Army’s planning and orders process,” he said. “It was focused almost exclusively on planning for operations. This manual is the entire operations process.”
The preparation part hasn’t changed much, he told Defense Daily recently, but “we are emphasizing execution and this is the idea about developing the situation through execution, and a brand new chapter on assessment. That has become incredibly important because we are dealing with an environment where we have to consider things other than military,”
FM 5-0 will tell commanders how to think about any kind of operation, Ancker said.
Mike Flynn, lead author of FM 5-0, said troops in the field helped refine the manual by actually using an interim field manual, FMi 50.1 The Operations Process.
“The old FM 5-0 talked about just planning,” Flynn said. “When you’re in operations, you are always planning, continuing to modify the plan, you’re preparing, you’re executing and you’re always assessing–and it’s a cycle that repeats itself over and over and over.”
FM 5-0 is unique, in capturing what troops in the field have been doing during their deployments, Flynn said.
“It doesn’t talk about what operation specifically you’re cycling–like Haiti or Iraq–it just talks about there is a cycle and gives you the framework to help you think about what you need to think about,” he said. The manual “takes us through what you really kind of have to do…we’ve been in operations continuously,” Flynn said.
Assessment and reassessment in the cycle is vital, Ancker said, in an increasingly complex environment to ensure their operation reflects what is actually going on and what they want to achieve.
“If you look at a combat operation and you’re told to seize a hill, defeat the enemy, the assessment is pretty simple: You’re either on the hill or the enemy force is not effective,” Ancker said.
However, if a commander is told to create “a safe and secure environment,” how does one measure that?
Cause and effect is not always direct, he said.
“If I’m told to take a hill and I conduct an operation–cause and effect is almost direct and linear,” Ancker said, “If I’m told to create a safe and secure environment, many of the things that I do, do not necessarily generate that end state in a clear and concise fashion, and so I’ve got to look at things along the way and say is this contributing to it.”
Something readers will notice: FM 5-0 is an easier read than some manuals.
“I have a rule that I use when we do our internal reviews of these manuals,” Ancker said. “If we are arguing about what something says for even 30 seconds, then it’s not expressed clearly enough.”
Editors bear down on the doctrine authors as well, reading for comprehension and often without being subject matter experts, Ancker and Flynn agreed.
“We have tried to make the language easier, more comprehensible, and often that comes from working with civilian agencies that are not steeped in jargon,” Ancker said. “And we are trying very hard to use terms that are descriptive so that even if you don’t know the precise definition, you get a good sense of what that term is supposed to mean and I do think that makes it easier.”
Ease in reading and understanding aids in another way: for those foreign liaison officers who request access to Army manuals. This is also a two-way street, Ancker said. “I just got the German Army’s equivalent to FM 3-0. They translated it into English for us. Because we steal good ideas on a regular basis. Absolutely.”
FM 5-0 involved a team that included active military, Department of the Army civilians, and expertise from veterans ranging from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan, active and retired personnel.