text: Operations During Armed Conflict
  6-94. Dispersion of assets and redundancy help protect sustainment formations. Dispersing sustainment
  formations makes it less likely that enemy long-range fires can destroy large quantities of material.
  Dispersion also creates flexibility, as several nodes can execute the sustainment concept without a single
  point of failure. However, dispersed sustainment operations complicate C2 and can be less efficient than a
  massed and centralized approach. Commanders balance the risk between dispersion and efficiency to
  minimize exposure to enemy fires while maintaining the ability to enable the supported formation’s tempo,
  endurance, and operational reach.
  6-95. Commanders must plan for the possibility of heavy losses to personnel, supplies, and equipment. Even
  with continuous and effective sustainment support, units may rapidly become combat ineffective due to
  enemy action. Commanders at all levels must be prepared to conduct reconstitution efforts to return
  ineffective units to a level of effectiveness that allows the reconstituted unit to perform its future mission.
  Reconstitution is an operation that commanders plan and implement to restore units to a desired level of
  combat effectiveness commensurate with mission requirements and available resources (ATP 3-94.4).
  6-96. Reconstitution is a significant combined arms operation, and the actions involved in reconstitution
  transcend normal day-to-day force sustainment actions. Reconstitution is a command decision, typically
  made two echelons above the unit being reconstituted, and it is conducted across all warfighting functions,
  using existing systems and units to accomplish. No resources exist solely to perform reconstitution.
  Reconstitution requires the full support of commanders and staffs at all echelons to achieve the necessary
  results commensurate with future mission success. Reconstitution efforts following a CBRN attack present
  even greater challenges. If units cannot decontaminate equipment, commanders must assess the risk to the
  mission and personnel in continuing operations with or without contaminated equipment. (See ATP 3-94.4
  for more information on reconstitution.)
  6-97. Maneuver commanders, at the combatant command, ASCC, field armies, corps, or division echelons,
  direct reconstitution as an operation. Command guidance should address the timing, location, degree to which
  the unit is reconstituted, and the training required before the reconstituted unit resumes operations. As a
  general consideration, the more degraded or combat ineffective a unit becomes, the greater the sustainment
  effort and amount of individual and collective training the unit will require to return it to combat
  effectiveness. (See FM 4-0 for more information on supplying reconstitution.)
  CONSOLIDATE GAINS DURING ARMED CONFLICT
  6-98. Army forces consolidate gains for the joint force by making temporary advantages more enduring.
  Consolidating gains is not a phase, but rather an imperative that achieves the ultimate purpose of campaigns
  and operations. Army forces consolidate gains continuously during the conduct of operations, with varying
  emphasis by each echelon over time. Consolidating gains initially focuses on the exploitation of tactical
  success to ensure enemy forces cannot reconstitute any form of resistance in areas where they were initially
  defeated. A small unit consolidating on an objective and preparing for enemy counterattacks can be the first
  part of a larger effort to consolidate gains.
  6-99. Unity of purpose for consolidating gains starts at the theater strategic level, where leaders plan and
  coordinate the resources necessary to achieve the JFC’s desired end state. They provide subordinate echelons
  a shared visualization of the security conditions necessary for the desired political or strategic end state.
  Achieving the desired end state generally requires a whole-of-government effort with unified action partners
  within and outside of the theater of operations. At the operational and tactical levels, land component
  commands and corps exploit division tactical success by maintaining contact with enemy remnants, bypassed
  forces, and the capabilities that enemy forces could militarize to protract the conflict. Friendly forces employ
  lethal and nonlethal capabilities to defeat remaining enemy forces in detail. Commanders direct information
  activities to reduce the will of those forces to resist and the local population to support them.
  6-100. Conducting detainee operations plays a significant role in consolidating gains. Failure to secure
  defeated enemy forces quickly gives them the opportunity to break contact, recover the will to fight, and then
  reorganize resistance with whatever means remaining available to them. Capture of defeated enemy units and
  individuals separated or disorganized by friendly action is therefore critical. Large numbers of detainees may
  place a tremendous burden on operational forces as tactical forces divert combat power to process and secure
  them. Additionally, friendly forces must account for the detention of irregular forces and criminal actors that