text: Operations During Competition Below Armed Conflict
  assist the joint force in promoting U.S. interests, and set conditions to conduct operations during crisis and
  armed conflict. These advantages augment unified action partner activities, and they address Service-specific
  issues identified during combatant command campaign development. Identifying, achieving, and maintaining
  these advantages helps the Army employ combat power effectively during crisis and armed conflict. A
  relative advantage is temporary. Adversaries quickly adapt to counter advantages (especially technological
  ones) once they are created or employed, and they seek to reduce or eliminate their effectiveness.
  4-26. Understanding advantage relative to an adversary requires understanding the adversary’s capabilities
  and will, friendly capabilities and will, and the operational environment within the theater. It further requires
  understanding of the interrelated influences of each dimension in an operational environment, including how
  physical, human, and information factors affect each other in a specific context. Changes in one dimension
  often have outcomes in the other two and in more than one physical domain.
  PHYSICAL ADVANTAGES DURING COMPETITION
  4-27. Due to the expected tempo of operations, a sufficient number of Army forces comprised of the right
  capabilities must be forward stationed to provide CCDRs with a credible deterrent force and the ability to
  respond, when necessary, to adversary actions. Physical advantage encompasses combat power and the
  correlation of forces: the ability to deliver effects, superior range, and the ability to concentrate superior
  capabilities at the right places and times. Examples of activities that create physical advantages during
  competition include—
  (cid:122) Working with allies to conduct a deployment exercise of a theater-tailored unit to improve its
  OPLAN integration and interoperability.
  (cid:122) Surveying a potential assembly area with a forward engineer support team to determine if the area
  is of sufficient size to accommodate a properly dispersed Army formation.
  (cid:122) Hardening facilities against attack and rehearsing drills in response to potential adversary courses
  of action.
  (cid:122) Maintaining stocks of key supplies and equipment (Army pre-positioned stocks [APS]) in or near
  areas of concern to accelerate deployment of forces during crises or armed conflict.
  INFORMATION ADVANTAGES DURING COMPETITION
  4-28. Information activities play a key role during competition. They include Army support to the combatant
  command and unified action partner strategic messaging. Coordinating with interagency and other unified
  action partners helps to develop and deliver coherent messages that counter adversary disinformation. Army
  forces reinforce strategic messaging by maintaining and demonstrating U.S. Army readiness for operations.
  Examples of relative information advantages are—
  (cid:122) Identifying targets and conducting target development on threat capabilities.
  (cid:122) Setting the conditions for convergence by developing methods to penetrate adversary computer
  networks.
  (cid:122) Discrediting adversary disinformation by helping the JFC inform domestic and international
  audiences through Army and joint information activities.
  (cid:122) Promoting the purpose and outcomes of multinational exercises and training events.
  (cid:122) Continuously monitoring the operational environment to detect changes to adversary methods or
  narratives.
  HUMAN ADVANTAGES DURING COMPETITION
  4-29. The institutional depth and professionalism of U.S. Army personnel contribute to the morale and will
  of partner security forces as Army forces interact across all ranks and echelons. Army formations serve as a
  professional force operating under the rule of law as guests in a specific region to facilitate the
  accomplishment of mutual military training goals. This can be a powerful advantage over adversaries who
  seek to extract concessions, including financial and informational gains, from other countries or groups. This
  bond of trust forms the foundation of the U.S. alliance system, and it is the primary means to ensure the