text: Armies, Corps, and Divisions
  strategy prioritizes the ends, ways, and means within the limitations established by the budget, global force
  management processes, and strategic guidance.
  OPERATIONAL LEVEL
  1-9. The operational level of warfare is the level of warfare at which campaigns and major operations are
  planned, conducted, and sustained to achieve strategic objectives within theaters or other operational areas
  (JP 3-0). The operational level links employing tactical forces to achieving strategic objectives. A campaign
  is a series of related operations aimed at achieving strategic and operational objectives within a given time
  and space (JP 5-0). A major operation is 1. A series of tactical actions (battles, engagements, strikes)
  conducted by combat forces, coordinated in time and place, to achieve strategic or operational objectives in
  an operational area. 2. For noncombat operations, a reference to the relative size and scope of a military
  operation (JP 3-0).
  1-10. The operational level of warfare generally is the realm of combatant commands and their Service and
  functional components and subordinate JTF headquarters and their Service and functional components. This
  includes theater army headquarters as the Army Service component to a GCC and any other echelon operating
  as an ARFOR, JTF, or land component commander. The focus at this level is on operational art—the design
  of campaigns and operations by integrating ends, ways, and means, while accounting for risk. (See Chapter
  2 for detailed information on operational art.)
  1-11. Operational-level planning begins with the development of the combatant command campaign plan.
  The combatant command campaign plan operationalizes the GCC’s strategy by organizing and aligning
  operations and activities with resources to achieve strategic and operational objectives in an area of
  responsibility (AOR). The combatant command campaign plan provides a framework within which the GCC
  and component commands conduct military engagement and security cooperation activities with regional
  partners. The combatant command campaign plan contains contingency plans that are viewed as branches
  within the campaign. Contingency plans, in the form of operation plans, identify how the command might
  respond in the event of a crisis to include crises involving armed conflict. Contingency plans are often phased
  and have specified end states that seek to re-establish conditions favorable to the United States.
  1-12. The theater army develops supporting plans to the combatant command campaign plan. These plans
  include methods to achieve security cooperation, training and exercise programs, and ongoing Army
  activities in the theater, including intelligence, air and missile defense, sustainment, and communications.
  The theater army also develops supporting plans for contingencies identified by the GCC to include plans for
  large-scale combat operations. Theater army planners routinely develop, assess, review, and update
  supporting plans to numbered operation plans to ensure they remain feasible and relevant to the changes in
  the area of operations and evolving friendly force capabilities. This includes a review of Army force structure
  as well as time phased force and deployment data for identified contingencies. (See Chapter 2 for detailed
  information on force tailoring.)
  1-13. Actions at the operational level usually involve broader aspects of time and space than tactical actions.
  Operational-level commanders need to understand the complexities of the operational environment (OE) and
  look beyond the immediate situation. Operational-level commanders seek to create the most favorable
  conditions possible for subordinate commanders by shaping future events. Figure 1-1 on page 1-4 illustrates
  the links among the levels of warfare using military actions in the Gulf War of 1991.