text: Chapter 2
  OPERATIONAL APPROACH AND OPERATIONAL FRAMEWORK
  2-90. An operational approach provides the logic for how tactical tasks ultimately achieve the desired end
  state. It provides a unifying purpose and focus to all operations. Sound operational approaches balance risk
  and uncertainty with friction and chance. The operational approach provides the basis for detailed planning,
  allows leaders to establish a logical operational framework, and assists in producing an executable order.
  (See ADP 3-0 and ADP 5-0 for doctrine on operational art and planning, respectively.)
  2-91. An operational framework organizes an area of geographic and operational responsibility for the
  commander and provides a way to describe the employment of forces. The framework illustrates the
  relationship between close operations, operations in depth, and other operations in time and space across
  domains. As a visualization tool, the operational framework bridges the gap between a unit’s conceptual
  understanding of the environment and its need to generate detailed orders that direct operations.
  OPERATIONAL APPROACH
  2-92. Through operational art, commanders develop their operational approach—a broad description of the
  mission, operational concepts, tasks, and actions required to accomplish the mission (JP 5-0). An operational
  approach is the result of the commander’s visualization of what needs to be done in broad terms to solve
  identified problems. It is the main idea that informs detailed planning. When describing an operational
  approach, commanders—
  ⚫ Consider ways to defeat enemy forces in detail and potential decisive points. Defeat in detail is
  concentrating overwhelming combat power against separate parts of a force rather than defeating
  the entire force at once (ADP 3-90).
  ⚫ Employ combinations of defeat mechanisms to isolate and defeat enemy forces, functions, and
  capabilities.
  ⚫ Assess options for assuming risk.
  2-93. Table 2-12 lists several operational and intelligence considerations for operational approach.
  Table 2-12. Operational and intelligence considerations for operational approach
  Operational approach Operational and intelligence considerations (not all-inclusive)
  Defeating enemy forces in detail
  Armed conflict implies the need to defeat enemy forces. • Understanding the commander’s intent.
  Defeat is to render a force incapable of achieving its • Evaluating enemy forces in the context of all the relevant domains and
  objectives (ADP 3-0). When used as a task or effect in dimensions of an operational environment.
  operations, defeat provides the commander maximum • Understanding threat functions, capabilities, and echelonment.
  flexibility to accomplish the mission. Senior leaders assign • Understanding how the enemy may employ capabilities.
  defeat as a task when the situation is still developing, or • Identifying enemy strengths and vulnerabilities.
  when the commander on the ground, by virtue of • Comparing enemy vulnerabilities to friendly advantages to identify decisive
  experience and proximity to the problem, is uniquely points (key terrain, key events, critical factors or functions) to achieve
  capable of deciding how to employ lethal force to convergence.
  accomplish objectives.
  • Defeat mechanisms:
  Defeat mechanisms ▪Destroy is a tactical mission task that physically renders an enemy force
  Defeat mechanism is a method through which friendly combat-ineffective until reconstituted (FM 3-90).
  forces accomplish their mission against enemy opposition ▪Dislocate is to employ forces to obtain significant positional advantage in one
  (ADP 3-0). Army forces at all echelons commonly use
  or more domains, rendering the enemy’s dispositions less valuable, perhaps
  combinations of the four defeat mechanisms. Applying
  even irrelevant (FM 3-0).
  more than one defeat mechanism simultaneously creates
  ▪Isolate is to separate a force from its sources of support in order to reduce its
  multiple dilemmas for enemy forces and complementary
  effectiveness and increase its vulnerability to defeat (ADP 3-0).
  and reinforcing effects not attainable with a single
  mechanism. Commanders may have an overarching ▪Disintegrate is to disrupt the enemy’s command and control, degrading the
  defeat mechanism or combination of mechanisms that synchronization and cohesion of its operations (FM 3-0).
  accomplish the mission, with supporting defeat • Providing information to confirm/deny if friendly actions created the desired
  mechanisms for components of an enemy formation or effects and met the commander’s requirement.
  warfighting system. Defeat mechanisms can guide the • Conducting functional analysis and center of gravity analysis.
  subordinate development of tactical tasks, purposes, and • Providing intelligence support to targeting.
  effects in operations, facilitating control and initiative. • Providing intelligence support to combat assessment: battle damage
  assessment, physical damage assessment, and functional damage assessment.