text: Chapter 2
  2-140. A shared understanding of the joint protection function enables Army leaders to integrate the Army’s
  protection warfighting function with unified action partners. Army leaders anticipate that joint support will
  be limited in large-scale combat operations and protect the force using a combination of measures. The joint
  protection function focuses on preserving the joint force fighting potential in four organically available ways:
  * Active defensive measures to protect friendly forces, civilians, and infrastructure (including
  biometrics collection and vetting).
  * Passive defensive measures (including camouflage, cover, concealment) to make friendly forces,
  systems, and facilities difficult to locate, strike, and destroy when active measures are limited or
  unavailable.
  * The application of technology and procedures to reduce the risk of fratricide.
  * Emergency management and response to reduce the loss of personnel and capabilities due to
  accidents, health threats, and natural disasters.
  2-141. Planning, preparing, executing, and assessing protection is continuous and enduring. Protection
  preserves the capability, momentum, and tempo that contribute to operational reach. All military activities
  have some inherent or organic protection capability (including survivability, antiterrorism measures, and
  local and area security). Effective protection can deny the enemy’s ability to achieve certain positions of
  advantage.
  2-142. Commanders deliberately plan and integrate the application of military force against an enemy force
  while protecting the friendly force and preserving combat power. Commanders develop protection strategies
  for each phase of an operation or major activity. They integrate and synchronize protection tasks and systems
  through the operations process to reduce risk, mitigate identified vulnerabilities, and act on opportunities.
  When properly integrated and synchronized, the tasks and systems that comprise the protection warfighting
  function increase the probability of mission success. Units consider all protection tasks and systems and apply
  them as appropriate. Each task and its associated system are typically associated with a staff or staff
  proponent that performs specific duties. (See ADP 3-37 for additional information on the protection
  warfighting function primary tasks.)
  2-143. Protection is also achieved by changing tempo, taking evasive action, or maneuvering to gain
  positional advantage in relation to a threat. Formations often derive protection by exploiting terrain and
  weather conditions, or by using the cover of darkness to mask movement. The use of key physical terrain
  features supports protection measures and complements the positioning of forces during planning. The ability
  to protect and preserve the force and secure an AO is vital in seizing, retaining, and exploiting the initiative
  to shape an OE, prevent conflict, consolidate gains, and win wars as a part of unified action.
  2-144. Initial protection planning requires various assessments to establish protection priorities critical to
  friendly operational success. Assessments include threats, hazards, vulnerability, and criticality. These
  assessments are used to determine which assets can be protected with available resources and which assets
  require additional resources to protect. In protection planning, the challenge is to differentiate between critical
  assets and important assets and to determine what protection is possible with available protection capabilities.
  Table 2-1 provides examples of possible protection priorities at the theater, corps, and division levels.
  Table 2-1. Protection considerations by echelon
  Theater Echelon Considerations Corps and Division Echelon Considerations
  Terminal high altitude area defense Support areas
  Army pre-positioned stocks Critical fixed sites
  Aerial port of debarkation or sea port of Command posts
  debarkation
  Lines of communication Lines of communication (including movement
  corridors)
  Critical infrastructure (including chemical weapons Radars
  storage facilities, communications, bridges, and
  highways)
  Signal nodes