Army Doctrine Publication 5-0 The Operations Process is the doctrine that describes how Army forces conduct the major command and control activities during operations: planning, preparing, executing, and continuously assessing. Commanders, supported by their staffs, employ the operations process to understand situations, make decisions, direct action, lead forces to mission accomplishment, and assess their operational environment and end state.
The Operations Process, as defined in ADP 5-0, describes the major command and control activities performed during operations (planning, preparing, executing, and continuously assessing). Commanders employ the operations process to understand, visualize, describe, direct, lead, and assess their operational environments, end states, and operational approaches; make and articulate decisions; and perform mission command.
ADP 5-0 provides the Army with a framework for organizing and putting command and control into action while simultaneously shaping the security environment worldwide. The publication includes several useful tips, tricks, and techniques for effectively planning and executing large-scale military operations while maintaining the highest level of professionalism and accountability. This manual will be of particular use to Army leaders, unit staffs, trainers, and educators throughout the Army. It also explains the newest Army doctrine concerning the range of military operations. Specifically, it addresses the operation of mission command, C2 warfighting function tasks, and liaison. The manual also focuses on operational terms and military symbols. It also incorporates the tactics and technologies found in FM 3-0 and ADP 6-0 into one publication.
What is Army Publication ADP 5-0?
The operations process is the Army’s framework for putting command and control into action. It includes the major command and control activities performed during operations (planning, preparing, executing, and continuously assessing). Commanders, supported by their staffs, employ the operations process to understand situations, make decisions, direct action, and lead forces to mission accomplishment. ADP 5-0 provides doctrine on how the Army conducts the operations process across the range of military operations.
ADP 5-0 also provides the foundation for training and education curricula on the operations process. It is the principal document used to define and instruct the operations process for Army leaders, unit commanders, staff, and soldiers. ADP 5-0 is part of the Army’s strategy to provide doctrine, plans, and standards that enable commanders to conduct unified land operations to shape operational environments, prevent conflict, consolidate gains, and contribute to winning the Nation’s wars. The operations process is an essential component of mission command, which empowers subordinate decision-making and emphasizes decentralized execution appropriate to the situation. It is the underlying philosophy for all Army operations.
Army doctrine provides a framework for putting command and control into action. This framework is called the operations process, and it consists of the major command and control activities performed during military operations (planning, preparing, executing, and continuously assessing). Commanders employ the operations process to understand situations, envision a desired future, and lay out effective ways to bring that future about. They then direct, lead, and assess the progress of military operations.
In addition to describing the operations process, ADP 5-0 also discusses the core principles of command and control. These principles provide the foundation for Army training and education curricula. ADP 5-0 is intended for Army commanders, leaders, and unit staffs use. It also applies to joint task forces, joint land components, and multinational headquarters. The information revolution has created a complex set of strategic challenges requiring equally complex solutions. This complexity makes it impossible to create a single framework that can accommodate all the different interpretations of information’s role in warfare.
Yet, the Army has made attempts to codify information operations doctrine. This has resulted in numerous doctrinal initiatives and cycles of reorganization. In 2023, the Army is again searching for a coherent and sustainable doctrinal response to the information revolution. Whether such efforts succeed or fail depends on the level of strategic appropriateness and their ability to resonate within the Army’s institutional culture and meet dominant organizational interests. These factors can be crucial to a doctrinal framework’s survival.
One important insight from the Army’s information doctrine case study is that intra-organizational competition over conceptual frameworks can be a decisive factor in determining how well new doctrinal concepts are accepted and implemented. This competition may arise from the bureaucratic need to preserve existing capacity, but it can also come from differences in a service’s underlying conceptual orientation toward warfare. This is particularly true of information operations. The service has struggled to create a doctrinal framework that can capture the essence of information and its application to warfare while simultaneously accommodating organizational and cultural differences that have dogged the service’s approach to information since its inception.
The operations process is the Army’s framework for putting command and control into action across a wide range of military activities. Commanders, supported by their staffs, employ the process to understand, visualize, describe, direct, lead, and assess military operations. This big-picture view of the military accounts for the complex, ever-changing, and uncertain nature of the Army’s role in global security. The processes of planning, preparing, executing, and continuously assessing are the foundation of any effective military operations effort. This is particularly true when compared to the challenges of integrating, controlling, and exploiting multiple domains of capability. ADP 5-0 covers the aforementioned processes and the most effective implementation methods at the unit level. This manual is a must for every Army leader. Its edifying and informative content will be an asset to those in charge of the Army’s mission and personnel. It is also an excellent source of information for those developing training and education curricula on the aforementioned process. The book complements FM 3-0, the Army’s latest strategic and tactical guide.