Hi, and welcome back! Previously we discussed the rationale for war and introduced the two main types of warfare, attrition and maneuver. We also went into the thought process that's going to guide us the rest of the way. In this post we’re going to dig deeper into maneuver warfare and discuss the planning aspects that go into a successful maneuver warfare campaign. There's a bit of acronym soup going on, so if you get lost scroll to the bottom for a blockquoted glossary. Oh, and I hope you’ve seen Star Wars.
A quick recap from Parts I and II
There are two main types of warfare, attrition and maneuver
Attrition Warfare - Kill all the opposition members (e.g. Risk!)
Maneuver Warfare - Take away the opposition's will to fight (e.g. Chess)
OODA Loop - The decision making process consisting of four steps: Observation, Orientation, Decision, and Action
Got it? Good.
Center of Gravity and Critical Vulnerability
Two main concepts used to break the opposition’s will to fight are the Center of Gravity (CG) and Critical Vulnerability (CV). These concepts and their relationship with one another are the most critical aspect of maneuver warfare. Without an understanding of how CGs and CVs relate to each other you cannot wage maneuver warfare.
The Center of Gravity is what gives the opposition their ability to wage warfare. This could be something physical like the Death Star, a capability such as in flight refueling, or a psychological aspect such as martyrdom. An important thing to note is that there can be, and in fact often are, multiple centers of gravity to an opposition. Going back to Risk!, each of the objective cards can be considered a CG. Taking a single one will reduce the opposition’s chances, however it will not result in victory on its own.
The Critical Vulnerability is how you get to that center of gravity. The Death Star had a small thermal exhaust port that Darth Vader couldn’t protect from a bunch of [redacted] teenagers. This particular CV allowed Luke Skywalker and his band of rebel scum to destroy the Death Star, thus robbing the Empire of one of its CGs.
A CV does not have to allow one to destroy the CG. A CV may be a way to weaken or diminish the effectiveness of an opposition CG or it may simply be a way to another “nested” CV that allows direct access or influence over an opposition CG. Just like CGs, a CV can come in many different forms, however all CVs will move a force closer to affecting an opposition CG.
Another factor with CGs and CVs is that they will vary based on the level of command considering them. A strategic level commander is going to have broader CGs and CVs than a tactical level commander; at some point the CV may degenerate down to the soft, penetrable skin surrounding the opposition. Going back to the Death Star, the top-level rebel commander may see the Empire’s CG as the Death Star and a CV as fighter defense. He will exploit this CV by sending small groups of fighters to conduct individual attacks. A level or two down the rebel scum in charge of the Death Star assault may have their mission as hitting the thermal exhaust port, the CG for the death star being the turrets, and the CV being a lack of turrets that can shoot into the trenches. They’ll exploit this CV by sending the fighters into the trenches to neutralize the turrets. This process continues all the way down to the individual rebel scum pilot.
Main and Supporting Efforts
Now that the goals of maneuver warfare have been established (exploiting a CV in order to weaken a CG in order to break the opposition’s will to fight) it’s time to figure out how we’re going to do all this. The offensive force will typically have more than one unit to employ and will subsequently have to divide his forces into main and supporting efforts. The main effort is the force that, if victorious in their task, will have the largest or most direct effect on the opposition CG. The main effort does not have to be the largest of the forces, the most powerful, or any other property that would be a positive in attrition warfare. The supporting efforts are everyone else.
The supporting efforts may create a variety of effects such as disruption of supply lines or distraction of enemy forces, but they are not typically going to affect the opposition CG directly. Back to Star Wars, the X-Wing fighters would be the main effort. The supporting efforts of the A-Wings, B-Wings, corvettes, and the Millennium Falcon are all going to perform various tasks designed to help the X-Wings accomplish their mission of shooting a torpedo into that thermal exhaust port.
Surfaces and Gaps
With the main and supporting efforts identified we must now decide where they will attack. The concept of surfaces and gaps is pretty simple and applies to any type of warfare. Simply put, a surface is an opposition strength and a gap is an opposition weakness. Say an enemy ground force is in a circular shape. The east and west sides of the circle have a machine gun every 10 feet, the north side has a machine gun every 3 feet, and the south side has a machine gun every 30 feet. In this particularly fearsome formation the North side of the enemy force would be a surface and the south side would be a gap.
Warfare as recent as the US Civil War was waged surface against surface. Forces would line up, point weapons at each other, and pull triggers until someone stopped shooting back. During the civil war rifled weapons and other advancements in warfare allowed for more accurate, rapid engagement and allowed a gradual shift in strategy over the next 150 years to a surface on gap engagement. Modern maneuver warfare strives for a my-surface-your-gap engagement because that is generally the easiest way to exploit an opposition CV, however a CV will not necessarily correspond with an opposition gap. Gaps are merely any vulnerability, not just a critical one.
Remember, you are not alone
There’s conflict, so there’s an opposition, and they are not going to idly sit by and let you do whatever you want to them. So what must we do? We have to plan for the opposition actions, two specifically. The first is the Opposition’s Most Probable Course Of Action (OMPCOA). This is what we expect the opposition to do most of the time. The other is the Opposition’s Most Dangerous Course Of Action (OMDCOA). Using our running analogy of the post, the Empire’s OMPCOA is to launch their TIE fighters at the first waves of rebel scum fighters. The OMDCOA is that the Empire simply hangs out and focuses their efforts on the X-Wings carrying the torpedo loadouts. An alternate OMDCOA is that Darth Vader uses his Jedi powers to crash rebel ships into each other. The concepts of OMPCOA and OMDCOA are considered at every phase and serve as a feedback mechanism for our planning.
The main caveat is that you can easily get caught up in a “he knows that I know that he knows” thought process. Plan for one OODA Loop of opposition actions, and then ensure that your plan can appropriately cope with or exploit these courses of action. A simple way to avoid this mental trap is to put yourself in the opposition's shoes and plan two tactics. The first assuming the oppositoin knows nothing of your plans and the second assuming the opposition has a seat at your planning desk. The first tactical scenario is the OMPCOA, the second is the OMDCOA. If the OMDCOA is also the OMPCOA, expect a tough fight.
The OODA Loop and planning
Aside from the discussion of enemy considerations, you've probably noticed a lack of explicit OODA Loop references. That's because it's EVERYWHERE, just in an implicit state. For example, the Rebel Scum observation that there was a small thermal exhaust port led to the orientation that it went straight to the reactor (from those captured plans) causing the decision to attack it by the action of individual fighters. Depending on the time available, a slow OODA loop may not be a problem in the planning phase. As we'll discuss next, that luxury is not always available.
I’m stopping here for the benefit of those with acrophobia. We’ve now got our planning constructs identified and are ready to begin the assault. Join us next time as we pass from the planning to action phase and discover how tightly the two are linked.
GLOSSARY
OODA Loop - The decision making process consisting of four steps: Observation, Orientation, Decision, and Action
Center of Gravity (CG) - That which gives the opposition strength and the will or ability to fight
Critical Vulnerability (CV) - A weakness in the opposition that can be exploited to influence a Center of Gravity
Main Effort (ME) - The friendly force that has the best chance or the assigned task of directly influencing an opposition Center of Gravity
Supporting Effort (SE) - Any friendly force that is not the Main Effort. All Supporting Effort forces accomplish tasks that directly or indirectly aid the Main Effort's task.
Surface - An enemy strength or strongpoint pertaining to the fight
Gap - An enemy weakness pertaining to the fight
Opposition's Most Probable Course Of Action (OMPCOA) - The opposition strategy and tactics most likely to be used
Opposition's Most Dangerous Course Of Action (OMDCOA) - The opposition strattegy and tactics that would cause the most damage to friendly forces