Mission Command

The Joint Staff this month released a "focus paper" on "Mission Command And Cross-Domain Synergy."

According to the Joint Staff's doctrine publications website, the document was "written by the Deployable Training Division (DTD) of the Joint Staff J7 and published under the auspices of the Joint Staff J7. The paper helps inform both the joint warfighters and key functions within the J7, notably lessons learned, doctrine, education, and future joint force development."

The document's executive summary states:

The juxtaposing of mission command and cross-domain synergy has clear utility at theater-strategic and operational level for operating at the speed of the problem. Mission command is important in setting conditions for military subordinates. Cross-domain synergy leverages the capabilities of our many mission partners to increase overall effectiveness.

The DTD came up with three "major insights," according to the document:

1) Building trust and gaining shared understanding: Our joint commanders increasingly note the large number of mission partners that they must work with to build trust, share understanding, and achieve unified action. They also note how National and International leaders’ viewpoints and policies change as these decision-makers interact and learn. Building and maintaining trust, continuous dialogue, and gaining shared understanding with the many mission partners impose significant time demands on commanders and staffs at combatant commands and JTFs. This may be a markedly different experience for those whose previous experience was at the tactical level. However, it is this trust and shared understanding that enables empowerment, cross-domain synergy, and ultimately effectiveness.

2) Empowering subordinates to act: Today’s interconnected world is unpredictable and complex. The pace of change and speed of operations is accelerating. In response, commanders find they must share both operational context and their intent to successfully empower disciplined initiative in their subordinates.

3) Role of the support command relationship and the establishing authority: The need to leverage the many capabilities from other commanders and partners to achieve cross-domain synergy highlights the importance of the support command relationship, and requires increased effort by Establishing Authorities to prioritize, allocate resources, and synchronize actions in order to act at the speed of the problem. OSD and JS level direct involvement is essential to enabling agile, cross-combatant command synergy.

View the full report.