Military operation

Coordinated military actions by a state or non-state actor

Not to be confused with Operations (military staff).

Part of a series on

War
(outline)

History

* Prehistoric
* Ancient
* Thermal
* Gunpowder
* Timeline
* Post-classical
* Castles
* Early modern
* Military revolution
* Pike and shot
* Napoleonic warfare
* Late modern
* Industrial warfare
* Fourth-gen warfare
* AI warfare

Military

* Organization
* Command and control
* Defense ministry
* Reserves
* Ranks

* * *

* Branches:
* Army
* Navy
* Air force
* Marines
* Coast guard
* Border guard
* Special forces
* Cyber force
* Space force

* * *

* Specialties:
* Staff
* Engineers
* Intel
* Recon
* Medical
* Police
* Diving
* Pilot

* * *

* Land units:
* Infantry
* Armor
* Cavalry
* Artillery
* Special forces
* Signal corps

* * *

* Naval units:
* Warships
* Submarines
* Aircraft carriers
* Landing craft
* Auxiliary ships

* * *

* Air units:
* Fighters
* Bombers
* Command
* Close air support
* Electronic-warfare
* Reconnaissance

* * *

* Combat systems:
* Fire-control system
* Fire-control radar
* Director (military)
* Combat information center
* Sonar
* Radar

* * *

* Historical:
* Ship gun fire-control
* Gun data computer
* Torpedo data computer

* * *

* Development:
* Basic training
* Military manoeuvrers
* Combat training

Battlespace

* Aerospace
* Aerial
* Airborne
* Space

* * *

* Land
* Cold-region
* Desert
* Fortification
* Jungle
* Mountain
* Urban
* Subterranean
* Tunnel

* * *

* Sea
* Amphibious
* Blue
* Brown
* Green
* Surface
* Underwater
* Seabed

* * *

* Cyber
* Information

Weapons

* Air defence
* Armor
* Artillery
* Barrage
* Biological
* Camouflage
* Cavalry
* Horses
* Air cavalry
* Chemical
* Combined arms
* Conventional
* Cyber
* Denial
* Disinformation
* Drone / Robot
* Electromagnetic
* Firearms
* Infantry
* Loitering
* Missile
* Music
* Nuclear
* Psychological
* Radiological
* Submarine
* Unconventional

Tactics

List of military tactics

* Aerial
* Airlift
* Air assault
* Airbridge
* Airdrop
* Anti-aircraft
* Anti-sub
* Anti-tank
* Battle
* Cavalry
* Charge
* CQC
* Counterattack
* Counterinsurgency
* Convoy
* Defeat in detail
* Foxhole
* Drone
* Envelopment
* Formation
* Guerrilla
* Naval
* Rapid dominance
* Encirclement
* Investment
* Siege
* Swarm
* Screen
* Tactical objective
* Target saturation
* Trench
* Withdrawal

Operational

* Military operation
* Special
* Operations research
* Blitzkrieg
* Expeditionary
* Deep operation
* Maneuver
* Operational manoeuvre group
* Raid
* Covert
* Stay-behind

Strategy

List of military strategies and concepts

* Military campaign
* Anti-access
* Attrition
* Commerce raiding
* Counter-offensive
* Culminating
* Defence in depth
* Fabian
* Empty fort
* Mosaic
* Deception
* Defensive
* Depth
* Goal
* Nuclear
* Naval
* Offensive
* Scorched earth

Grand strategy

* Asymmetric
* Blockade
* Broken-backed
* Class
* Cold war
* Colonial
* Conquest
* Containment
* Divide and conquer
* Economic
* Endemic
* Fleet in being
* Irregular
* Liberation
* Limited
* Network-centric
* New generation
* Perpetual
* Political
* Princely
* Proxy
* Religious
* Resource
* Strategic
* Succession
* Technology
* Theater
* Total war
* World war

Administrative

* Branch
* Policy
* Staff
* Training
* Service
* Sociology

Organization

* Area of responsibility
* Chain of command
* Command and control
* Doctrine
* Order of battle
* Principles of war
* Economy of force
* Medicine
* Engineers
* Intelligence
* Ranks
* Technology and equipment

Personnel

* Recruitment
* Conscription
* Draft evasion
* Mobilization
* Training
* Specialism
* Soldier
* Morale
* Volunteer
* Women
* Children
* Transgender
* Harassment
* Conscientious objector
* Conscription and sexism
* Counter-recruitment

Logistics

* History
* War economy
* Arms industry
* Materiel
* Supply-chain management
* Military–industrial complex
* Base
* MOB
* FOB
* Outpost

Science

* Power projection
* Loss-of-strength gradient
* Lanchester's laws
* Force multiplication
* Morale

Law

* Belligerent
* Occupation
* Armistice
* Ceasefire
* Court-martial
* Desertion
* Geneva Conventions
* Geneva Protocol
* Islamic rules
* Justice
* Lawful / Unlawful combatant
* Perfidy
* Regular / Irregular
* Jewish laws on war
* Right of conquest
* Right of self-defence
* Rules of engagement
* Self-determination
* Martial law
* War crime
* War and genocide
* War treason

Theory

* Air supremacy
* Appeasement
* Command of the sea
* Deterrence theory
* Full-spectrum dominance
* Overmatch
* Just war theory
* Principles of war
* Philosophy of war
* Security dilemma
* Tripwire force
* Wargaming
* Simulation
* Exercises
* Combat effectiveness
* Center of gravity

Non-warfare

* Arms control
* Counter-insurgency
* Deterrence
* Disaster response
* Grey-zone
* Gunboat diplomacy
* Humanitarian aid
* Law enforcement
* Low-intensity conflict
* Military engineering
* Peacekeeping
* Peacebuilding
* Peace through strength
* Show of force

Culture

* Awards and decorations
* Battle cry
* Warrior
* War film
* Military science fiction
* War novel
* Anti-war movement
* Foot drill
* War song
* Uniform
* Wargame
* Militarization / Militarism
* Antimilitarism
* Camp follower

Books

* Seven Military Classics
* The Art of War
* De re militari
* Strategemata

Related

* Women in war
* War resister
* War studies
* Horses in warfare
* Wartime sexual violence
* Fifth column
* Mercenary
* Pacifism
* Privateer
* Private military company
* Soldiers are murderers

Lists

* Battles
* Military occupations
* Military terms
* Operations
* Sieges
* War crimes
* Wars
* Weapons
* Writers

* v
* t
* e

A military operation (op) is the coordinated military actions of a state, or a non-state actor, in response to a developing situation. These actions are designed as a military plan to resolve the situation in the state or actor's favor. Operations may be of a combat or non-combat nature and may be referred to by a code name for the purpose of national security. Military operations are often known for their more generally accepted common usage names than their actual operational objectives.

## Types of military operations

[edit]

Military operations can be classified by the scale and scope of force employment, and their impact on the wider conflict. The scope of military operations can be:

* Theater: this describes an operation over a large, often continental, area of operation and represents a strategic national commitment to the conflict, such as Operation Barbarossa, with general goals that encompass areas of consideration outside the military, such as the economic and political impact of military goals on areas concerned.
* Campaign: this describes either a subset of the theatre of operation, or a more limited geographic and operational strategic commitment, such as the Burma Campaign, and need not represent total national commitment to a conflict, or have broader goals outside the military impact.
* Battle: this describes a subset of a campaign that will have specific military goals and geographic objectives, as well as clearly defined use of forces, such as the Battle of Gallipoli, which operationally was a combined arms operation originally known as the "Dardanelles landings" as part of the Dardanelles Campaign, where about 480,000 Allied troops took part.
* Engagement: this describes a tactical combat event or contest for a specific area or objective by actions of distinct units. For example, the Battle of Kursk, also known from its German designation as Operation Citadel, included many separate engagements, several of which were combined into the Battle of Prokhorovka. The Battle of Kursk, in addition to describing the initial German offensive operation, also included two Soviet counter-offensive operations: Operation Kutuzov and Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev.
* Strike: this describes a single attack, upon a specified target. This often forms part of a broader engagement. Strikes have an explicit goal, such as rendering facilities such as airports inoperable, assassinating enemy leaders, or limiting the delivery of supplies to enemy troops.

## Definition

[edit]

> Parallel to and reflecting this framework for operations are organized elements within the armed forces which prepare for and conduct operations at various levels of war. While there is a general correlation between the size of units, the area within which they operate, and the scope of mission they perform, the correlation is not absolute. In fact, it is ultimately the mission that a unit performs that determines the level of war within which it operates.

— David M. Glantz, Soviet Military Operational Art[1]

## Operational level of war

[edit]

The operational level of war occupies roughly the middle ground between the campaign's strategic focus and the tactics of an engagement. It describes "a distinct intermediate level of war between military strategy, governing war in general, and tactics, involving individual battles".[2] For example, during World War II, the concept applied to use of Soviet Tank Armies.[3]

## See also

[edit]

* Civil-military operations
* Effects-Based Operations (EBO)
* List of military operations
* List of coalition military operations of the Iraq War
* List of World War II military operations
* Military operation plan
* Military operations other than war (MOOTW)
* Offensive (military)
* Operational View (OV)

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Glantz, Soviet Military Operational Art, p.46.
2. ^ Glantz, Soviet Military Operational Art, p.10.
3. ^ Armstrong, Red Army Tank Commanders, p.13.

## References

[edit]

* Armstrong, Richard N. Red Army Tank Commanders: The Armored Guards. Atglen, Penn.: Schiffer Military History, 1994. ISBN 0-88740-581-9.
* Glantz, David M. Soviet Military Operational Art: In Pursuit of Deep Battle. London: Frank Cass, 1991. ISBN 0-7146-3362-3, ISBN 0-7146-4077-8.

Authority control databases: National |

* Czech Republic

|

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template