Military Review English Edition May-June 2016 | Page 103

FORCE AGILITY

(Photo by Staff Sgt. Stacy L. Pearsall, U.S. Air Force)

Spc. Joshua Philbeck, 1st Cavalry Division, plays a video game after finishing guard duty 15 February 2007 at the Iraqi police station in
Buhriz, Iraq.

Step 8. Test draft COAs with full live rehearsal testing or red team rehearsal.
Step 9. Conduct an after action review to analyze
how the COAs performed in the rehearsal.
Step 10. Revise the COAs to account for rehearsal
results and emergent threat tactics.
Step 11. Continue with recommended COA in steps
6 and 7 of the MDMP.
Step 12. Obtain final commander approval of a
COA and final planning guidance, and produce an
operation order.
The commander reviews the recommended FA-CDT
COAs. Based on updated assumptions, the commander
selects one or more for rehearsals and additional evaluation and modification. Once the commander approves
a modified COA, the staff completes the MDMP. It is
vital to remember that the FA-CDT process reinforces
and supports the commander’s authority and ultimate
selection of a COA for implementation.

Benefits and Challenges of FA-CDT
The technology for FA-CDT is already available,
and this article provides a comprehensive process to
MILITARY REVIEW  May-June 2016

ensure its effective use, consistent with existing Army
planning doctrine. Force 2020 could realize the benefits in terms of enhanced agility, but certain challenges would need to be overcome.
Benefits. The primary benefit of using FA-CDT
technology is the rapid, dynamic creation of multiple COAs that are modeled, tested, and war-gamed
against the most up-to-date threat tactics during the
MDMP. Additional benefits include—
an independent COA development
platform outside traditional Army mission
planning
the ability to discover, test, and evaluate
unexpected solutions quickly
testing by gamers in the specific geographic area where Army units will operate to discover any threat strengths and
vulnerabilities
a cost-effective, dynamic, and adaptable
solution for mission planning across a variety of
mission sets and geographies
Challenges. The challenges of using FA-CDT
revolve around creating a crowdsource user base large

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