WHAT’S IN A WAR PLAN?
By Michael Loftus September 24, 2020
A war plan develops a concept to win a war militarily and politically; it is the detailed ways and means of an overarching strategy.
The Department of Defense has no definition of “war plan†according to its own doctrine. There are the Unified Command Plan, campaign plans, theaters of war, and regional theater strategies. There is even a Global Integrated Base Plan. But there is no war plan for the U.S. military. The U.S. has had war plans before, and it needs to again. Developed between World Wars I and II, the collective color plans, mobilization plans, and Rainbow Plans considered operational, industrial, political, and civilian concerns. If we consider war to be a political act between two or more states, nations, or other polities, a war plan must consider the totality of those polities’ potential political objectives, industrial capabilities, and military options for the expected duration of the conflict. A war plan develops a concept to win a war militarily and politically; it is the detailed ways and means of an overarching strategy. A review of two historical examples of such planning offer approaches to overcome organizational and institutional obstacles to effective comprehensive war planning. These examples point to the value of what is sometimes called “Track II planning,†which is valuable in all cases, but is all the more important in preparing for potential future large-scale conflict.
https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/articles/war-plan/
