Lanterna Rally

Author: U. S. Joint Command

Publisher:

Published: 2012-10-02

Total Pages: 72

ISBN-13: 9781480038677

This handbook is a pre-doctrinal non-authoritative document that provides information on how JTF and component headquarters might plan for and provide capabilities to tactical units, principally battalion level and below, when they are employed widely dispersed and outside of mutually supporting range of other ground units. Although focused on ground units, there are significant implications for the air and naval components of the joint force as well. The document serves as a bridge between experimentation and current best practices and the potential incorporation of value-added ideas in joint doctrine, education, and training. This handbook is the result of study, concept development, experimentation, and analysis that began in 2005 when the Marine Corps released a white paper entitled A Concept for Distributed Operations. This concept was intended "...to promote discussion and to generate ideas for specific combat development initiatives" in the context of "...the irregular challenges of Small Wars." It focused on enabling small units to function with greater operational initiative and independence. In response to the concept, the Marine Corps Combat Development Command initiated a number of activities, including limited objective experiments conducted by the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory. USJFCOM began a study of joint distributed operations (JDO) based on three "warfighter challenges" (Forcible Entry and Distributed Operations, Lift, and Mobility and Sustainment), which the Marine Corps submitted to USJFCOM J9 in 2009 and 2010 in conjunction with USJFCOM's annual Joint Concept Development and Experimentation Campaign Plan. As part of the USJFCOM JDO project, J9 developed an informal Concept for Joint Distributed Operations in November 2009. This concept and previous Marine Corps efforts informed a USJFCOM-led campaign of experimentation conducted in 2009 and 2010 intended to identify capabilities that could contribute to the successful execution of operations by widely dispersed organizations. This handbook identifies various issues and considerations for conducting these operations based on insights from ongoing operations and experimentation results. USJFCOM's Joint Operating Environment (JOE) provides the future environmental context within which to examine these issues and considerations. The JOE states that "The nature of the human condition will guarantee that uncertainty, ambiguity, and surprise will dominate the course of events." It continues with a conclusion that surprise will be inevitable even as joint forces prepare for a wide range of military operations, and that commanders at all levels will face complex, dynamic, and unpredictable situations for which established concepts and doctrine can provide only a solid foundation as a point of departure. This handbook is based on Service and joint lessons learned data; joint, multi-national, and Service doctrine and procedures; training and education material from CAPSTONE, KEYSTONE, and PINNACLE senior executive education programs; joint and Service exercise observations, facilitated after-action reviews and commander's summary reports; related joint concepts and experimentation results; joint exercises and trip reports; and joint publication assessment reports. The handbook also includes the results of a two-year analysis and experimentation effort requested by the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and conducted by USJFCOM, with participation by all the Services and many international partners. The experimentation campaign encompassed an analytical wargame, three constructive simulation efforts, a "human-in-the-loop experiment," and focused seminar sessions with retired senior commanders and currently serving officers with recent operational experience. The experimentation effort focused on stressing potential joint solutions in a distinctly different operational environment.