December 02, 2016
Painting by Numbers: A History of the U.S. Military's Phasing Construct
Ask any budding student of security or member of the military where the focus of conflict is, and you’ll hear an emphatic “phase III operations.” The period in which decisive combat operations are undertaken is the meat and potatoes of America’s military. Glorified historical battles typically occurred in this phase, and most training and equipment is designed to operate in high-end conventional combat. Yet these high hopes have not proven decisive over the past 15 years. As Paul Scharre explored in the first two installments of this series, the phasing construct does not reflect reality. It was once valuable as a tool for force planning, but it has been applied too broadly and without sufficient utility.
Phasing’s Origins: The Unipolar Moment (1992-1993)
The origin of the phasing construct rests in the early post-Cold War era. Following decades of conflict against the Soviet Union and in the immediate aftermath of Operation Desert Storm, the U.S. Department of Defense went back to the drawing board to assess possible crises and evaluate force structure in light of the unipolar moment. The 1992 National Military Strategy contained many of the underlying concepts that later took form in the phasing construct, namely the idea of rapid decisive victory. The 1993 Bottom Up Review (BUR) matured this vision and presented the first iteration of the phasing construct for major regional conflicts that continues to inform operational planning today.
Read the full article at War on the Rocks.
More from CNAS
-
Stock Buybacks in Defense: What Drives Them, and How That Can Change?
Commentary
Lack of capital is not a problem hindering investment at the largest defense primes. The issue revolves around the capital allocation decision....
By Mikhail Grinberg, Jerry McGinn & Lloyd Everhart
-
Ukrainian president has stark new warning as war rages on
Video
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warns that Ukraine will lose the war with Russia without US assistance. Franz-Stefan Gady of CNAS explains why US military aid is crucia...
By Franz-Stefan Gady
-
Sharper: Maritime Security
Commentary
The importance of securing the maritime domain is rapidly increasing. From the South China Sea to the Red Sea, the U.S. and its allies are experiencing escalating challenges t...
By Anna Pederson & Charles Horn
-
Innovation Adoption for All: Scaling across Department of Defense
Commentary
The Department of Defense does act quickly when properly motivated and catalyzed by effective leadership....
By Robert O. Work, Michael Brown & Ellen Lord
