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
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
Battle of Britain, 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.
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
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
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]