Full-Dimension Operations Planning Constructs: Thinking 'Out of the Box' for the 21st Century

The Revolution of Military Affairs (RMA), occasioned by technological advances and the shift-drift-rift of paradigms born of multi-polar world realities, is rich with vision, but hobbled by lingering Cold War mentalities. Nowhere is this more apparent today than in the way the U.S. Army approaches situation analysis and operations planning. Certain time-honored constructs, long ingrained in the Army's psyche from foot soldier to war-fighting four star, continue to survive as inviolates-- somehow eternal despite compelling evidence to the contrary. Three such inviolates are firmly entrenched as the critical 'first steps' to successful operations. First is the inclination to perceive battlespace largely in terms of PHYSICAL AREA. Second is the instinctive tendency to analyze situations according to METT-T. Last is the nearly unqualified adoption of the seven BATTLEFIELD OPERATING SYSTEMS (BOS) as a universal planning and analysis construct.