The Military Decision Making Process hence force referred to as MDMP consists of 7 steps. Step one is the receipt of mission. The Higher Headquarters push out an order or the ongoing mission requires a new course …show more content…
Assessing the combat power is part of this, followed by the generating of options. Time permitting the goal is to develop several COA’s. (P37) Developers then have to figure out how much combat power is required to accomplish the task. A broad picture of how the mission will be carried out is developed and capped by assigning the headquarters to group their forces. The planners will then write a COA statement, draw sketches and brief them to the CDR. Once the CDR sits through the brief he will either select a COA, modify a COA or in some case dismiss all of them and send his staff back to the drawing board. (Center for Army Lessons Learned,2011, …show more content…
Could be the most important step in the process. It is a process aimed to visualize the flow of the operation taken all the intelligence gathered, estimates, combat power and assumption together with the sketches and take them to the sand table or a rehearsal of concept (ROC) drill. (Center for Army Lessons Learned,2011, p.45-46)
War Gaming is an attempt to get a visual of the operation including the knowledge gathered ahead of time. The CDR and Staff is trying to predict the outcome of each step in the COA taking everthing into consideration they know. This is where strengths and weaknesses are identified and can be eliminated or used as appropriate. (Center for Army Lessons Learned,2011, p.46-47)
Step five the COA Comparison is simply that. The evaluation of each COA after the war gaming to determine the COA that has the best probability of success in the mission at hand. After comparison and deciding which COA is the most likely to succeed the staff delivers a decision brief to the CDR.
Step six is the COA approval where the CDR selects a COA assesses the risks and specifies the type of order needed. Following this he issues the third warning order. (Center for Army Lessons Learned,2011,