ADP 3-90, page 15

Tactical Fundamentals 31 July 2019 ADP 3-90 1-5  Sustaining and protecting subordinate forces before, during, and after battles.  Maintaining a better understanding of the tactical situation than enemy forces and exploiting it.  Planning beyond the initial operation and anticipating its branches or sequels.  Continuously consolidating gains to defeat all forms of enemy resistance. 1-29. Momentum complements and helps maintain the initiative. Momentum reflects a unit’s combat power and the velocity and tempo of its operations. Concentrating combat power at the decisive point, supported by rapid maneuver, places an enemy in a disadvantageous position. Commanders maintain focus and pressure, controlling the tempo of operations while seeking and exploiting opportunities. Maintaining momentum requires continuously assessing the situation and making risk decisions with regard to resourcing the main effort. 1-30. A thorough understanding of an operational environment greatly helps commanders to develop tactical solutions and allows them to drive the operations process. Commanders who make and implement decisions faster than a hesitant enemy, even to a small degree, gain an accruing advantage. (See ADP 6-0 for a description of the operations process.) 1-31. Transitions among operations are difficult and may create unexpected opportunities for friendly or enemy forces. Commanders and their supporting staffs quickly recognize such opportunities, acting on branches or sequels prepared during the planning process. Improvisation may be necessary to cope with unforeseen circumstances, particularly those arising from consolidating gains. Consolidate gains is activities to make enduring any temporary operational success and to set the conditions for a sustainable security environment, allowing for a transition of control to legitimate authorities (ADP 3-0). (See ADP 3-0 for additional information on the consolidation of gains.) 1-32. Ultimately, solutions to tactical problems result from the collective efforts of a commander’s plan and the ability of subordinate leaders to execute it. Commanders are responsible for training their subordinates. The result of that rigorous and realistic training leaves commanders fully confident in their subordinates’ mastery of the art and science of tactics and in their ability to execute a chosen solution. HASTY VERSUS DELIBERATE OPERATIONS 1-33. A hasty operation is an operation in which a commander directs immediately available forces, using fragmentary orders, to perform tasks with minimal preparation, trading planning and preparation time for speed of execution. Commanders mentally synchronize the employment of available forces before issuing fragmentary orders. Hasty operations exploit the advantages of combined arms to the maximum possible extent. For example, the 9th Armored Division’s seizure of the bridge at Remagen in March 1945 illustrates a hasty operation conducted with the forces immediately available. Commanders consider tangible and intangible factors, such as subordinate training levels and experience, a potential enemy reaction, time and distance, and the strengths of each subordinate and supporting unit to achieve the required degree of synchronization. 1-34. A deliberate operation is an operation in which the tactical situation allows the development and coordination of detailed plans, including multiple branches and sequels. Commanders conducting deliberate operations task-organize forces to accomplish a specific mission. That tasked combined arms team conducts extensive rehearsals and shaping operations to create the conditions for the conduct of the force’s decisive operation. For example, the 1st Infantry Division’s breaching operation during the opening hours of the ground phase of Operation Desert Storm in February 1991 illustrates a deliberate operation. 1-35. Most operations occur somewhere between a hasty operation and a deliberate operation. The operations process helps in the development of a common operational picture to facilitate decision making and to communicate decisions and other information between friendly forces. The sheer amount of obtainable data in the information age complicates the distinction between hasty and deliberate operations. Commanders discern intelligence from collected information to shape their decisions. Commanders who understand this nuance can focus on knowledge that enables their abilities to anticipate opportunities and build flexibility into plans.