Strategic Commander's Winning Approach: Success Through Non-Communication
In the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) scenarios that modern warfare often presents, maintaining operational tempo and ensuring decisive action is crucial when communication with higher headquarters is lost. This article explores strategies for improving the execution of commander’s intent in contested communications environments.
**Challenges in Executing Commander’s Intent**
In a contested communications environment, traditional reliance on continuous, real-time command updates is unsustainable. The military must adapt to maintain operational tempo and enable subordinate leaders to act decisively.
**Strategies for Improving Execution of Commander’s Intent**
1. **Develop Resilient, Secure Communications Infrastructure**
The Department of Defense is investing in advanced capabilities, such as the Hyper-Enabled Awareness Kit (HEAK), designed to provide secure, persistent command and control even in highly contested environments. These systems prioritise interoperability, integration, speed, and security, enabling warfighters to maintain situational awareness and receive updates when possible, but not depend on it for every decision.
2. **Train for Distributed, Decentralized Command**
Leaders must cultivate subordinates who understand both the commander’s intent and the broader operational context, empowering them to make sound decisions with disciplined initiative when communications are degraded or severed. This requires a cultural shift toward decentralized execution, where autonomy is earned through demonstrated competence, consistency, and clear communication during periods of connectivity.
3. **Refine Planning and Briefing Processes**
The Military Decision-Making Process (MDMP) formally integrates the articulation of commander’s intent during the mission analysis phase. Courses of action must be feasible, acceptable (aligned with intent), and suitable for mission objectives. During planning, commanders and staff should explicitly identify decision points, visualise operations from the enemy’s perspective, and anticipate likely outcomes—preparing subordinates to act independently if necessary.
4. **Use Active and Passive Deception and Force Protection**
Commanders should employ both active and passive measures—such as deception and force protection—to gain advantage, protect the force, and reduce reliance on vulnerable communications.
**Practical Recommendations**
- Invest in interoperable, secure communications platforms that function in DDIL (denied, disrupted, intermittent, or limited) environments, with a focus on event-based, resilient architectures. - Train leaders and subordinates to operate independently by clearly communicating intent during the planning phase and fostering a culture of trust and initiative. - Strengthen planning processes to identify vulnerabilities, alternative decision points, and tactics for maintaining operational momentum when cut off from higher command. - Conduct regular exercises in degraded communications environments to ensure readiness for contested operations.
**Summary Table: Approaches to Improving Commander’s Intent Execution**
| **Strategy** | **Key Actions** | **Impact** | |-----------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------| | Advanced Communications | Deploy HEAK, secure event-based platforms | Persistent C2 in contested environments | | Decentralized Command Culture | Train for initiative, trust, and autonomy | Robust execution despite comms disruptions | | Robust Planning Processes | MDMP, visualization, risk identification | Clear, actionable intent and fallback options | | Deception & Force Protection | Active/passive measures to protect and mislead | Reduces dependency on vulnerable communications |
By combining technological innovation, cultural adaptation, and rigorous planning, the military can significantly improve the execution of commander’s intent in contested communications environments—ensuring mission success even under the most challenging conditions. This method also helps subordinates understand what information needs to be passed back up the chain to the commander. A leader is someone who possesses vision, the psychological capacity to create and communicate a story of the future, enabling them to influence what happens next. In a contested communications environment, victory will go to the force that adapts best when comms get hit, punching ugly holes in networks, fragmenting information capacity, and necessitating tighter, intermittent, asynchronous bursts. Comms are crucial in wars, as they dispatch orders, mass fires, update intel, prevent fratricide, coordinate evolving mission sets, and maintain command and control. To practice switching off classroom logic and switching on vision, three exercises are suggested: Simplify the future into one critical action and why, create a mental image of the objective, and practice making decisions based on vision rather than logic. Modern education immerses people in logic, which may hinder the ability to lead in unstable and data-poor environments like war. Practicing this method improves an organisation’s ability to independently coordinate individual actions. In shifting domains, there are many possible paths to victory. Trust your common sense and take the first good route you see. Commander’s intent is essential for success, and it requires leaders on both ends of the communication to translate it into coordinated actions that the commander wants. To doublecheck if VUCA is actually occurring, perform the leadership technique of "emotion reset".
- In the event of contested communications environments, it's important for military leaders to invest in secure, event-based communications platforms that are interoperable and designed to function in DDIL conditions, thus ensuring operational continuity.
- To improve the execution of commander's intent, leaders should train their subordinates to operate independently by fostering a culture of trust and initiative, and communicating intent explicitly during the planning phase.
- In addition to honing leadership skills, it's crucial for military education to focus on developing a vision for the future and the ability to make decisions based on that vision, rather than relying on classroom logic alone.
- In shifts away from traditional warfare, a leader's business acumen becomes just as important as military expertise. By understanding the nuances of finance and strategic planning, military leaders can make more informed decisions on resource allocation and force protection in contested environments.
