MILITARY POLICE
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19-14-2
19
By Captain Ari Fisher
Training must not only be challenging; it must also be
realistic. Ensuring realism by articulating and depicting
the threat is the responsibility of the Contemporary
Operational Environment and Threats Integration
Directorate (CTID), U.S. Army Training and Doctrine
Command Intelligence Support Activity (TRISA). CTID is
the Army's lead agency for the study, design, documentation,
validation, and application of hybrid threat and operational
environment (OE) conditions in support of all U.S. Army
and joint training and leader development programs.
CTID personnel developed the Decisive Action Training
and authored Training Circulars (TCs) 7-100,
Hybrid Threat; 7-100.2, Opposing Force Tactics; and 7-100.3,
Irregular Opposing Forces. In addition, research analysts
produce important training support documents such as the
Worldwide , operational estimates, and
threat assessments. All of these documents, and more, can
be downloaded from the Army Training Network Web site at
by clicking on the CTID Operational
Environment Page link available on the home page. CTID
analysts are always available to provide assistance and
training to ensure a common understanding and facilitate a
realistic training environment.
Human Domain
According to the recent article entitled "The Human
Domain and the Hybrid Threat," threat actors operate
within the human domain, which encapsulates the aggregate
of elements that the human condition and help
to defne human terrain "features." This provides friendly
forces a map with which to identify decisive points against
a populace center of gravity and serves as friendly and
opposing force "ways" to a populace "ends."
1
In that sense, the
article provides reasoning for why the Army needs a military
police capability to counter a threat. However, it does not
contain a lengthy discussion about the "means" that might
be used. When involved in unifed land operations executed
through decisive action, the U.S. Army Military Police Corps
will fnd that leveraging the police competency through the
policing operations discipline within population centers will
be essential in supporting maneuver forces.
The purpose of this article is to stimulate discussion
within the Regiment. A few parameters apply to the scope
of this discussion. First, the term decisive action is defned
as "the continuous, simultaneous combinations of offensive,
defensive, and stability or defense support of civil authorities
tasks," with an imperative emphasis on the terms continuous
and .
2
This should not be confused with task
application in the common operating precept phasing model
described in Joint Publication (JP) 3-0, Joint Operations.
3
The
notion that these tasks are not continuous and simultaneous
in Phase 2 (Seize Initiative) or Phase 3 (Dominate) is false.
4
Second, threat doctrine defnes the term hybrid threat as
"the diverse and dynamic combination of regular forces,
irregu lar forces, and/or criminal elements—all unifed to
achieve mutually benefting effects."
5
An understanding
that this is the threat—and not a design found singularly
within the precincts of wide area security or combined arms
maneuver—is fundamental. Finally, some military police
competencies are excluded from this article in order to limit
the range of the discussion. However, these competencies
are also important, and further research will articulate their
applicability across the range of military operations.
Function
When maneuver commanders develop lines of effort
(LOEs) focused on improved OE end state conditions, they
may develop decisive points that specifcally address human
domain objectives. As described in "The Human Domain and
the Hybrid Threat," Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs may serve
as a suitable construct.
6
The purpose of decisive points is
to fulfll populace needs or to have an operational effect on
the ability of the irregular opposing force to fulfll populace
needs. Arranging LOEs in ascending order (restoration/
development of essential services, security, governance,
infrastructure development) and subsequently plotting the
human domain-focused decisive points reveal Maslow's
Hierarchy of Needs. When considering how to achieve these