Approval and Release of a Concept for Distributed Operations
The Commandant of the Marine Corps has approved and released a new Concept for Distributed Operations, which builds upon Marine Corps warfighting philosophy and the "Three Block War" concept. This concept provides commanders with new capabilities to create asymmetric challenges for adversaries and will be refined through experimentation conducted by the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory involving operating forces in combat environments.
Issued: July 8, 2005
1. THE COMMANDANT OF THE MARINE CORPS HAS APPROVED THE MARINE CORPS' CONCEPT FOR DISTRIBUTED OPERATIONS, WHICH BUILDS UPON OUR WARFIGHTING PHILOSOPHY AND THE THEMES INTRODUCED BY THE "THREE BLOCK WAR." DISTRIBUTED OPERATIONS CAPABILITIES WILL BE ADDITIVE TO EXISTING CAPABILITIES, PROVIDING COMMANDERS A NEW WAY TO IMPOSE ASSYMETRIC CHALLENGES AND CRIPPLING UNCERTAINTY UPON THE ENEMY. 2. THE MARINE CORPS WARFIGHTING LABORATORY IS PREPARING TO CONDUCT EXTENSIVE DISTRIBUTED OPERATIONS EXPERIMENTATION INVOLVING THE OPERATING FORCES IN A COMBAT ENVIRONMENT. THIS EXPERIMENTATION WILL REFINE SPECIFIC DOCTRINE, FORCE STRUCTURE, TRAINING, AND MATERIEL INITIATIVES THAT WILL OPERATIONALIZE THE CONCEPT. 3. AS WE MEET THE IRREGULAR CHALLENGES OF SMALL WARS, "A CONCEPT FOR DISTRIBUTED OPERATIONS" IS INTENDED TO PROMOTE DISCUSSION AND TO GENERATE IDEAS FOR SPECIFIC COMBAT DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES . . . INNOVATION THAT IS SQUARELY FOCUSED ON OUR MOST IMPORTANT WEAPON -- THE MARINE. 4. THIS NEW CONCEPT CAN BE ACCESSED AT WWW.MCWL.USMC.MIL.