Military Review English Edition July-August 2015 | Page 99

OPERATIONAL ART

doctrine, a critical capability is a crucial enabler for a
COG to function and is essential to the accomplishment of the adversary’s assumed objective. A critical
requirement is a condition, resource, or means that
enables a critical capability to become fully operational. A critical vulnerability is an aspect or component
of a critical requirement that is vulnerable to direct
or indirect attack in a manner achieving significant
results.10 Thus, a COG is characterized by critical
capabilities that enable it to function. These capabilities
are further enabled by critical requirements, some of
which are vulnerable to attack. By identifying these and
understanding their relationships, we can describe our
adversary as a system susceptible to attack at vulnerable points. The problem with this is that we have to
divine the COG in the first place before being able to

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further describe it using the critical factors. We need a
straightforward formula for determining COGs.
A more systematic approach to COG development
is proposed by retired Army Col. Dale Eikmeier, who
posits that the COG is best discovered by first determining the critical capability.11 This critical capability is
directly aligned with the most important resource, or
means of action, in the system—the center of gravity.
Eikmeier’s stepped approach looks first at the goal or objective of the friendly or enemy force. After identifying
this goal, the next requirement is to determine ways or
methods that this goal can be accomplished. These ways
are critical capabilities. The next requirement is to select
the critical capabilit