Military Review English Edition March-April 2015 | Page 67

BRIGADE MISSION COMMAND

(Photo courtesy of Combined Joint Task Force–1 Afghanistan)

Soldiers from Company C, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, Task Force Currahee, provide security from the top of a mountain in Paktika Province during Operation Surak Basta III, 23 June 2011.

commander’s intent to match the tactical and operational challenges during a given time period.

Battle Rhythm: Small Steps Lead to
Big Change

In Field Manual (FM) 6-0, Commander and Staff
Organization and Operations, Army doctrine defines
battle rhythm as “a deliberate daily cycle of command,
staff, and unit activities intended to synchronize current and future operations.”5
With the commander’s intent and campaign plan
framework setting the azimuth, and the targeting cycle
providing course correction, the daily maintenance of
the brigade’s effort was achieved through rigid adherence to the battle rhythm. The brigade battle rhythm
document (expertly managed by the brigade executive
officer) served to define the timing, attendance, inputs,
and outputs of every brigade meeting, briefing, and
working group over the course of the week and month.
With changes and deletions approved by exception,
strict adherence to the battle rhythm allowed me, and
my staff, to quickly and efficiently maintain a common estimate of the situation. Adherence to the battle
rhythm provided predictability to my commanders
and senior SFAAT leaders (who knew when I required
their attendance at critical meetings) and ensured that
MILITARY REVIEW  March-April 2015

my visualization of the battlefield was shared with the
staff and entire brigade. For example, our daily battle
update brief, usually completed in 45 minutes, served
as my daily staff estimate update. More than just a
recitation of facts and figures, this briefing served as
the mission analysis for our brigade’s lethal targeting
cycle—normally executed within the following 24 to
48 hours based on the air tasking order and availability of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance
platforms. This meeting was critical to creating an agile
force. The battle rhythm provided the mechanism by
which we were able to plan and react to significant mission and task changes during our deployment.
When our brigade was given the mission to move
its tactical operations center from the well-established
FOB Salerno to a significantly smaller outpost located
in another province (which had no infrastructure for
such a move), our battle rhythm allowed us to plan,
prepare for, and execute this move. The meetings,
briefs, and working groups were all previously determined—the staff merely had to adjust the topics and
agendas for each meeting to address the topics at hand
(I say this fully acknowledging the herculean staff work
associated with each of these operations). Rarely did
we have to convene special planning sessions to address
the latest mission change. Closing major FOBs early,
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