Military Staff: Strategizing the Nexus, Command, Coordination, and 21st Century Warfare

By Fouad Sabry

What is Military Staff

A military staff or general staff is a group of officers, enlisted and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large military unit in their command and control role through planning, analysis, and information gathering, as well as by relaying, coordinating, and supervising the execution of their plans and orders, especially in case of multiple simultaneous and rapidly changing complex operations. They are organised into functional groups such as administration, logistics, operations, intelligence, training, etc. They provide multi-directional flow of information between a commanding officer, subordinate military units and other stakeholders. A centralised general staff results in tighter top-down control but requires larger staff at headquarters (HQ) and reduces accuracy of orientation of field operations, whereas a decentralised general staff results in enhanced situational focus, personal initiative, speed of localised action, OODA loop, and improved accuracy of orientation.

How you will benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Staff (military)

Chapter 2: Bulgarian Armed Forces

Chapter 3: Tatmadaw

Chapter 4: Battalion

Chapter 5: Brigade

Chapter 6: Military Assistance Command

Chapter 7: Indonesian Army

Chapter 8: Strategic Command (United Kingdom)

Chapter 9: Wyoming Military Department

Chapter 10: Home Command (British Army)

(II) Answering the public top questions about military staff.

Who this book is for

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of Military Staff.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: May 30, 2024

Book preview

Chapter 1: Staff (military)

A military staff or general staff is a group of officers, enlisted personnel, and civilian staff who support the commander of a division or other large military unit in their command and control roles by planning, analyzing, and gathering information as well as relaying, coordinating, and supervising the execution of their plans and orders, particularly in the case of multiple simultaneous and interdependent military operations. They are arranged into functional areas like management, operations, logistics, intelligence, training, and so forth. They provide information exchange in multiple directions between a commanding officer, inferior military units, and other parties.

In a big unit, a commander commands by exercising personal authority, decision-making, and leadership while delegating control to the general staff. The general staff's traditional control role has evolved from the more straightforward C2 (command and control) to C3 (C2 with addition of communication, such as PsyOps), C4 (C3 with addition of computers, such as IT and networks), C4I2 (C4 with addition of intelligence, interoperability, and collaboration), C5I (C4 with addition of intelligence, collaboration, and.

Providing reliable, timely information (including the outcomes of contingency planning) on which command decisions are based is one of a military staff's main goals. Ability to recommend strategies or assist in the production of well-informed decisions that will efficiently manage and conserve unit resources is an aim.

The personnel regulates the flow of communication both within and outside the unit in addition to producing information. The commander should be the primary recipient of regulated information flow, but staffs of lower-level units should also be informed of useful or temporary information. If the information is not relevant to the unit, it is sent to the command level that can use it most effectively.

Typically, staff members are the first to learn about problems that affect their group. Major decision-making issues that have an impact on the operational capabilities of the unit are communicated to the commanding commander. But not every problem will be resolved by the commander. Smaller issues that arise are delegated to a more qualified tasker inside the unit to be handled and resolved because otherwise, the Commanding Officer, who already has to make a lot of decisions every day, would be unnecessarily distracted.

Additionally, a staff strives to meticulously design any beneficial conditions and make use of that knowledge.

In a standard command staff, more senior and seasoned officers supervise staff divisions of groups arranged in accordance with the demands of the unit. Tasks for senior enlisted members include maintaining tactical tools and vehicles. Senior Analysts are entrusted with compiling reports, while their enlisted staff members take part in gathering data from inferior staffs and units. This structure maximizes information flow of essential information issued out of the command generally, clarifying matters, and placing decision-making and reporting under the auspices of the most experienced employees. The most senior members of the command at each level are now free to make decisions and give instructions for more investigation or information collecting (perhaps requiring men to put their lives at risk to gather additional intelligence).

Battle planning for both offensive and defensive conditions, as well as producing contingency plans for addressing situations anticipated in the near future, are other tasks assigned to operations staff officers.

There was typically little organizational support for staff duties such military intelligence, logistics, planning, or people prior to the late 18th century. With informal assistance from subordinates who were typically not trained for or assigned to a specific role, unit commanders handled such responsibilities for their units.

In a letter to Empress Maria Theresa in January 1758, Count Leopold Joseph von Daun pushed for the Generalquartiermeister to have a bigger responsibility (Chief of Staff). There were three groups within the Grosse staff: First, the Intrinsecum, which was in charge of overseeing internal operations and handling internal administration; second, external activities, such as the Pioneers; and third, the Inspection Service, which was in charge of overseeing prisoners of war and giving orders. The General Adjutant worked alongside the General Staff and reported to the Commander-in-Chief. He oversaw a team of Adjutant staff members chosen by army commanders to undertake internal administration tasks and intelligence gathering. In a fundamental shift away from the old administrative role, the Chief of Staff now undertook operational planning while leaving the regular job to his senior staff officers. The Chief of Staff also became the primary advisor to the Commander-in-Chief. In order to demonstrate their leadership skills while serving on the staff, staff officers were chosen from line troops and would eventually return to them. As a scaled-down version of headquarters during combat or when the army had detached corps, the column commander would get a tiny staff. The senior man, who is often a Major, would be in charge of the column staff, and his main responsibility would be to assist the commander in comprehending the anticipated outcome.

When Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld of the Netherlands appointed Karl Mack von Leiberich as army chief of staff, he issued the Instruktionspunkte für gesammte Herren Generals, the 19th and final item outlining the duties of staff officers, operating both attacking and defensively, while assisting the Chief Executive.

In 1796, Archduke Charles, These were enhanced by the Duke of Teschen's own Observationspunkte, He is duty bound to investigate all options relating to operations and not perceive himself as merely carrying out those instructions, the Chief of Staff was instructed in writing.

On March 20, 1801, The function of the Chief of Staff during a war now centered on planning and operations to support the Commander, and Feldmarschalleutnant Duka became the first Generalquartiermeister in a peacetime setting.

Archduke Charles, On September 1, 1805, the Duke of Teschen personally prepared a new Dienstvorschrift, The French returned to the old system in 1790 when the Revolutionary Government dissolved the staff corps, notwithstanding a temporary permanent staff under St-Cyr (1783–90). General Louis Alexandre Berthier was given the ancient administrative position of Chief of Staff for the French Army of Italy in 1795; Jomini and Vachee properly referred to him as the chief clerk and of limited capacity. On the Austrian model, staff officers were cycled out of the line, but they did not receive any training; instead, they simply learned how to perform administrative duties quickly. From the moment he acquired command of the army the following year, it suited Napoleon Bonaparte, and he used Berthier's method throughout his battles. Importantly, Napoleon continued to serve as his own intelligence chief and operational planner, a job that, in the end, even he was unable to handle.

In the years that followed, Prussia adopted Austria's strategy, particularly under the leadership of Gerhard von Scharnhorst, a Hanoverian staff officer who had served with the Austrian army in the Austrian Netherlands in the early 1790s. The Prussian Army initially provided field commanders with help from a small number of technical expert officers. Prior to 1746, however, changes had expanded the staff's responsibilities to include intelligence management and emergency preparedness. Later, the practice of alternating officers' command and staff assignments was started in order to familiarize them with both parts of military operations. This technique is still in use today with the addition of enlisted soldiers. The military schools of Prussia educated mid-level officers in specialized staff skills after 1806. A separate staff for every division and corps was formed by legislation in Prussia in 1814, along with a central military command known as the Prussian General Staff. Many of the largest armies in existence today have inherited the Prussian system's General Staff model, despite certain professional and political problems with it, particularly when examined through the lens of the World Wars of the 20th century.

The British Army previously viewed staff work with considerable scorn, but the hardships of the Crimean War brought on by inefficiency spurred a change in mindset. Instead, Beevor's book Inside the British Army argues that because of the terrible divisions between staff and line units brought on by the First World War's trench warfare, senior British officers decided from that point forward that all officers would alternate between staff and line responsibilities, preventing the creation of a separate general staff corps.

Instead of career staff officers following the German general staff model, the National Security Act of 1947 established a Joint Staff made up of military service personnel who rotated into (and out of) joint staff positions. The Joint Staff of today reports directly to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as opposed to the corporate Joint Chiefs of Staff, as they did from 1947 to 1986, after the Goldwater-Nichols Act made significant changes to Title 10 of the United States Code. According to this plan, combatant commanders, who report to the Secretary of Defense via the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff until otherwise directed, have operational command and control of armed forces.

Most NATO nations structure the staff duties of their militaries using the Continental Staff System (ContStaff), also referred to as the General Staff System (GSS). Each staff job in a headquarters or unit is given a letter-prefix matching to the formation's element and one or more numbers designating a role under this system, which is based on one first used by the French Army in the 19th century.

Since the practice of assigning staff numbers according to tradition rather than seniority can be traced back to France, 1 is not higher ranking than 2. The SHAPE organization is reflected in this list:

1, for personnel or manpower

2, for security and intelligence

for operations, 3, for logistics, 4

for plans, 5, No. 6, for signaling (i.e., communications or IT)

7, for instruction and training in the military (also the joint engineer)

8, for money and agreements. Additional term for resource management.

9, for civic affairs or civil-military cooperation (CIMIC).

Since branches 1 through 6 were only included in the original continental staff system, it is usual to see 7 through 9 deleted or given different meanings.

Derived from the Prussian Große Generalstab (Great General Staff), Historically, the letter G was used to prefix certain staff roles, which is kept in situ for use by the current army.

But contemporary armies' growing complexity, not to mention how the staff mentality has permeated naval, air, among other substances, has ordered that new prefixes be added.

These prefixes for elements are:

A, for the air force's top brass; C, for combined headquarters (headquarters of several countries); F, for specific deployable or forward headquarters; G, for army or marine general staff sections within the headquarters of organizations led by general officers and having a chief of staff to oversee the general staff's operations, such as divisions or comparable organizations (such as the USMC Marine Logistics Group and Marine Aircraft Wing), as well as separate (i.e., non-divisional) brigade level (USMC MEB), and above; J stands for joint (many services, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff) headquarters; N, for the navy's top brass; S, for army or marine executive staff sections located in organizations' headquarters and led by field grade officers (majors through colonels) with an executive officer in charge of coordinating the executive staff's operations (e.g., divisional brigades, regiments, groups, battalions, and squadrons; not used by all countries); The headquarters of United Nations military operations are located at U.

The US Coast Guard's Assistant Commandants (Headquarters staff), who previously used the G prefix, are the only ones with the initials CG.

Although it is not an official phrase, the letter E can also be seen on occasion. The term element will therefore be used to refer to a tiny autonomous element that is a member of a non-staff organization, such as an operational element on a logistics site or a logistical element on a forward medical support station, respectively.

So, N1 would be the designation for the personnel officer at a naval headquarters. N1 refers to both the office and the officer in charge