Adopting a Single Planning Model at the Operational Level of War

This thesis determines that the military should not mandate the adoption of the Joint Operation Planning Process (JOPP) as the single planning model at the operational level of war. Although it is both technically possible and feasible to adopt the JOPP for all services at the operational level, there is no impetus to change the current method the military plans at the operational level. Both an analysis of the service doctrine concerning planning models, and interviews with doctrinal experts from all of the services confirm that the models are similar enough to make the proposed change. However, such a change is not recognized as important by the experts at each of the service components. In order to avoid making changes simply to make changes, there is no need to adopt a single planning model at the operational level.