The basic reason is the lack of adequate awareness about the subject within the armed forces. Yet for all its well documented and proven importance in winning wars decisively with least cost to own side, operational art continues to be disregarded by our military experts. A sound strategy and operational excellence are the hallmarks of mature nations and leaders who understand the art of war and mistakes in these spheres cannot be easily corrected. It is a fact of history that by themselves factors such as superior technology, superior numbers and tactical brilliance are insufficient to achieve ultimate success in war. Tactical results are useful only as a part of the larger design framed by strategy and arranged, organised, coordinated, stage-managed and masterminded by operational art. While strategy is not concerned with actual fighting, operational art and tactics are. Hence a commander exercising operational art has to be well versed in all three levels of warfare and consequently it demands maximum skills from a commander who is selected to exercise command at this level. The importance of operational art lies in the fact that operational level of warfare, being the intermediary level, acts as a bridge to join policy and strategy on one end with tactical employment of forces on the other end.

Scope and Importance of Operational Art 1 This mandates a study of operational art, in our context, to examine the method of war fighting that we need to adopt in the future. Indian Armed Forces are also conscious of the requirement of adopting a more dynamic approach to wars in the future and are seeking a synergetic tri-service approach at the operational and military strategic levels. In their case technology was the major driving force behind their doctrine. Such assessments along with detailed research, for over a decade, drove the US Armed Forces to adopt the doctrine of Airland Battle, which was successfully employed, with modifications in both the Gulf Wars and in Afghanistan. The doctrine gets reinforced with every successful endeavor but if the effort ends in a failure then the doctrine would have to be modified. This belief and conviction of the current leadership of how military forces are to be employed in support of national objectives serves as a reference, a guide to senior military commanders in the field to formulate strategies for each operational situation confronted. Lieutenant General VK Kapoor, PVSM (Retd)ДЄwar fighting doctrine evolved by any nation is an outcome of an assessment of factors such as the historical experience of the nation, shape and contours of future wars and the anticipated battlefield environment. Guidelines for Contribution in Publications.War Wounded Foundation Joint Essay Competition.Lt Gen SL Menezes Memorial Essay Competition.

The operational art of war iv problems