According to ADP 3-0, “A warfighting function is a group of tasks and systems united by a common purpose that commanders use to accomplish missions and training objectives.”
The purpose of warfighting functions is to provide an intellectual organization for common critical capabilities available to commanders and staffs at all echelons and levels of war.
Warfighting function capabilities are not confined to any domain, and they typically include capabilities from all domains.
Each warfighting function complements and reinforces the other functions. Their integration and synchronization generate the combat power available for commanders to execute operations and accomplish missions assigned by higher echelons.
Warfighting functions are not branch specific. Many capabilities that contribute to one warfighting function also contribute to others, often simultaneously.
To ensure synchronization across warfighting functions, commanders at all echelons focus on the combined arms employment of specific capabilities in terms of task and purpose over time rather than the warfighting function of the capability.
“Although some branches, functional areas, staff sections, and types of units have a role or purpose that aligns with a specific warfighting function, all formations must account for each warfighting function.”
There are six warfighting functions in the U.S. Army as defined by ADP 3-0:
- Command and Control
- Movement and Maneuver
- Intelligence
- Fires
- Protection
- Sustainment
Each function plays a distinct yet interdependent role in enabling Army operations across all domains
Command and Control
The command and control warfighting function is the related tasks and a system that enable commanders to exercise authority and direction to accomplish missions. The primary purpose of command and control is to assist commanders in integrating and synchronizing the other warfighting functions effectively at each echelon.
Tasks under Command and Control include:
- Command forces.
- Control operations.
- Conduct the operations process.
- Employ the command and control system.
“The command and control system includes people, processes, networks, and command posts. All components of the system are critical in supporting effective decision making and the tempo required to defeat enemy forces.”
Mission command, the Army’s approach to command and control, “empowers subordinate decision making and decentralized execution appropriate to the situation.” It supports the Army’s operational concept of multidomain operations and emphasizes seizing, retaining, and exploiting initiative.
Movement and Maneuver
“The movement and maneuver warfighting function is the related tasks and systems that move and employ forces to achieve a position of relative advantage with respect to the enemy.”
Tasks under Movement and Maneuver include:
- Move
- Maneuver
- Employ direct fires
- Occupy an area
- Conduct mobility and countermobility
- Conduct reconnaissance and surveillance
- Employ battlefield obscuration
“Movement is the positioning of combat power to establish the conditions for maneuver. Maneuver directly gains or exploits positions of relative advantage. Direct fire and close combat are inherent in maneuver.”
Maneuver, as defined by the Army, is “movement in conjunction with fires.” Through maneuver, commanders concentrate forces at decisive points and times to achieve surprise and gain operational initiative while preserving their own forces.
Intelligence
“The intelligence warfighting function is the related tasks and systems that facilitate understanding the enemy, terrain, weather, civil considerations, and other significant aspects of the operational environment.”
Tasks under Intelligence include:
- Provide intelligence support to force generation
- Provide support to situational understanding
- Conduct information collection
- Provide intelligence support to targeting
“The intelligence warfighting function synchronizes information collection with primary tactical tasks of reconnaissance, surveillance, security, and intelligence operations.”
“Timely, accurate, relevant, and predictive intelligence enables decision making, optimal tempo, and agility during operations. Intelligence supports information advantage by developing an understanding of enemy forces and various populations.”
Fires
“The fires warfighting function is the related tasks and systems that create and converge effects in all domains against the threat to enable actions across the range of military operations.”
Fires are executed across domains such as:
- Surface-to-surface fires
- Air-to-surface fires
- Surface-to-air fires
- Cyberspace operations and electromagnetic warfare
- Space operations
- Multinational fires
- Special operations
Integration methods include:
- Targeting
- Operations process
- Fire support planning
- Airspace planning and management
- Electromagnetic spectrum management
- Multinational integration
- Rehearsals
- Air and missile defense planning and integration
“Commanders must execute and integrate fires with the other warfighting functions to create effects and achieve the desired end state.”
Protection
“The protection warfighting function is the related tasks, systems, and methods that prevent or mitigate detection, threat effects, and hazards to preserve the force, deny the enemy freedom of action, and enable commanders to apply combat power.”
Tasks under Protection include:
- Conduct survivability operations
- Provide force health protection
- Conduct CBRN operations
- Provide explosive ordnance disposal support
- Coordinate air and missile defense support
- Conduct personnel recovery
- Conduct detention operations
- Conduct risk management
- Implement physical security procedures
- Apply antiterrorism measures
- Conduct police operations
- Conduct populace and resources control
- Conduct area security
- Conduct cybersecurity and defense
- Conduct electromagnetic protection
- Implement operations security
“Protection encompasses everything that makes Army forces hard to detect and destroy.”
Sustainment
“The sustainment warfighting function is the related tasks and systems that provide support and services to enable freedom of action, extend operational reach, and prolong endurance.”
Sustainment includes four elements:
- Logistics
- Financial management
- Personnel services
- Health service support
Principles of Sustainment:
- Integration
- Anticipation
- Responsiveness
- Simplicity
- Economy
- Survivability
- Continuity
- Improvisation
“Successful sustainment integration and synchronization increases the number of options available to the commander.”
Summary
The six warfighting functions—Command and Control, Movement and Maneuver, Intelligence, Fires, Protection, and Sustainment—form the foundation of Army operations.
Their integration, synchronization, and execution across all domains allow Army forces to generate and apply combat power to achieve decisive outcomes. Each function plays a vital role in mission success, and commanders must account for and balance each one in their operational planning and execution.
Combat Power and Integration
“Combat power is the total means of destructive and disruptive force that a military unit/formation can apply against an enemy at a given time.”
“Army forces generate combat power by integrating the systems and tasks of the warfighting functions, and then use command and control to synchronize its application to achieve the desired effects in time and space.”
The dynamics of combat power include:
- Leadership
- Firepower
- Information
- Mobility
- Survivability
Commanders maintain pressure by integrating and synchronizing the warfighting functions to present enemy commanders with continuously changing combinations of combat power at a tempo they cannot effectively counter.
Mutual Support and Task-Organizing
“Mutual support is that support which units render each other… due to their assigned tasks, their position relative to each other and to the enemy, or their inherent capabilities.”
“Task-organizing is the act of designing a force, support staff, or sustainment package of specific size and composition to meet a unique task or mission.”
These practices enable operational agility and tailored force structuring to meet mission objectives effectively.
Born and raised in Bozeman, Montana, he graduated from George State University with an MBA in Actuarial Science. His hobbies include beach volleyball, hiking, fishing, and lifting weights
George is also a certified nutritionist with a passion for health and fitness.