DarkDot JP 5-0 — Joint Planning
Overview
JP 5-0 is the foundational document for joint operational planning in the U.S. military. It establishes the Joint Operations Planning Process (JOPP) — the joint analog to the Army's MDMP — and defines how combatant commanders and joint task forces design campaigns and operations involving multiple Services.
The Joint Operations Planning Process (JOPP)
JOPP mirrors MDMP in structure but operates at theater and operational levels:
- Planning Initiation: Receipt of strategic guidance; establishment of the planning effort
- Mission Analysis: Understand the operational environment, define the problem, identify CCIR
- COA Development: Generate feasible, acceptable, distinguishable courses of action
- COA Analysis and War Game: Stress-test each COA against the adversary's most likely and most dangerous COAs
- COA Comparison: Evaluate COAs against planning criteria and commander's guidance
- COA Approval: Commander selects the COA and provides planning guidance
- Plan/Order Development: Produce the OPORD, annexes, and supporting plans
Key Joint Planning Concepts
Operational Design
Before selecting a COA, joint planners use operational design to frame the problem:
- Center of Gravity (COG): The source of power that provides moral or physical strength, freedom of action, or the will to act. Attacking the adversary's COG — not just their forces — drives campaign design.
- Lines of Effort (LOE): Logical sequences of activities that connect the current state to the desired end state. Unlike physical Lines of Operation (LOO), LOEs capture non-physical objectives (governance, information, legitimacy).
- Decisive Points: Conditions or geographic points that, when achieved, provide a marked advantage and allow the commander to seize, retain, or exploit the initiative.
Joint Phasing
Joint campaigns are organized into phases:
| Phase | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Shape | Ongoing activities to deter conflict and set conditions |
| 1 | Deter | Crisis emerges; deterrence operations begin |
| 2 | Seize Initiative | Joint force deploys and takes action |
| 3 | Dominate | Defeat adversary forces; achieve decisive results |
| 4 | Stabilize | Establish security; transition to civilian authorities |
| 5 | Enable Civil Authority | Transition complete; military withdraws |
Joint Fire Support
JP 5-0 and JP 3-09 together establish joint targeting — the theater-level process for identifying, prioritizing, and engaging targets across all domains (air, land, maritime, space, cyber). The Joint Targeting Cycle drives the air tasking order (ATO) that assigns CAS sorties to ground forces.
Relevance to Dark Dot
For multi-domain or joint scenarios in Dark Dot, structure operations around joint phasing. Create one terrain plan per phase (Shape, Seize Initiative, Dominate) and use objectives to track phase-specific tasks and transition criteria between phases.