Multi-Domain Operations or Joint Operations?

05/03/21

Lately we have heard, on several occasions, of Multi-Domain Operations. But, what's it about?

Even in the military environment, concepts and doctrine are revised from time to time. Changes in society lead to adaptation and in the military field this means analyzing and re-analyzing the domains and ways of making war.

Talking about Multi-Domain Operations ultimately we talk about operations joint, but let's try to understand more by retracing the history of Multi-Domain Operations.

The concept originated in the United States of America. It was initially mentioned in the U.S. Army document of December 2017: "Multi-Domain Battle: Evolution of Combined Arms for the 21st Century, 2025-2040"

The document states that the change in the surrounding world, the emergence of new subjects defined as "peers" and the new risks to which the American Armed Forces are subjected, make a new concept called Multi-Domain Battle, which describes how: "US and partner forces organize, practice, and employ capabilities and methods across domains, environments, and functions over time and physical space to contest these adversaries in operations below armed conflict and, when required, defeat them in armed conflict" in the near future 2025-2040.

The document explains that the new "Multi-Domain Battle" concept describes how the environment and adversaries change, how adversaries systematically intend to achieve their strategic goals, the specific problems they bring to the Joint Force and partners and the systemic ways to compete with new opponents and, where necessary, defeat them. 

At the end of 2018, the concept began to take hold and with its diffusion in Joint environments, there was more and more talk of Multi-Domain Operations, so baptized in the December 2018 document: "The US Army in Multi-Domain Operations 2028".

The purpose of this document is to describe how the US military contributes to the core task of Joint Forces as described in the "Summary of the National Defense Strategy", ie to discourage and defeat Chinese and Russian aggression in both competition and conflict. The US Army "Multi-Domain Operations" Concept proposes detailed solutions to specific problems posed by the armies of "postindustrial, Information-based" states such as China and Russia ... 

In the recent article "Multi-Domain Operations, Awareness continues to spread about the importance of operating in multiple domains"  written by col. Marcus A. Jones (US Army - NATO JWC) and Lieutenant Colonel Josè Diaz de Leon (US Air Force - NATO JWC), the authors trace the history of the new concept and discuss its main aspects looking at the real world and indicating examples of Multi-Domain Operations in the US and NATO, where we mainly talk about Joint Operations e Joint Effects.

Indeed, NATO Joint Warfare Center has incorporated the concept of dele into its exercises Multi-Domain Operations, with particular regard to the Joint Targeting and joint fires and represents an example of training capacity Joint

The discussion around the new concept and how different it is from Joint Operations will continue for the next few years and will probably continue to transform as it logically happens in a complex and ever-changing environment, in which risks and opportunities are exacerbated by technological development and competition in all sectors: economic, diplomatic, military and information (DIME ). 

Alessandro Rugolo and Francesco Ferrante  

To learn more:

TheThreeSwords_OctoberIssue_ISO COATED.indd (born.int)

The US Army in Multi-Domain Operations 2028 | Article | The United States Army

What is a Multi-Domain Operation? | Joint Air Power Competence Center (japcc.org)