Quote Originally Posted by Chris jM View Post
My basic question is that is it possible to measure or identify an operational level of war? I'm not hoping to create artificial and thus meaningless labels around the inherently chaotic activity of war, but the whole label of an 'operational' level of war seems very vague in doctrinal definitions. The reason I want to do this is that my army seems determined on 'strategising' every single act we undertake - the strategic corporal means a Platoon HQ must be a strategic entity, therefore the entirety of a Bn HQ is strategic, so on and so forth. It's a rather self-defeating process as it gets us nowhere bar inflating the self-importance of some, but it's a difficult proposition to argue against.
I do not think there is an "Operational Level." I think it's rubbish and have thought so for some time. - and especially since reading Naveh and Simpkin who were both professed to be experts in understanding and describing it.
What the Russians coined as the "Operational Level" was basically "Formation and Divisional Tactics."