Toward a Single, Integrated Planning and Execution System Deployment Planning in the Expeditionary Aerospace Force

The Joint Operation Planning and Execution System (JOPES) is a combination of joint policies, procedures, and automated data processing (ADP) support used to plan and execute joint military operations. While JOPES defines three interrelated planning processes, circumstances of the past decade induced the Air Force to progress toward two distinct and segregated planning processes. Over time, technical and organizational disconnects had handicapped the highly structured peacetime deliberate planning process. Consequently, the Air Force planning process no longer adequately supported the dynamic environment of crisis action planning. To obtain the flexibility required to deploy personnel to small-scale contingencies and multiple rotational deployments, the Air Force developed a separate, unrelated process to perform individual rotational requirements. The inability of either system to adequately support the gradual escalation of events during the Air War Over Serbia (AWOS), and the consequent loss of situational awareness to existing Major Theater War (MTW) OPLANs, mandate a change to Air Force deployment planning and execution processes. To meet the rapid planning and execution timelines required of an Expeditionary Aerospace Force, the Air Force must take positive actions to achieve the collaborative planning and execution system envisioned as far back as the mid-1960s.