This seminar discusses operational warfare and strategic planning levels. It begins by defining operational warfare as planning at the theatre level to achieve tactical goals and objectives. It then outlines the 4 levels of strategic planning: grand strategy sets overall war goals; strategy involves high-level logistics and campaign planning; operations coordinates tactical details to achieve strategic aims; and tactics implements operational goals. Blitzkrieg is provided as an example of operational warfare, allowing rapid German expansion through concentrated armor and air support attacks. Emerging concepts like satellite communications and network-centric warfare are also noted.

1. A Seminar on Operational Warfare
Raman Kumar

2. About
I am a student of the B.A. Strategic
studies course available in the School of
Strategic Studies on an Online Education
Portal called Wikiversity
I have prepared this seminar which is
mandatory as per the Fourth year
syllabus of the course
I am sharing this content as the
Wikipedia and the Wikiversity content is
available under the ‘CC-BY-SA 3.0’
license

3. Introduction
It represents the levels of Command in
a Military Operation
It takes care of all aims and objectives
at the Tactical level
It co-ordinates Tactical details to
achieve all the Strategic goals of a
particular Military Operation

4. 4 levels of Strategic Planning
Grand Strategy
Strategy
Operations (also called
Grand Tactics) {our topic}
Tactics

5. Grand Strategy
Its includes the decision to go
to war, the drafting of Rules of
Engagement, and the decision
on the Goals to be achieved by
a military operation
The ruling government is works
at this level in military strategy.
At this level, War planning
takes place

6. Strategy
At this level, all the High-level
military planning takes place.
This work primarily involves
Logistics
The goals set are of lesser
scope than those of Grand
Strategy, which is concerned
with the whole war
At this level, Generals plan
military campaigns

7. Operations (also called Grand
Tactics)
At this level, in-theatre
manoeuvre and attainment of
limited objectives is planned
and carried about
This work involves
management of forces which
are attempting to achieve the
Tactical goals
At this level, the General staff
does the planning

8. Tactics
At this level, the simple goals
set by the Operational level of
command are all divided into
various sub tasks. These sub
tasks are called tactical goals
This level is primarily
concerned with implementation
of those goals
At this level, the Commanding
officers do the planning

9. Operations
Operational warfare is considered on a
large enough scale that the tactical
factors, such as
Line-of-sight
Time of day
It does not deal with issues connected to:
Strategic level
Political level
Diplomatic level

10. Blitzkrieg as an Example

11. About Blitzkrieg
A highly mobile form of warfare in which
infantry and armour work in combined
arms teams
Though authorized at Grand Strategy level
and planned at Strategy level and then
It got implemented at Operational level
It enabled the Germans to expand rapidly
in World War 2

12. What is Blitzkrieg?
The attack is conducted by
concentrated lines of Armor and
Mechanized Infantry
They are backed by close air support
which acts like flying artillery
They aim to deliver short, powerful
and effective attacks to force a
breakthrough in enemy’s line of

13. Emerging concepts in
Operational warfare
MILSATCOM
C4ISR (Command, Control,
Communications, Computers,
Intelligence, Surveillance, and
Reconnaissance)
Network centric warfare

14. Thank you for reading