Personnel Targeting Operations

The U.S. military is not currently organized to conduct effective personnel targeting operations outside of the United States. The Department of Defense needs to create an organization that can find, capture or kill designated personnel. With the events of September 11th, and the United States’; emergence of resolve to capture/kill persons who threaten U.S. national security, personnel targeting operations became more important. The U.S. military’s track record at conducting manhunt operations is poor. As evident in Operation Enduring Freedom, or past operations such as Operation Just Cause, or operations in Bosnia to detain Persons Indicted For War Crimes (PIFWC), are evidence to this fact. Planners of sensitive covert operations must have a firm understanding of the bureaucratic process. Government and institutional unit bureaucracies inherently limit the degree of operational success due to the nature of their systems, which is not timely. Bureaucracies can not move effectively beyond a predetermined operational tempo, and impose fatal restraints regarding operational tradecraft and tactics. Successful covert operations demand a flexible capability with full decentralized authority, enabling officers to initiate actions as circumstances dictate, enhancing the operational success-failure ratio. When operational teams incorporate decentralized authority in concert with good trade craft and tactical techniques, success is virtually assured. High Performance Organizations are extremely effective at achieving results. This type of organization was modeled after special operations teams from World War II, but changed to meet the demands of the business world. The recommendation of this monograph is that the Department of Defense should model its personnel targeting unit after the High Performance Organization model because of its focus at achieving results and limiting bureaucracy.

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