The IDF Design Process

Learning and Knowledge Development Processes for the Development of Concepts at the General Staff Headquarters and the Major HQ Levels

09.02.20
Brigadier General Moti Baruch, Head of Doctrine and Training Division, J3

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PREFACE

Design is a learning process of the commander of the military (Chief of Staff) or the commander of a major HQ (regional command like Northern Command or service like the Air Force), and its purpose is to build a concept for force employment and to direct planning, in order to handle a challenge or an operational problem in a given context.

The purpose of this document is to present the principles and stages in the implementation of Design.

  1. The core method (illustrated in this document through the development of the operational concept, referred to in this document as the campaign concept) is a process of joint learning for the [IDF] General Staff Headquarters and the regional commands regarding a rival system or theater of war, in which:

    1. The General Staff HQ leads the learning process in cooperation with a major HQ

    2. The major HQ researches and formulates a campaign concept applicable to the entire theater with which it is dealing, and not only in relation to narrower boundaries of the regional command.

    3. As the process matures, it will be brought up for discussion before the General Staff HQ. After that discussion, the adopted concept will be compiled, and the General Staff HQ will publish the binding concept.

    4. This concept is the foundation for the campaign planning process (for details see the instruction “Design and Planning within General Staff Headquarters”).

  2. The chapters of this document present the following subjects:

    1. The need for learning processes, the difference and the connection between them and the existing planning process, the General Staff HQ as “learning system.”

    2. Principles of the Design process.

    3. The four stages of the Design process.

    4. The link between the operational concept and plans.

    5. Principles for a follow‐on process of vetting the concept from the time of its creation, in order to identify a need to update it.

  3. This document was written at the Dado Center, and is based on knowledge accumulated in a brigadier generals course, in recent IDF operational knowledge development processes and more.