Operational Risk Management at the Operational Level of War.

Abstract

Abstract : Risk is fundamental to the nature of all military action. The success of the operational commander relies upon the proper balance of risk required to triumph in battle with the minimum level of risk necessary to accomplish the assigned mission. One method of effectively maintaining this balance is through deliberate risk assessment and management during all planning levels. Operational Risk Management (ORM) is a systematic risk assessment and management process recently implemented by the U.S. Navy. This paper will apply ORM fundamentals and principles to two operational case studies to assess applicability at the operational level of war. The ORM process consists of five steps: risk identification, risk assessment, risk acceptability, control implementation and supervision and is based on four principles: accept risk when benefits outweigh the costs, accept no unnecessary risk, anticipate and manage risk by planning and make risk decisions at the right level. This paper concludes, from a risk analysis of the Battles of Anzio and Leyte, that the five step ORM process provides a specific methodology for operational commanders to anticipate, evaluate and ultimately reduce risk to that level commensurate with accomplishing the mission. The analysis of Anzio and Leyte also illustrated the repercussions of not correctly applying all five steps of ORM in the planning and execution process.