ABSTRACT
Operational planning deals with developing and rehearsing plans for campaigns and major operations by using tenets of operational art. In generic terms, the basic types of planning are sequential, parallel or concurrent and collaborative. In a global war, the military-strategic or theater-strategic commanders would be responsible for planning two or more campaigns, to be conducted sequentially or even simultaneously. The operational planning process should be conducted continuously in peacetime and in war. During the planning, operational commanders and their staffs must assess relatively large number of military and nonmilitary aspects of the situation in a given maritime theater. A creative operational commander can use subordinate multiservice combat arms/branches symmetrically and/or asymmetrically. A major naval operation is normally an integral part of a maritime or littoral campaign. In a global war, one of the primary responsibilities of the national or coalition/alliance strategic leadership is to prioritize the accomplishment of the military or theater-strategic objectives.
