Friendly Opposition: The Red Team's Role in Strengthening Operation Design

This research paper suggests a framework for improved decision analysis through the alternative perspective and critical analysis provided by commanders' red teams. It defines red team activity as it relates to the Joint Operations Planning Process (JOPP), discusses shortfalls in existing red team usage, and establishes a framework for integrating red team analysis throughout the planning process to improve decision analysis. It uses the 1945 British counteroffensive, led by Field Marshall William Slim, to illustrate how red team analysis at both the theater-strategic and operational levels of war support decision analysis. Serving as a semi-independent, but fully integrated, part of commander' planning staffs, the red team provides a measure of apperception, enabling critical analysis of operational plans unconstrained by a single cultural point of view or operational perspective. Through independent problem framing and strategy development from an adversary's perspective, the red team can improve decision analysis to help commanders mitigate risk and better exploit emergent opportunities. While red team usage above the tactical level of war has been hindered by a variety of factors, the value of enabling alternative analysis by recognizing red teaming as a formal discipline promises to advance its effectiveness. The alignment of the JOPP with operational design, decision analysis and the friendly opposition afforded by robust red teaming, work in concert to advance a commander's ability to capably lead operational planning in an increasingly complex security environment.