In campaign planning, what connects strategic objectives to synchronized actions across domains?

• A. Mission statement
• B. Commander’s intent
• C. Operational design
• D. Rules of engagement

Answer: (C)

Operational design is what translates strategic aims into a concrete plan that coordinates actions across different domains. It takes broad ends and develops a campaign and major operations that link those ends to ways and means, arranging tasks, sequencing actions, and establishing how forces and activities in military, political, economic, and information domains will be synchronized. This ensures a coherent approach where actions in one domain support and reinforce others toward the desired end state.

A mission statement expresses purpose but doesn’t lay out how to execute or synchronize across domains. The commander’s intent conveys the purpose and desired end state but without the detailed design to connect actions across domains. Rules of engagement set constraints on force use, not the integrated plan that links strategic objectives to synchronized activities. Operational design specifically provides that integrated, cross-domain plan.