Handbook for Military Support to Essential Services and Critical Infrastructure: Unified Action Handbook Series Book Two

This Handbook for Military Support to Essential Services and Critical Infrastructure provides fundamental guidance, planning considerations, techniques, and procedures for the development of essential services and critical infrastructure (ES&CI) during Phase 0, “Shaping” operations or restoration of ES&CI in the wake of a natural disaster or combat during joint operation phases IV, “Stabilize,” and V, “Enable Civil Authority.” This handbook is not intended to stand alone as a planning guide, but instead to complement the planning that would be required to better integrate all elements of national capacity in response to an overseas contingency or in support of military engagement, security cooperation, and deterrence activities. Its primary purpose is to provide guidance for joint force commanders and military planners during the post-conflict period, since the military likely will continue to contribute to ES&CI restoration throughout the post-conflict period. It is designed to help lay the groundwork for a successful transition between military and civilian authorities in situations where the armed forces for whatever reason find themselves as the de facto governing authority responsible for providing essential governmental services for a civilian population. It is titled to emphasize that although infrastructure projects provide visible evidence of progress and represent a straightforward engineering problem, their larger purpose is to support delivery of some particular governmental or community-wide service. In conventional war one objective is to destroy the infrastructure that the adversary uses to support its combat effort. In today’s conflicts, a principal objective is to win the confidence of the population and convert the adversary to become a partner who contributes to stability. The preservation and development of the critical infrastructure to function effectively and serve the needs of the population is an important component in winning the confidence and support of the population. Thus, judgment on how to limit the destruction of infrastructure is important to support rapid post-conflict recovery. Once large-scale combat concludes, recent experience (e.g., Operations ENDURING FREEDOM and IRAQI FREEDOM) has demonstrated that the same military units conducting the combat will likely remain to initiate post-conflict restoration of ES&CI. It is in the initial portion of the post-conflict period, with uncertain security conditions for civilians, that the military may bear significant responsibility for ES&CI restoration. This handbook defines the services (water, sanitation, transportation, medical, etc.) needed to sustain civilian populations, the infrastructure needed to deliver such services, why delivery of such services is critical, and the appropriate roles military forces can play to enable service delivery. It describes the nature of the situations that will be faced and provides both general guidance on addressing recovery problems and contact references to obtain specialized assistance. It covers both steady-state Phase 0 and post-conflict Phases IV and V ES&CI-related operations. It stresses that civilians are generally the supported entity for ES&CI-related operations, and urges that where security conditions inhibit civilian deployment they be invited to embed with military units to the extent possible.