Battle Studies, Country Studies, & Staff Rides

 Allied Participation in Operation Iraqi Freedom highlights a number of key aspects of allied support to the U.S.-led operation. The presence of ground forces from so many coalition partners allowed U.S. combat forces to focus their generally superior capabilities in more contested sections of the country. This division of labor served American ends while still ensuring that our partners performed vital work that fully justified their commitment to Iraq's security. These combined operations also strengthened the ties between countries and improved the quality of interoperability between U.S. and coalition troops. Allied support played an important role in stabilizing the situation in Iraq. This short study also underscores the significant challenges that U.S. Army planners faced in Iraqi Freedom in integrating a host of different military partners into U.S. operational plans. Similar issues of working together in a complex military environment will doubtless reoccur in future operations, but the benefits of assembling such coalitions will almost certainly outweigh the problems. The United States cannot fight alone in the current operational environment, and improving the quantity and quality of our interaction with our international partners should continue to be a high priority. I commend this monograph to today's Army to read, gain insight into such combined operations, and reflect on how much support our allies can provide in future military endeavors.  - Richard W. Stewart, Chief Historian, 30 September 2011

Soon after Operation IRAQI FREEDOM began in March 2003, RAND Arroyo Center began a project, completed in January 2006, to produce an authoritative account of the planning and execution of combat and stability operations in Iraq and to recommend changes to Army plans, operational concepts, doctrine, and Title 10 functions. This report presents a broad overview of the study findings based on unclassified source material.

This monograph describes how Army forces were sustained during Operation Iraqi Freedom, examines how well this support performed, and discusses the effects on operations with an emphasis on the period from the start of ground combat to the fall of Baghdad. The findings have implications for the design of the logistics system, logistics process improvement efforts, future force design and warfighting concepts, and the acquisition of end items such as vehicles as well as logistics enablers such as those that provide logistics situational awareness.

US Defence Strategy from Vietnam to Operation Iraqi Freedomexamines the thirty-year transformation in American military thought and defence strategy that spanned from 1973 through 2003. During these three decades, new technology and operational practices helped form what observers dubbed a 'Revolution in Military Affairs' in the 1990s and a 'New American Way of War' in the 2000s. Robert R. Tomes tells for the first time the story of how innovative approaches to solving battlefield challenges gave rise to non-nuclear strategic strike, the quest to apply information technology to offset Soviet military advantages, and the rise of 'decisive operations' in American military strategy. He details an innovation process that began in the shadow of Vietnam, matured in the 1980s as Pentagon planners sought an integrated nuclear-conventional deterrent, and culminated with battles fought during blinding sandstorms on the road to Baghdad in 2003. An important contribution to military innovation studies, the book also presents an innovation framework applicable to current defence transformation efforts. This book will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, US defence policy and US politics in general.

Illusrated with full color maps and photographs. U.S. Marines in the Global War on Terrorism series. Covers the combat service support operations during Operation Iraqi Freedom between November 2002 and October 2003. Tells a story of reorganization, preparation, and execution by the 1st and 2d Force Service Support Groups. (Courtesy of Barnes & Noble)