Operational warfare is, within warfare and military doctrine, the level of command which coordinates the minute details of tactics with the overarching goals of strategy. Formations are of the operational level if they are able to conduct operations on their own, and are of sufficient size to be directly handled or have a decisive impact at the strategic level. This concept was pioneered by the German and Soviet armies prior to and in the Second World War.

What constitutes the operational-level has thus changed with the size and function of armies. During the Second World War and Cold War, an operational-level formation was typically a corps or army. In the reduced military deployments of the post-Cold War era, the brigade of approximately six-thousand men has emerged among some militaries (notably the United States Army) as an operational-level formation.

References

• Simpkin, Richard E. Race to the Swift: Thoughts on Twenty-First Century Warfare. Brassey's, 2000.