Facilitating Joint Operations: The Evolving Battlefield Coordination Element.

Military operations in the early 1980's envisioned multiple echelons of Soviet forces attacking forward deployed NATO units based in western Germany. Doctrinal thinking and publication focused on how best to stop this Army once it began its race across Germany. Airland battle doctrine offered time and distance as important elements for consideration towards any successful solution to the problem that planners faced. Attacking the enemy early, and in depth, before the clash of close combat operations would allow NATO forces to defeat the Soviets in smaller, sequenced pieces. This doctrine required that the land and air forces work together in order to best maximize their efforts. In turn, organizations were needed to help effect the coordination and synchronization needed to defeat the enemy. This monograph discusses the evolving doctrine of FM100-13 which addresses one of these linking organizations, the Battlefield Coordination Detachment (BCD). The BCD serves a valuable function for the land component commander (LCC), because it links the ground scheme of maneuver with the air component commander's planned air operations. The organization has many functions and ultimately facilitates the synchronization of air support for Army operations in the areas of air interdiction, close support, theater airlift, army airspace command and control and air defense. The paper traces the short history of the BCD from the early 1980's, to its first real use in Operation Just Cause, through Desert Storm, and ultimately to its evolving form as reflected in FM 100-13. The BCD will have more personnel, equipment, and enjoy a broader role than early doctrine envisioned. Because of its relatively meager resource requirements, the BCD will play a big part in the Army's future contingency operations. Moreover, the new doctrine prescribes how the BCD will interface with the other services as well as the Air Force, in order to receive air support. In an era of shrinking resources, the BCD is an organization that allows the commander to get ‘the most' out of assets supporting his ground campaign.