UNCLASSIFIED // FOR EXERCISE / TRAINING USE ONLY (E)

# COMMANDER'S INITIAL PLANNING GUIDANCE (CIPG) — OPERATION CORAL TEMPEST

**From:** Commander, United States Indo-Pacific Command **To:** USINDOPACOM Staff; Commander, Joint Task Force CORAL (on establishment) **Subject:** Initial planning guidance for mission analysis — FHA/HADR, Republic of Vanuatu **Reference:** CJCS Execute Order, Operation CORAL TEMPEST; JP 3-29; JP 5-0

## 1. Initial understanding of the problem

A catastrophic cyclone has struck a partner archipelago at a moment of internal political uncertainty, and a competitor is already present and visibly providing relief. The command's task is to provide foreign disaster relief quickly and credibly, by, with, and through the FRANZ partners, without crossing the threshold into an armed incident and without displacing the civilian and host-nation lead. The hard problems are problems of access, legitimacy, and reach — not of combat.

## 2. Commander's intent (initial)

The relief effort is to be fast, visibly cooperative with the affected state and the FRANZ partners, and disciplined in keeping the United States military in a support and assist role. Speed and legitimacy are to be weighed together; neither a slow response nor an overbearing one serves the end state. The command's standing is best protected by enabling others and by being seen to respect Vanuatu sovereignty.

## 3. Planning priorities (in order)

The staff is directed to prioritize the analysis as follows:

1.  Feasibility of relief delivery given degraded ports and the distances involved.

2.  Host-nation consent and legitimacy, and the civilian (USAID) and host-nation lead.

3.  Coordination and integration with the FRANZ partners and the United Nations humanitarian system.

4.  Escalation management and deconfliction with co-located competitor forces.

5.  Force protection and the preservation of humanitarian neutrality.

## 4. Guidance on tempo and risk

Time is a weighted factor: human suffering and the competition for legitimacy both reward speed, but not at the cost of an incident or a sovereignty violation. The staff is to surface where speed and prudence are in tension and to frame those tensions for decision rather than resolving them by assumption.

## 5. Planning constraints and boundaries

- DOS and USAID are the lead agency. INDOPACOM offers the lead agency capabilities not reasonably available from civilian or host-nation sources.

- No activity is to be planned on Vanuatu sovereign territory that presumes consent not yet granted.

- Nothing in the relief effort is to be planned in a manner that could be construed as an armed challenge to competitor forces.

## 6. Direction on analytic products

The staff is to conduct a full mission analysis in accordance with JP 5-0 and to brief, at minimum: higher mission and intent; facts and assumptions; specified, implied, and essential tasks; constraints and restraints; centers of gravity; risk; military objectives and evaluation criteria; the commander's critical information requirements; the restated mission; and an initial force and sustainment assessment. **The commander's critical information requirements and the decision points the analysis must support are to be derived and nominated by the staff; none are pre-specified in this guidance.** Carry forward that there is no single right answer in mission analysis; present a sound, doctrinally grounded analysis and identify clearly where commander's decisions are required.

UNCLASSIFIED // FOR EXERCISE / TRAINING USE ONLY (E)

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