Mission-type tactics (Auftragstaktik) have (arguably) been a central component of the tactics of German armed forces since the 19th century.
In mission-type tactics, the military commander gives their subordinate leaders a clearly defined goal (the mission), the forces needed to accomplish that goal and a time frame within which the goal must be reached. The subordinate leaders then implement the order independently. The subordinate leader is given, to a large extent, the planning initiative and a freedom in execution which allows a high-degree of flexibility at the Operational and Tactical levels of command. Mission-type Orders free the higher leadership from tactical details.
Mission type tactics assume the possibility of violating other, previously expressed limitations as a step to achieving a mission and is a concept most easily sustained in a decentralised command culture. This is quite alien to any organisation in which, at every level, a subordinate commander is only expected (and, therefore, trained) to follow detailed orders.
This has significant implications for any Army considering the adoption of Auftragstaktik. To clarify, the classic German approach called for every commander to be trained to function effectively at 2 levels of command above his appointment (a platoon commander would be expected to control Battalion actions, if need be - and platoon commander was - and is - an NCO appointment in the German Army).
Some would say that today, such a culture is associated only with elite units and not a whole army. Certainly few armies seem to have mastered the approach. The Wehrmacht are perhaps the most perfect example - a degree of competence achieved only after rigorous training under Hans von Seeckt between 1919 and 1935.
This style of command originates in a state (Prussia) which perceived itself as small, surrounded by enemies, and in imminent danger of destruction.
After the First World War, this monitoring, coaching and training role built a level of trust, competency and understanding across the whole 4000 strong German post-war officer corps which made a new level of excellence possible.
Excellence in this case is derived in part from the tradition of Gerhard von Scharnhorst, Carl von Clausewitz and Helmuth von Moltke and was based upon the premise that hard-and-fast rules had no place in the environment of war, which was the realm of human emotion, friction, chance and uncertainty.
Auftragstaktik encourages commanders to exhibit initiative, flexibility and improvisation while in command. In what may be seen as surprising to some, Auftragstaktik empowers commanders to disobey orders and revise their effect as long as the intent of the commander is maintained.
Effectiveness
Analysis by the US Army of the 1939 German campaign in Poland found that “The emphasis which the Germans placed on the development of leadership and initiative in commanders during years of preparatory training brought its rewards in the Polish campaign. With confidence that these principles had been properly inculcated, all commanders, from the highest to the lowest echelons, felt free to carry out their missions or meet changes in situations with a minimum of interference by higher commanders.” They recognized that “initiative, flexibility and mobility” were the essential aspects of German tactics.
The domination of the battlefield, combined with the difficulty of discerning the pattern of the attacker’s assault which uses integrated command of combined arms teams, means that conventional force strategies are rendered ineffective as the “Front seemed to disappear”.
Recent research has shown that, apart from the well known processes of “Fire, Move and Communicate”, the key success factor in US Marine Corps operations was “the recognition that the situation was not that which was expected”.