Enabled to win in the complex world: mission command in the small units of lithuanian armed forces

The bachelor thesis is titled “Enabled to win in the complex world: Mission Command in the small units of Lithuanian Armed Forces.” The thesis analyses how small units of Lithuanian armed forces implement the officially policy declared in strategic – defence documents of Lithuania. The main purpose of this study is to find out whether the Mission Command is practically applied and does well on principal indicators during exercises of the small units. The study relies on a premise that since the nature of armed conflicts is changing and evolving, the significance and responsibility for small units is increasing respectively as the decisions they have to make potentially affect strategic and operational levels. First goal is to overview theoretical background explaining the increased significance of small units and its relation to strategic, operational and tactical levels by analysing the scientific literature and identify key elements of Lithuania military strategy. The second goal is to formulate methodological principles and the final research design. The methods used in this thesis are textual analysis, observation and vignettes. These three methods are assembled in order to complement data collection and to get more objective results. Textual analysis is used to analyse written texts; observation method is the active collection of information from a primary source; vignettes method is used as a tool to find out respondents thinking and mindset about Mission Command by presenting hypothetical questions. According to the Lithuanian military strategy, Land Forces - the constituent and biggest part of Lithuanian Armed forces – is regarded as the main body in the military structure, designated to implement set of strategic goals. Followed by this assertion, small units of land forces are chosen as an object of observation. The results are divided into two evaluation sections: analysis of commander actions and analysis of units (subordinates) actions including orders of tasks; content of tasks; and intervention made by commander. Vignettes method is implemented during observation in order to justify the objectivity of field work analysis and collected results. The third goal is to evaluate and explain currently implementing activities by interpreting the results obtained, whether Lithuanian armed forces apply one of the key principals – Mission Command – in tactical level during trainings processes. According to the analysis of Lithuanian documents, the concept of the Mission Command is one of the key doctrinal elements in Lithuanian Armed forces, followed by importance to prepare Strategic Corporals for a changing character of armed conflicts. Looking at observation results, it can be stated that both observed cases are similar concerning the evaluated criteria and features. Answers to situational questions and general statements about the importance of small units and Mission Command confirmed the observation results. Needless to say that Mission Command is defined as a command with a given task but with a freedom to choose how it should be done. To sum up, it should be underlined that small units of Lithuanian Armed force tries to apply the concept of Mission Command but it is not implemented to a full extent. Additionally, there is no proper institutionalization of Mission Command practice as it could be understood by observing exercises and talking with participants. Despite the fact that this research is composed only from two cases, primary assumption could be made by affirming that the institutional memory is not collected and kept, and is changing over a few years when the new commander is appointed. All of that leads to conclusion that Mission Command in the Lithuanian Armed Forces does not have a firm footing and is an ad hoc condition