An essential part of both ABOLC and IBOLC, as well as several other BOLCs, is learning how to develop a platoon-level OPORD. As a future leader, you are working toward becoming an effective planner. While you will continue to learn and grow once you arrive at your unit as a platoon leader, you must arrive with a solid foundation in planning.

At BOLC, you will receive instruction and conduct practical exercises on the TLPs and the development of the associated OPORD. It is essential that you leave with a clear understanding of the TLPs, including how they are applied in an operational environment, how they enable a full team effort, how they guide the production of a complete OPORD, and how they allow you to lead the planning process. This foundation will prepare you not only for Ranger School but also for your upcoming role as a platoon leader.

Remember, at BOLC your goal is to excel as a platoon leader in the operational force, not just as a student.

One of your many tasks that you will complete in order to produce your friendly COA sketch. 

This article references FM 1-02.2, FM 5-0, ATP 3-21.8, ATP 3-21.10, and the Ranger Handbook. 

 

How the TLPs Shape Your COA Sketch

OPORDs at the platoon and company level are built using the TLPs. That planning methodology helps you prepare and plan for an upcoming operation. Building an OPORD is not a stand alone process. 

In Step 1 of the TLPs, you have received your mission from higher and begin to review what they provided. In Step 2, you form and brief your WARNO to your unit. This gets them aware of what's ahead, and begins your effort to plan and prepare as an element. 

Within Step 3, your forming your initial plan. This is where your "pen to paper" creation of the OPORD begins. In Step 3, you will complete your mission analysis, which includes considering the mission variables (TMT-CET, or METT-TC(I)). Upon completion of that analysis, you will identify for decisive point, and review considerations for communications and electronic warfare. 

Within your mission variable analysis, as you analyze the enemy, you'll be making a similar COA sketch from their point of view as well. The enemy COA sketch will include the same concept we detail here from the friendly POV. 

You will then move into the second half of TLP Step 3, COA (course of action) Development. This is your high-level friendly plan for reaching mission success. The fine details will be included later in your scheme of maneuver, which doesn’t occur until TLP Step 6.   

After the completion of the previously listed portions of Step 3, you probably are already beginning to visualize a potential course of action. You analyzed the mission variables, including developing an enemy MLCOA and MDCOA. You now figure out all the details of your course of action using AGADAP. AGADAP provides a structured, step by step method, to get it figured out. While you won’t brief every portion of AGADAP in your final order, you will brief your concept of operations, COA statement, and COA sketch, which are produced after the first several steps. 

Your AGADAP process includes:

1. Analyzing relative combat power (RCP)
2. Generating options
3. Arraying forces
4. Developing concept of operations
5. Assigning responsibilities
6. Preparing COA statement and sketch

This article will focus on that 6th step, the P, is AGADAP. In order to reach this step, you should sequential move through the other steps of AGADAP. The previous 5 steps prior to preparing your COA statement and sketch help you determine what your sketch should look like. If you dive straight into your sketch without the other steps, you risk having an incomplete / under-developed plan. 

 

COA Sketch - Overview

The COA sketch provides a picture of the movement and maneuver aspects of the concept, including positioning of forces. It specifically depicts the organization of forces and the application of combat power at the decisive point.

While the COA statement you'll form earlier in AGADAP did detail some specific items, like the decisive point, the COA sketch overall is more specific than the statement. It starts to put concrete details to paper through a visual representation of your plan. You can think of it as a one-page overview of your tactical plan.

A common point of confusion is that some people are tempted to include excessive detail in the COA sketch, as if it were the scheme of maneuver. It is not. This sketch is a simplified summary focused on the decisive point and other key tactical elements. It does not need to depict every phase or route of the operation. Those details will be addressed in the scheme of maneuver graphics later in your order.

 

This becomes a dilemma as you are consistently told this should be a simple quick product, then told all the items it needs to include. Ideally, all the items we’ll list below are included. However, with very limited time, cut down on these items and instead focus on precise scheme of maneuver graphics later. 

 

Your sketch is not tied to terrain and it is not to scale. It should be done on a white piece of paper because it doesn’t need a map or other graphics behind it. 

 

COA Sketch - Specifics

FM 1-02.2 provides a minimum requirement list and FM 5-0 provides a list of what is generally included. Amongst those two, slight differences exist. Your sketch goal is to provide clarity to the overall scheme. You don’t need every detail, and you only have one page to draw it. It needs to be clear enough to be viewed and understood. Balance our recommendations, with what makes sense, and the requirements of the environment that you are in.

In your COA sketch, include the following:

• The title (COA sketch) and a north seeking arrow (like all graphics you produce)
• The visual representation of all phases
  • This means you aren’t just including your objective area, but the entire operation. This is typically accomplished by not making the sketch to scale and biasing most of your space towards the objective area.
  • When needed and appropriate, you can use call out boxes to consolidate the first and last phase of the operation.
• Friendly unit symbols (at least one level down)
  • You are depicting your friendly locations at the decisive point, one level down. For example, during a platoon operation, show where your subordinate squads are at the decisive point.
  • If there is a significant weapon system(s), that can be indicated. For example, if your platoon has 1 x 60mm mortar, indicate that with the 60mm mortar graphic. Rifles and organic machine guns do not need to be indicated.
  • Key vehicles can be indicated
  • You can further indicate friendly (and enemy) known and templated positions
    • Primary battle position (solid) - covers the enemy’s most likely avenue of approach
    • Alternate (dashed) - covers primary enemy avenue of approach, serving as an alternate to your primary.
    • Supplementary (dashed) - covers non-primary avenue of approach.
    • Subsequent (dashed) - somewhere you expect to move to during the conflict.
  • For each, you may place the unit symbol inside the battle position when appropriate.
    • List the task and purpose for each unit. Within limited space, this often is more feasible (given your limited space) to do on the side in some white space. 
• Enemy locations, known or templated
  • Consider that this can look differently based on a static or mobile enemy, or if you are on the offense or defense
  • The enemy should be placed where they will appear at the decisive point
  • Rifles and machine guns do not need to be indicated
• Tactical task graphics
  • If a subordinate squad is give the task of support by fire, show the support by fire graphic with that squad
• Friendly and enemy avenues of approach
• Decisive point (purple star)
• Objective(s)
• Assemble areas, battle positions, strong points, and engagement areas
• Unit and subordinate unit boundaries
  • For platoon operations, you may not explicitly have squad boundaries, but your platoon itself was likely assigned a boundary
• Reconnaissance and security graphics
• Assembly areas, battle positions, and objectives
• Obstacle control measures
  • Show the obstacle along with their intended effect (block, disrupt, fix or turn)
• Fire support coordination and airspace coordinating measures
• Indication of main and support efforts
  • This is done by placing chevrons above the unit indicator
• Location of command and critical communication nodes
  • This is likely only relevant at company and above levels when a command post is established. For example, a platoon operating independently likely won't have one, but a company operating as part of a battalion operation may have a battalion command post. 
• Significant civil areas
  • Foe example, if a major civilian population is within your AO and relevant to your operation, it can be indicated. 
• The line of departure and phase lines
• NAIs / TAIs
• Essential DFCMs
  • While you have many you can list, save them all for your scheme of manuever. Here, we recommend TRPs and engagement areas

• Fire support coordination and airspace coordination measures
  • These can be categorized as indirect fire control measures, and help provide clarity to your indirect systems including field artillery (FA), mortars, and attack aviation. Like DFMCs, only the essentials need to be included. 
• Significant terrain
  • This isn't the sketch to include all your terrain analysis that you captured on your GTAO. Instead, include only whats vital towards big picture understanding. For example, if there is a large hill in the middle of course AO that you will go around, an indication of that can add valuable context. 
• Significant obstacles
  • Like terrain, only include what is essential. IF you are breaching on the objective for example, including that obstacle can add valuable context. 

For colors used for this product:

• Blue - friendly related graphics, including unit symbols and tactical task
• Red - enemy related graphics (unit symbols)
• Green - obstacles
• Black - your operational graphics, which includes assembly area (AA, often called “alpha alpha”), axis of advance / direction of attack, ORP, assault position, objective, unit positions, tactical task icon, direct fire control measures (DFCM), fire targets, MFPs, no fire areas (NFAs), CCPs, HLZs, and ambulance exchange points (AXPs).
• Purple - decisive point (because of its significance, it’s used to stand out from the rest)

COA Sketch - Additional Notes

• If something isn’t included on the list and you’d like to add it, do it. For example, key terrain is often not required but you may decide it’s worth including.
• You should always strive to be doctrinally accurate but use common sense. If a symbol recommended in FM 1-02.2 is obscure / unrecognizable, you are defeating the purpose of using a common operating language. For example, you may not recognize the three symbols to the right of the objective area on the COA sketch example shown below. If no one knows what the symbol is, how useful is it?
• Don’t be afraid to use something that just makes sense or just add a couple words to define it. For example, if you’re map is crowded and it’s unclear that you included a road that’s important to add, just write road next to it.
• When your graphics get crowded, you can put some information on the side. For example, task and purpose can really clog up the sketch. You can neatly put those in the margin. The goal of this sketch is to be able to provide an overview of the operation. It purposefully does not have every detail.
• The COA sketch is not something that you will produce at Ranger School during your TLPs. 

Below is an example COA sketch. This was digitally created, so it is easier to be precise and thus fit more on the page. When drawn with hand, this is far more difficult. 

This can look very different based on the scenario. This example depicts a platoon offensive operation, with four subordinate squads, conducting an attack on a static enemy squad. It is a dismounted movement starting at an assembly area and finishing at a patrol base. As is normal, the scale is off.