METT-TC: We All Know The Mission Variables? But What Do We Know About Them?

From the early days of basic training, Soldiers are taught to evaluate missions using the Mission Variables, also known as METT-TC.

You probably recall them from your basic training (or OSUT) smart book. But what are their roots in doctrine, and how do these seeds of a key doctrinal concept interact with the rest of doctrine?

ADP 1-01 (Army Doctrine Primer) is a great place to start: 4-16. “Mission variables are the categories of specific information needed to conduct operations. The mission variables are mission, enemy, terrain and weather, troops and support available, time available, and civil considerations (known as METT-TC). The purpose of mission variables is to provide a set of information categories focused on what commanders and staffs need to know to achieve situational understanding once assigned a mission. Commanders and staffs use mission variables as a filter to extract information from the operational variables that staffs need to conduct an operation and commanders need to exercise mission command.”

ADP 1-01 also gives a road map for the interaction of operational variables and mission variables: 5-2. “Everything related to the conduct of operations is part of an operational environment, the one category that accounts for all political, military, economic, social, information, infrastructure, physical environment, and time (known as PMESII PT or operational variables) considerations that influence operations and training for operations. These variables need to be captured and continuously updated by analysis in running estimates and understood by the commander and staff even before the assignment of a mission. Operational variables may reside in any of the domains (air, land, maritime, space, and cyberspace). Once a mission is assigned, a commander and staff’s analysis is framed by the mission variables (known as METT-TC), which narrows down the operational variables to those that affect a specific mission.”

Recall from yesterday’s dose of doctrine, the ACSOPE framework of civil considerations for evaluations the operational variables. ASCOPE puts PMESII-PT in direct interaction with METT-TC.

Want a deeper dive on the primaries of doctrine? It doesn’t get any more primary than ADP 1-01, Army Doctrine Primer, available at this link.

Source: ADP 1-01.