Joint Targeting

An entity (person, place, or thing) considered for possible engagement or action to alter or neutralize the function it performs for the adversary

Planned operations and the commander's objective(s)/end state

• Facilities
• Individuals
• Virtual realm
• Equipment
• Organizations (FIVE-O)

• Physical
• Functional
• Cognitive
• Environmental
• Temporal

• Focused - Achieving JFC's objective
• Effects-based - Produce specific effects (physical, functional, or psychological)
• Interdisciplinary - Operations, intelligence, legal, geospatial, etc.
• Systematic - Achieve effects in a systematic manner

A target's operational importance is determined by planned operations and the commander's objective(s)/end state

A six-phase, iterative process that methodically analyzes, prioritizes, and assigns assets against targets to create effects that will contribute to the achievement of the JFC's objectives.

A group formed by the JFC to accomplish broad targeting oversight functions.

A target the enemy commander requires for successful completion of the mission.

A high value target whose loss to the enemy will significantly contribute to the success of the friendly course of action

A target requiring immediate response because it is a highly lucrative, fleeting target of opportunity or it poses (or soon will pose) a danger to friendly forces.

Those elements a system requires in order to enable enemy capabilities and/or actions which are the focus of the commander's objectives and thus the source of the desired direct and cascading effects on the system

They often enable the functioning of several interrelated parts of the system, and so affecting them in the right way can disable several components, or even cause cascading system-wide failure.

An aspect of a critical requirement which is deficient or vulnerable to direct or indirect attack that will create decisive or significant effect

• Deliberate
• Dynamic

• Scheduled
• On-call
• Unplanned
• Unanticipated

• prosecutes planned targets known to exist with engagement scheduled to create effects which support JFC objectives
• Scheduled
• On-call

• prosecutes targets of opportunity and changes to planned targets or objective
• Unplanned
• Unanticipated

A target which will be prosecuted at a specific time

A target for which actions are planned, but not for specific delivery time

A target that is unknown or not expected

A target that is known to exist in operational environment but which is not prosecuted at this time

Joint Fires Element (with Joint Force Commander's approval)

• Target Analysis
• TGT vetting
• TGT validation
• TGT nomination
• ID intel gaps

An all-source examination of potential target systems to determine relevance to stated objectives, military importance, and priority of attack

A prioritized list of targets approved and maintained by the JFC

• Not time-constrained nor rigidly sequential
• Steps may occur concurrently
• Provides an essential framework to describe the steps to conduct joint targeting

The military end state is the set of required conditions that defines achievement of all military objectives for the operation.

Objectives are the basis for developing the desired effects and scope of target development, and are coordinated among strategists, planners, and intelligence analysts for approval by the commander.

JIPOE helps target developers prioritize an adversary's target systems

When the JFC assigns a J3.