Air Force Doctrine Publication AFDP 5-0 Planning January 2025

This United States Air Force manual, Air Force Doctrine Publication AFDP 5-0 Planning January 2025, provides a planning methodology for Airmen to solve complex problems. All Airmen should be prepared to solve problems in contested, degraded, or operationally limited environments. The Air Force planning process (AFPP) focuses on providing commanders options to accomplish their mission. Doctrine embodies the fundamental principles by which military forces guide their actions in support of national objectives. It is a body of carefully developed and tested ideas officially approved to provide a common frame of reference for solving military problems. However, the challenge for United States Air Force (USAF) doctrine is to be simultaneously based on past experiences, applicable in the present, and leaning forward toward the future, all in equal measure. The USAF must prepare for a new reality, one in which freedom of maneuver and freedom of action are increasingly challenged. To deter, compete, and win across the competition continuum, Airmen should be ready to conduct operations in contested, degraded, and operationally limited environments. Therefore, Airmen develop an understanding of their environment, make decisions, and converge effects when disconnected from higher headquarters (HHQ). The mission command framework is centralized command, distributed control, and decentralized execution (CC-DC-DE). Mission command provides the responsiveness, flexibility, and initiative necessary to prevail in a future fight. By embracing a planning and orders development culture, USAF Service component or unit staffs (A-staffs) and Airmen at all echelons can accomplish their assigned mission while operating in uncertain, complex, and rapidly changing environments. The AFPP is intended to provide Airmen with a conceptual framework for planning across the competition continuum. Planners must be proficient in their craft to enable Agile Combat Employment (ACE), set the conditions for victory in the six fights described in the Air Force Future Operating Concept, and address problems that typically aid force optimization for great power competition. The processes contained in this publication are equally useful for addressing institutional problems that require a disciplined planning methodology. This publication should guide the air component in systematically addressing problems. All Airmen are encouraged to read this publication in conjunction with AFDP 3-0, Operations. Being familiar with doctrine, policy, and guidance related to the development and production of orders helps prepare us for the challenges we face. Throughout our history, innovative Airmen have developed and adapted technologies and employment methods to meet the challenges our nation has faced.