What is the purpose of operational art?

• A. To manage daily logistics tasks.
• B. To design campaigns and major operations that integrate ends, ways, and means to achieve strategic goals.
• C. To generate tactical fire support plans.
• D. To evaluate weather impacts on operations.

Answer: (B)

Operational art is the design and conduct of campaigns and major operations that integrate ends, ways, and means to achieve strategic goals. It covers how to translate broad strategic intent into coordinated, time-phased actions across theaters and domains, aligning desired outcomes with the available resources and the way those resources will be employed. This approach creates synchronized plans that connect strategic objectives to operational campaigns and, ultimately, to tactical actions on the ground. Daily logistics tasks stay within sustainment and execution at lower levels, tactical fire support planning focuses on battlefield-level actions, and evaluating weather impacts is an important consideration for planning but not the purpose of shaping campaigns and major operations.