Army Techniques Publication ATP 6-0.5 Command Post Organization And Operations March 2017 A command post is a unit headquarters where the commander and staff perform their activities during operations. (JP 3-0) Based on the situation, commanders organize their mission command system (personnel, networks, information systems, processes and procedures, facilities and equipment) into CPs to assist them in the exercise of mission command. Headquarters have evolved throughout military history. In the nineteenth century, Napoleon recognized that a headquarters that provided the planning and analytic capability for a campaign was too large to use in battle. He exercised command through a smaller grouping brought forward from the larger headquarters. By World War II, U.S. Army doctrine clearly specified dividing an organization's headquarters into two echelons: forward and rear. AirLand Battle doctrine of the 1980s to the late 1990s focused on an echeloned threat and a linear battlefield. Units echeloned their headquarters into a rear CP, main CP, and tactical CP. In 2003, the Army undertook a fundamental shift from a division-based force toward a brigade-based force. Army transformation and modularity significantly modified the roles and organization of division through theater Army headquarters to include eliminating the rear CP. The relatively fixed nature of operations following major combat in Iraq and Afghanistan led to units establishing large, static, and complex CPs. Units often operated from a single and fixed CP within a forward operating base. While this technique was appropriate to the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Army forces must be prepared to operate across the range of military operations to include fast paced and large scale combat operations over great distances. As such, headquarters must be capable of deploying, constructing, camouflaging and concealing, operating, echeloning, positioning, and displacing CPs rapidly in austere environments. To reduce deployment time and increase the mobility, agility, and survivability of CPs, the Army is currently modifying CP organization for division and corps headquarters. Division and corps headquarters are in the process of converting their headquarters to operate from a home station CP and forward CP. This publication provides a framework for the employment of this new design in appendix E. The ability to conduct effective CP operations is essential for a headquarters to sustain continuous operations. Commanders and staffs develop command post SOPs that address staff organization, CP layouts, knowledge management, battle rhythm, planning, battle drills, security and life support. Commanders ensure their staffs are trained on CP operations and direct revisions to the SOP as required. This publication provides techniques and best practices to assist commanders and staffs in organizing, employing, and operating CPs.