What is the primary focus during the Course of Action Development step?

The primary focus during the Course of Action Development step is on creating various viable options to solve the mission. This stage involves generating multiple courses of action (COAs) that can effectively address the mission requirements and objectives. The intent is to explore different tactical, operational, or strategic approaches that could be considered for implementation, enabling the decision-makers to select the most suitable one later in the process.

This step emphasizes creativity and critical thinking, as it is crucial to offer a diverse array of options that consider various factors such as time, terrain, and enemy capabilities. This comprehensive approach ensures that the command has several alternatives to evaluate moving forward, providing flexibility in decision-making and enhancing the chances of mission success.

Other aspects, such as evaluating resource availability, testing actions via simulations, or determining the mission statement, are important but come into play at different phases of the MDMP. Resource evaluation might occur in other steps to assess feasibility, while simulations and mission statements contribute to refining choices and framing the overall planning context but do not feature as the primary objective during the Course of Action Development.