A military operation plan (also called a war plan before World War II) is a formal plan for military armed forces, their military organizations and units to conduct operations, as drawn up by commanders within the combat operations process in achieving objectives before or during a conflict. Military plans are generally produced in accordance with the military doctrine of the troops involved.
Plan XVII and the Schlieffen Plan are examples of World War I military plans. The United States developed a famous color-coded set of war plans in the early 20th century; see United States color-coded war plans.
Military plans often have codenames.
In the U.S. military, an Operation Plan (OPLAN) is a complete and detailed plan for conducting joint military operations. An OPLAN is developed by the Combatant Commander (CCDR) of a Unified Combatant Command in response to actual or potential situations for which military operations may be required. An OPLAN is executed when the commander issues an operations order (OPORD), or when the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) issues an execute order (EXORD) at the direction of the United States Secretary of Defense (Secdef) to implement a decision by the President to initiate military operations. A concept plan (CONPLAN) is an operation plan in concept form, often lacking the level of details normally found in other military plans.