Operational Condition: Status vs. Battle Damage

[joebayles]

Operational Condition Amplifiers, or OCAs, are used to depict if an entity has one of the following conditions:

• Present
• Planned/Anticipated/Suspect
• Present/Fully Capable
• Present/Damaged
• Present/Destroyed
• Present/Full to Capacity

There are two different sets of amplifiers, however. Monochrome -

... and Full Color -

While these are meant to be interchangeable, they do not achieve the same level of support for different statuses. Currently, if using the primary OCAs, I can't tell if a unit without either fully capable or has no status; and I certainly can't demonstrate capacity. Some units use these colors to demonstrate supply levels as well (i.e. green on ammunition, amber on fuel, red on water), so the term operational condition is vague, to begin with.

Additionally, battle damage assessment is an attribute that many units want to display that may be used in conjunction with or separate from status bars. Usually a kill sheet simply displays an X over a piece of equipment or unit that has been destroyed.

Why not use status bars for the different statuses listed above, and only use the slashes or the X to demonstrate a BDA? For instance:

Symbol	Meaning
/	Firepower Kill
\	Mobility Kill
X	Catastrophic Kill

Related:

#341

[joebayles]

FYI @ottenw, @wmcgrane

[wmcgrane]

sounds like a change proposal in the making.... ;-)

[ottenw]

Army programs of record have implemented the / as stated in the approved ICP and in the published military standard: Damaged/Rendered Ineffective - Rendered Ineffective” operational condition amplifier shall be used when equipment capable of inflicting injury and/or death (IEDs or mines) is known to have been defused or rendered inoperable while under the control of friendly forces. The “Damaged” operational condition amplifier shall be used where “Rendered Ineffective” does not apply. The agreed upon description is not the clearest in the world. When an IED is rendered ineffective by an EOD technician removing the trigger, I would think this would not qualify as a Firepower Kill, Mobility Kill or Catastrophic Kill. It's rendered ineffective.