13. In the military organisations operational missions are generally planned activities that can be viewed in terms of distinct chronological stages of completion which in turn consist of shorter tasks. Operational missions do not involve combat (see combat mission, and can vary in duration from a few hours to several weeks, though usually in peacetime are limited to the working week.

14. This set of services is described in mission related terms to provide consistency with the set of possible NATO missions identified through the NATO Defense Planning Process (NDPP). Each Operational Service is dependent on one or more Information Services.