EURAFSWA has adopted its own variant of an OODA loop called the Operational Readiness Cycle (ORC). OODA Loop refers to the decision cycle of observe, orient, decide, and act, developed by United States Air Force Colonel John Boyd. He applied the concept to military strategy and combat operations.

"The ORC was created to better handle requests for using Region's finite resources and to efficiently reduce over-capacity issues," said Rear Adm. Rick Williamson, commander, Navy Region EURAFSWA "This is particularly critical at installations such as Naval Support Activity Souda Bay and Naval Air Station Sigonella, where a high volume of requests are common, due to the overlapping areas of responsibilities of adjacent combatant commands."

ORC is a holistic approach for EURAFSWA to allocate its resources to requesters. It uses tools of observation, such as daily ops briefs, staff sync meetings, quarterly business plans, to cycle back and orient the strategies created by the combatant commands and Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC), which in turn further effects the mission's eight lines of operation, and reveals the strategy's effectiveness or failures through further observations. The strategy is then refined by observing decisions in action through our lines of operation at our installations. It allows us to incorporate all of our tools of analysis from programs and to mature our mission processes from being reactive to predictive, and eventually, to proactive.

The eight mission lines of operation maximize fighting capability for the fleet. These lines consist of air operations, port operations, safety, security, housing, MWR, Fleet and Fleet and Family Services, and the core: the fuels, water and power that keep the bases running. Through these lines of operation, the installations are force multipliers that optimize combat capability of operational units.

The ORC has already found successes since its inception.
"The key to Region's success is the ability to quickly identify mission support feasibility combined with risk identification to enable an informed decision on basing options," said Kristen Gary, EURAFSWA's deputy director of Strategy and Future Requirements. "This process is made possible by Region's ORC. This cycle is a combination of analytical tools, such as the Base Capacity Assessment Tool (BCAT), combined with analytical reporting, such as daily operations briefs. This cycle gives the warfighter the gift of time. The cycle significantly streamlined Region's feasibility support assessment time, while simultaneously keeping leaders abreast of current and future missions at all times."

The ORC also plays a critical role in conveying information clearly between different communities that speak different jargon and hold different perspectives on the same issues.

"The key to success to each cog in the ORC cycle is the ability to articulate both internally within CNIC channels and externally to our operational chain of command and to the operators themselves," said Gary. "ORC offers us the ability to use our external voice to articulate the mission services we provide as a shore integrator, and the feedback enables us to improve those services."

With the consistent feedback loop in the ORC, which is informed by analytics, such as the Installation Support Request (ISR) form, Region increases its control and capabilities over its resources and capacities, and all in a timelier manner, said Gary.

"As we now have clearer visibility on the day-to-day operations," said Gary. "We are able to better understand today's demand and predict our supportability to tomorrow's requirements."

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