Defence Administration and Capability Development

PME 510 · Professional Military Education · Level 500 (officers and senior staff)

A Royal Army College course on how a small force builds and sustains what it can do: setting capability goals, analysing shortfalls, finding affordable and cooperative solutions, and sustaining capability over time.

Course length: approximately 10 hours of online self-study, studied asynchronously at the student's own pace, together with any in-person practical instruction and assessment the course requires.

Foreword

An army is not only commanded; it is built and sustained, and the work of building and sustaining a force, deciding what it must be able to do, finding the means to do it, and keeping it able over time, is among the most consequential an officer can undertake, because it determines what the force will be capable of when the nation needs it. This is defence administration and capability development, and it is the institutional counterpart to the command this College otherwise teaches: where command directs the force in the operation, capability development builds the force that the operation will use. For a small state with limited means, this work is particularly demanding and particularly important, because a small force cannot build everything and must choose carefully what to build, find affordable ways to build it, and sustain what it has within tight limits.

This course teaches the senior officer how that is done. It is built for the reality of the Royal Kaharagian Army, a small, lightly armed humanitarian home-defence force of a small Principality with limited resources, for which capability development is not the lavish procurement of a wealthy power but the careful, affordable, cooperative building of the modest but real capability a small humanitarian and defensive force needs. The course teaches what capability actually is and what makes it up; how to set sound capability goals grounded in what the force must be able to do; how to analyse the shortfall between what the force has and what it needs; how to find affordable and cooperative solutions to close that shortfall within a small state's means; how to prioritise among competing needs and balance the investment within a fixed envelope; how to plan capability under the uncertainty of an unknown future; how to generate ready forces from the capability the force holds; how to adapt capability to keep pace with a changing world; and how to sustain capability over time. Throughout, it holds to the disciplines a small state's defence work most requires: clear priorities, honest analysis, affordability, cooperation, and the sustaining of what is built.

How this course works

This is an advanced professional course, studied online lesson by lesson, with a short capability-planning staff exercise assessed in person. It assumes the command and staff foundations of Command, Mission Command, and Decision-Making (LDR 410) and Basic Staff Duties and Written Orders (PME 210), and it draws on the small-state strategic understanding of Operational Environment and the Small State (PME 430). It is written for officers moving toward senior staff responsibility, where the building and sustaining of the force falls.

Structure

Where this sits

PME 510 is a Level-500 professional military education course for officers and senior staff, building on the command thinking of Command, Mission Command, and Decision-Making (LDR 410), the staff craft of Basic Staff Duties and Written Orders (PME 210), and the small-state strategic understanding of Operational Environment and the Small State (PME 430). It is the institutional, force-building counterpart to the operational courses of the College, and it prepares senior officers for the responsibilities of building and sustaining the force.

A note on sources

This is the College's own course, written fresh in Kaharagian and Commonwealth terms on the methods of defence planning and capability development, adapted to the means and needs of a small Principality and a small humanitarian home-defence force rather than reproducing the practices of large or wealthy powers. It is written in formal British English and carries Crown Copyright. Its examples are illustrative and use generic settings, since the Principality holds no territory of its own.

Crown Copyright © 2026 | Published by Authority of H.R.H. The Prince of Kaharagia