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   The operational level is at a scale bigger than one where line of sight and the time of day are important, and smaller than the strategic level, where production and politics are considerations. Formations are of the operational level if they are able to conduct operations on their own, and are of sufficient size to be directly handled or have a significant impact at the strategic level. This concept was pioneered by the German army prior to and during the Second World War. With an eye always to rigid formalism, and categorising everything possible, the Soviet military enshrined the term in their glossary sometime between 1925 and 1929. The term was not widely used in the West before the end of the Cold War, where it was viewed as analogous to the expression "medium term" (rather than short or long term). In part it was popularised by its use in computer games, such as The Operational Art of War (Norm Koger). What constitutes the operational level has changed with the size and function of armies. During the Second World War and Cold War, an operational-level formation was typically a corps or army. With the increase in combat power of individual units during the cold war and post-Cold War era, the fighting power of relatively small formations is today as great as that wielded by a much larger formation in the past. Because of this the brigade of approximately six-thousand men has emerged among some militaries (notably the United States Army) as an operational-level formation.
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