"Distributed Planning Cells" Planning is a key element of success for contemporary military operations. In fact, planning is of critical importance as the nature of coalition organizations and Peace Keeping operations become more complex. Little is understood about how the planning process should evolve to meet these changing needs. This paper presents the findings of a research effort designed to investigate the nature of the distributed planning process and to identify the various factors that impact the effectiveness of distributed planning. A model of distributed planning should explain how different forcing functions in the environment determine the processes that are distributed and the type of plan that is produced. Such a model would encompass replanning along with planning, would let us identify choke points, and would let us determine the types of communication that must be supported by human-computer interfaces. However, these are by-products of the primary goal of the model. The three aspects of a model are the forcing functions, the planning sub-processes, and the types of plans. Such a model is examined within the context of the Joint Force Air Component Commander (JFACC) process