Operational effectiveness is an actor’s ability to use its military assets to achieve victory on the battlefield. Due to the evolution of society from the state as the central actor to international networks the modern battlefield has been reshaped. Former studies on operational effectiveness are all based on conventional warfare which raises questions on the validity of these theories on the modern battlefield.This study aims to test former theories on operational effectiveness to a new empirical context and answer the question of what makes an actor superior on the modern battlefield.The findings shows that even if former theories on operational effectiveness applies on the modern battlefield there are new indicators and actions that has to be considered in building the theory.The Swedish Armed Forces needs to address operational effectiveness as a phenomenon and train its personnel to be more innovative and adaptive to the modern operational environment.