When do we teach Field Grade Leaders to conduct Brigade level Operations?

We do the type of exercises you're describing. Limitations in the software make it hard for the Brigade to actually maneuver though. My entire BN was killed almost to the man in the first 5 minutes of the last defense we did, after digging in to the side of a mountain oriented on our engagement area. The most value we got out of it was a few reps at MDMP.

The point I'm trying to make is that Lieutenants learn the Platoon fight at BOLC. Captains learn the Company and Battalion fight (to a lesser extent) at MCCC. The next Maneuver centric PME for me will be AOC, but that jumps directly to Division. Certainly OJT and self-study will help, but why do we skip the BDE echelon? The Brigade level is really the first time a maneuver officer needs to be able to integrate combined arms from a wide array of formations. As an example, most Infantry MAJs will not be assigned to a Cavalry Squadron due to the limited 11A billets. When do we learn how to utilize a Cavalry Squadron and conduct BDE level reconnaissance? Certainly there will be SMEs within their career field on the staff, but somebody still needs to know how to synchronize those different WFFs into a cohesive plan. I'm not sure we're adequately preparing MAJs to do that as a BCT S3.

MAJ (Join to see) - I branch transferred to the Engineers as a Senior LT. Served all my Engineer time in Divisional Mech Combat Engineer units. When I first transferred, we were still under the old Divisional organization were a Battalion supported a Division, so the Engineer PL was the Task Force Engineer to a Battalion Task Force. After the reorganization where they pushed an Engineer Brigade down to the Divisions, I served some time as Assistant Brigade Engineer, the Brigade Engineer being the BNCO, who has a Battalion to run. The point in all of that is that as an Engineer, I was used to dealing with a couple of command levels above my unit level. Still, the only time you really got to do your job the way it was supposed to work was during large scale battle drills like NTC or Reforger, maybe a Brigade level or above FTX.
Still, you have hit on what I've always seen as the greatest weakness of the National Guard, the lack of time/facilities/programs to train the Senior Leaders. On the Engineer side of the Guard, my operators, drivers and mechanics could run circles around their active counterparts simply because most of them did the same job as a civilian. Not much chance of a similar situation at command level.
Oh, and if you go to NTC, your Battalion will still get wiped out in about 15 minutes, at least for the first couple of problems. It's hard to win when your opponent practices the same battles every couple of months.

Yep. We did Warfighter exercises every year. We also did battalion level cell training as well. Some of the Warfighters were participated were Corps level. I think the past years with all of the deployments may have taken it's toll on such large training events. The last one I went to was in late 2002-early 2003. It was the prep for OIF.

CPT Lawrence Cable - I agree 100% on it being a weakness of the Reserve Component. My BDE went to JRTC last year. While it was a great learning experience, it was very clear that we were under-prepared. When it came to the staff, only two of us had even moved a Company through a STX lane. The 5 year ARFORGEN/SRM/REARMM cycle we've used over the years creates significant experience gaps. It's very possible to do everything correctly and promote to field grade without ever having to maneuver something larger than a Squad. Then you're in the Brigade S3 shop and have no context on what it takes to move a rifle company through the woods at night.

Bingo! Training for operations under any level of command begins at a serviceman's initial assignment within their specialty. Once you have learned the intricacies of gaining the support of your unit under various operational scenarios, you can apply the "book" solution, combined with any innovative fine tuning you may come up with to meet operational requirements from the next command level. Fighting any organizational level is a matter of determining what support is required for your unit to support the Commander's plans, ensuring your subordinate staffs understand the requirements and procedures, then ensuring the staffs senior to your level are aware of any special or innovative requirements to provide the necessary support. It's a matter of making the established systems support distinct requirements, but in depth familiarity of the established procedures and capabilities is necessary and gained from working that system at each organizational level.