What is the best way to train our junior leaders on DA?

2014-03-28T16:01:03-04:00

With the transition to Decisive Action under ULO, our Soldiers are expected to master both Combined Arms Maneuver and Wide Area Security. The last ten years increased proficiency in WAS, but largely at the detriment of the force's CAM-related skill sets.

Our pre-9/11 leaders remember the Krasnovians and can talk in-depth about conventional Russian tactics that form the CAM-base of a Decisive Action Training Environment (DATE). The same isn't automatically true of those who joined from 2005-onward when even PME began transition to a focus on COIN.

How do we prepare our junior Soldiers and leaders who have grown in a COIN-heavy environment to succeed against a hybrid threat that requires understanding of conventional orders of battle, tactics and all other facets of CAM?

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 29 at 2014 5:15 AM

2014-03-29T05:15:55-04:00

If we are going back to that style of warfare then we will go back to training the way we trained it in the past. Warfighter exercises where we break out our TOCs and set them up around the Battle SIM Centers and set up our Army Battle Command Systems (ABCS) and plug them into simulators and pump feeds into them. Additionally, the WCOPFOR at NTC is going to have to go back to fighting the old way they did before 9/11.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 29 at 2014 5:28 AM

2014-03-29T05:28:53-04:00

A good starting point could be pulling the unit ARTEP Manuals off the shelf and clean the dust off of them. They give Company and Battalion level leaders a comprehensive list of the individual and collective tasks that should be included in a Unit Training Program, down to the Squad level. These manuals were developed when our focus was force-on-force Combined Arms engagements. I expect they would need some updating, but do serve as starting point/reference.