Originally published April 22, 2015
If you're familiar with Fort Benning, you probably know there are a lot of different types of training that take place here - everything from the Airborne Course to the Ranger and Sniper courses, as well as Basic Combat Training and dozens of other courses.
What you may not be familiar with are the overarching qualities all of the training here aims to instill in Fort Benning's Soldiers and units.
Maj. Gen. Scott Miller, Maneuver Center of Excellence commanding general, has outlined four qualities that the MCoE needs to focus on producing through its training courses - being smart, fast, lethal and precise. The MCoE Campaign Plan, a document that details the installation's mission and vision and how it will achieve them, defines these qualities.
Smart means being able to take prudent risks and make wise decisions in order to win. Fast refers to speed and adaptivity in both mentally and physically. Lethal means effectively using tactics such as combined arms, air-ground operations and joint fires to defeat enemies. And precise means applying purposeful combat power in order to win while negating disproportionate collateral damage.
Miller addressed these concepts in a talk April 2 at the Association of the U.S. Army's 2015 Global Force Symposium and Exposition in Huntsville, Alabama. He emphasized the importance of gaining a good understanding of one's environment in winning and in successfully instilling the four important qualities into Soldiers and units.
"Over the last 14 years, sometimes we did OK in joint, interagency, intergovernmental and multinational environments, and sometimes we did not," Miller said. "When we did not, it was usually because we didn't understand the environment."
He specified that being fast does not replace or necessarily mean the same thing as keeping up a fast pace of operations.
"Fast does not replace tempo, but speed has a virtue of its own," he said. "Speed of thought and speed of action does provide you an advantage on the battlefield. We need to be physically and cognitively faster."
Miller also described the goal of smart, fast, lethal and precise as a collaboration between Training and Doctrine Command and Fort Benning.
"This is TRADOC and the operating force coming together ... to create smart leaders and formations that understand their role in generating situational understanding," he said.
Smart: generating situational understanding
Originally published May 6, 2015
Formations and leaders who are "smart" are able to routinely generate situational understanding through changing conditions. Fort Benning's Commander Maj. Gen. Scott Miller is focused on producing Soldiers, leaders and formations that are smart, fast, lethal and precise. Leaders at the Maneuver Center of Excellence are rapidly adapting to future requirements.
In terms of developing future capability, Col. Chris Willis is the Training and Doctrine Command capability manager for Brigade Combat Team-Mission Command. He's overseeing efforts to get cell phones equipped with wireless data capabilities into the hands of dismounted leaders.
"Dismounted leaders are the most disadvantaged as far as data because most of the Army's communications systems are designed for mounted forces in vehicles," Willis said. "Getting information to them is crucial and is our biggest challenge."
A system for addressing this challenge already exists, but Willis and others are working to improve upon it.
Nett Warrior is a system that can provide data on where other friendly forces are located. But, it has to be linked to a radio that a Soldier carries in order to work. Willis and his team are working on getting 4G LTE capabilities into those cell phones to simplify their use.
Once capabilities mature at the most challenging level - dismounted squads - it will be relatively simple to expand into mounted applications.
"If I can take a photo of a tank and send it to someone else on the battlefield, or know what's over that hill, now I can come up with a plan that increases my chances of success," Willis said.
This is generating situational understanding through material solutions.
In the Maneuver Center of Excellence's professional training for officers, Fort Benning is making smarter maneuver leaders through innovative curriculum changes.
In the Maneuver Captains Career Course, leaders are generating situational understanding by creating company commanders who are better equipped to operate in the complex environments they may encounter in the future. One way they're doing that is with the Combat Leader Speaker Program where they bring in combat experienced leaders, and interagency leaders, to share experience and build relationships with Infantry and Armor captains.
"Our students, [captains] know how to reach out to other agencies," said Col. Tim Davis, MCoE director of training. "One of the things we do with captains is to teach them how to think, plan and make decisions."
The guest speakers provide the captains with better focus on and understanding of regional problems around the world and their talks are planned to tie in with one of the course's learning modules, Davis said.
The Infantry Basic Officer Leadership Course was extended in October 2014 from 17 weeks to 19 weeks to provide time for more in-depth training.
"We want to produce a lieutenant who has mastered the fundamentals," said Lt. Col. John Grantz, commander of 2nd Battalion, 11th Infantry Regiment, which oversees IBOLC. Producing leaders of character and competence, IBOLC students must master the Army's orders process, known as Troop Leading Procedures; they must be individually lethal and be able to build lethal platoons; and they must be physically and cognitively dominate.
To that end, Grantz said, certain parts of the IBOLC training schedule have been expanded or changed. Marksmanship training has been extended from five days to 10, which has led to more than 40 percent of IBOLC lieutenants achieving expert marksmanship qualification, compared with less than two percent before the change. Land navigation training, which had been conducted on the same terrain for many years, is being revised to include a different course where lieutenants will have to react to surprise scenarios.
Fast: outmaneuver enemies physically, cognitively
Originally published May 20, 2015
Maneuver Soldiers, leaders and formations that are "fast" have the ability to outmaneuver their enemies - physically and cognitively. The Maneuver Center of Excellence is working hard to develop maneuver forces that are "fast," as well as smart, lethal and precise. Forces that are smart, fast, lethal and precise are the centerpiece of future maneuver and are the key ingredient to enable the Army to "Win in a Complex World."
Already Fort Benning's units have been working to help Soldiers improve their athletic performance and become physically faster. One significant way they is through the Warrior Athletic Training program, in which civilian athletic trainers are embedded with units to help prevent injuries, provide injury treatment and rehabilitation, and provide fitness education and research.
"We want the Soldiers to see themselves as athletes," said Joellen Sefton, WAT program director. "If we treat them that way, they're more likely to view themselves that way, and they're more likely to work more on fitness."
The WAT program is a partnership between Fort Benning and Auburn University. All of the program's 33 trainers are certified by the state of Georgia as athletic trainers, and about 10 of them are pursuing master's degrees in exercise science through Auburn.
WAT started off six years ago working with a single brigade, Sefton said. Now, WAT trainers are present in nearly every unit on post, helping educate Soldiers about proper exercise techniques and identifying and treating injuries early.
"Our number one thing is helping to reduce lost training hours," Sefton said.
The WAT program has influenced other athletic performance initiatives around post. At the Infantry Officer Basic Leadership Course, leaders are changing the way they approach physical training for new Infantry lieutenants during the 19-week course through a program called Leader Athlete Warrior.
"We want to make them stronger at the end of 19 weeks than they were when they came here," said Maj. Chris Deruyter, executive officer of 2nd Battalion, 11th Infantry Regiment, which oversees IBOLC. "The end state is to have physically dominant lieutenants prepared to lead platoons after IBOLC."
That's challenging, Deruyter said, because IBOLC training is by nature physically intense. To meet that goal, IBOLC leaders partnered with WAT trainers and together developed a 19-week training plan. Now, the course includes planned recovery time, more hot meals in the field, and education on topics like weight lifting techniques and nutrition.
The Armor Officer Basic Leadership Course also works to help lieutenants become faster, said Lt. Col. Dennis Atkins, commander of 2nd Squadron, 16th Cavalry Regiment, which oversees ABOLC. The course is structured in three phases, which each include a Gate Event that students must pass. The Gate Events are a combination of physical and cognitive tasks upon which the lieutenants are evaluated.
One way leaders at Fort Benning are working to become faster is by implementing components of Cognitive Dominance, a concept that encompasses many different lines of effort aimed at preparing Soldiers to operate well in ambiguous, chaotic and complex situations and governments. Some of the elements of Cognitive Dominance includes are elements of leadership, cultural awareness, athletic performance, critical thinking and appreciation of complex operational environments.
Other changes to IBOLC's curriculum over the past year have been aimed at helping lieutenants become cognitively faster. An extra four and a half days of training on troop leading procedures has been added in order to provide more time for the students to master using the procedures in a variety of complex environments where they encounter elements such as civilians on the battlefield or urban environments.
"Every time they do it, they get faster at it," said Lt. Col. John Grantz, commander of 2nd Bn., 11th Inf. Regt.
In the Maneuver Captains Career Course, students learn to become cognitively faster by working on exercises that deal with a variety of types of formations - Armor, Stryker and Infantry - at both the company and the battalion levels. They learn how to work with offense, defense and wide area security.
"They'll have mental models to draw from in situations to establish understanding quickly," said Col. Tim Davis, Maneuver Center of Excellence director of training.
Lethality battalion meets MCoE mission
Originally published May 27, 2015
1st Battalion, 29th Infantry Regiment, is becoming the Lethality Battalion to meet the Maneuver Center of Excellence's mission of producing maneuver leader, Soldiers and formations that are smart, fast, lethal and precise.
"Lethal" is to be deadly in the application of force. Maneuver forces must be lethal with all weapon systems from the M4 rifle to the M1 tank and joint fires capabilities.
To achieve lethality, the 316th Cavalry Brigade developed a common approach. That means that all of the courses at Fort Benning that focus on training Soldiers to become more lethal will be aligned under the single umbrella of the 1st Bn., 29th Inf. Regt. The courses involved are Bradley Leaders, Bradley Master Gunner, Combatives, Heavy Weapons Leaders, Sniper School, Stryker Leaders, Stryker Master Trainer, Master Marksmanship Training, Small Arms Master Gunner and Abrams Tank Master Gunner.
The battalion's new setup will allow for greater collaboration and communication between courses, said Lt. Col. Kenneth Reed, commander, 1st Bn., 29th Inf. Regt.
"This is important because there's a lot of synergy here," said Lt. Col. Richard Surowiec, who relinquished command of the battalion in May. "That synergy can then be pushed out to the force. We're not going to be stove piped in our training."
The way the master gunner courses are organized is being changed to better reflect that synergy. Instead of having three completely separate master gunner courses for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, Abrams Tank and Stryker Combat Vehicle, there will be a four-week Master Gunner Common Core, which will focus on skills common to all three platforms. Soldiers can then take platform-specific master gunner courses that will focus on one of the three vehicles.
Surowiec said the benefit is that leaders will know that all Soldiers who go through the common core training will come out with the same skills, such as knowing how to set up a gunnery range. This will increase the number of noncommissioned officers who then return to their units with that important skill set.
The Small Arms Master Gunner Course is an entirely new course that will train Soldiers to be experts in engaging with and understanding the operations of a variety of small arms weapons and optics. It will be three weeks long and will include instruction on weapons including the M9 pistol, the M249 SAW and the M4 carbine, among others. Certification for the course's first instructors began May 18; the course itself will open to students for a pilot run in October.
The Heavy Weapons Master Gunner Course will replace the Heavy Weapons Leaders Course. The difference will be that the new course will focus on a wider range of weapons and will be geared more toward training noncommissioned officers, rather than platoon leaders and platoon sergeants.
Precise: Competent leaders key for Army
Originally published June 10, 2015
Precise means to be accurate in the application of power to ensure delivery of the right effects in time, space and purpose. Fort Benning Soldiers and leaders are working to help the force become more precise through new courses and assessments here.
The five-week long Marksmanship Master Trainer Course is aimed at standardizing the teaching of marksmanship and focuses on the M4 rifle and M9 pistol. This is in keeping with the focus of Maj. Gen. Scott Miller, commander of the Maneuver Center of Excellence and Fort Benning, on being smart, fast, lethal and precise.
"There are a lot of different marksmanship programs out there in the Army, but no real standardization," said Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth Rose, team chief of the Army Marksmanship Unit's Instructor Training Group. "We're creating a course that teaches people how to teach others to shoot."
Rose and the other members of the ITG have been responsible for helping to stand up the course and for training the noncommissioned officers who will become its first cadre. Since December, a group of six NCOs have been attached to AMU, learning how to instruct others on marksmanship.
"It's a unique combination of someone who can not only shoot well but teach others," Rose said. "And that's what makes this course unique. They'll leave here as subject matter experts able to advise commanders on training plans throughout the year."
The Master Marksmanship Trainer Course is targeted to NCOs in the ranks of sergeant, staff sergeant and sergeant first class in order to best reach those who are directly involved with training Soldiers, Rose said. For the course instructors - individuals with a background in marksmanship - prior instructor experience and Army Basic Instructor Course qualifications are preferred.
In 2016, the course will be transferred from AMU to 1st Battalion, 29th Infantry Regiment. The regiment is currently undergoing a transformation to become the Army's Lethality Battalion - the umbrella organization for a variety of courses that teach skills needed for Soldiers and formations to become more lethal.
Soldiers who graduate the Marksmanship Master Trainer Course will gain an additional skill identifier they carry with them throughout their careers. The course will be available through the Army Training Requirements and Resources System, beginning this fall.
The Armor School is also working to increase precision in the force through its cognitive assessment program. Still in the pilot stages, the program entails bringing students in the Armor Basic Officer Leadership Course to the Clarke Simulation Center, where they participate in simulated tank battlefield scenarios. Students play the parts of platoon leaders, and must make decisions that affect the outcome of the simulation.
Using simulations instead of real tanks has a lot of advantages, including lower cost and simpler logistics, said Capt. Scott Lynch, commander of C Troop, 2nd Squadron, 16th Cavalry Regiment, one of the units that provide ABOLC training.
"We try to overload them with information and we want them to sift through it," Lynch said. "The goal is to get the lieutenants thinking about what is relevant information. In a lot of ways, it mirrors real life because not everything coming over a radio is immediately relevant to you."
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