Army leaders looking for a way to visualize and understand doctrine fundamentals at the brigade, division and corps levels of command will soon be able to access “Army 22 How We Fight” (AR22 HWF), an updated product from the Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL). AR22 HWF is a web-based, interactive learning tool that uses instructional technologies to organize and animate content from a European large-scale combat operation (LSCO) scenario.
CALL launched a brigade-centric version of this website, called “Army 21 Brigade Combat Teams” (AR21 BCT), at the fall 2020 Association of the United States Army Conference. Over the past year, AR21 BCT moved to a more secure, cloud-based platform and is currently available at https://hwf.army.mil (Common Access Card [CAC] required). Concurrently, the development team has also been working to release the expanded AR22 HWF in the late fall of 2021. AR22 HWF builds on the original BCT concept, with the addition of learning objectives at the division and corps levels. These objectives include both organizational and operational aspects that range from unit locations and capabilities to division/corps activities during major events executed during LSCO.
CALL Director Col. Scott Mueller sees this enhanced product as an essential tool for developing leaders, especially those at the company and battalion levels. “Today’s leaders need to understand doctrinal principles and be able to visualize those concepts on the battlefield,” he said. “Professional military education, combat training center rotations and unit-level training events all contribute to an individual’s knowledge and skill. AR22 HWF brings together aspects of all these experiences into a widely accessible self-development platform.”
Authoritative sources underpin all the information within AR22 HWF and subject matter experts from across the Combined Arms Center and the Centers of Excellence (CoEs) are contributing to this effort. The tool uses the Mission Command Training Program-developed European LSCO scenario, and doctrine writers from the Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate write and review content to ensure the end products are foundationally sound.
The scenario provides the user with details on seven critical events: deployment; Joint reception, staging, onward movement and integration; shaping operations; wet-gap crossing; forward passage of lines; division attack; and transition to the defense.
“Soldiers on the site will face an adversarial Donovian threat, just as they will in other training and educational settings across the Army,” said Lt. Col. Chris Watkins, lead analyst for AR22 HWF. “What we want is to provide a relevant, realistic environment that augments those classroom or field experiences.”
The team at CALL is encouraging users to provide feedback on the current BCT platform to improve current products well as future versions. Currently, the plan is to release an update annually.
“Army 22 How We Fight” will adapt to meet the needs of the force,” said Mueller. “Future iterations may include more warfighting function-specific information developed by the CoEs. Like any other educational product, it will evolve, improve and grow.”
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