Soldiers assigned to 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, clear a trench on path to the next objective during a live-fire exercise at Fort Stewart, Georgia, March 9, 2024. The LFX demonstrated 2-7 IN’s combat efficiency in alignment with large-scale combat operations. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Santiago Lepper.
Selecting, training, evaluating, and assessing platoon echelon and below battle tasks contribute directly to company proficiency and training readiness. Field Manual 7-0, Training, states that a battle task is a platoon or lower echelon collective task that is crucial to the successful accomplishment of a company, battery, or troop mission-essential task (MET).
Units at company-level and above have METs; unit echelons below company-level have battle tasks. Because training time and resources are limited, small unit leaders must select battle tasks to train in the same way their commanders at company level and above prioritize METs. Assigned missions may also dictate changes in priorities.
Selecting battle tasks begins with building a task crosswalk with the company METs. Battle task training is conducted with consideration to training environments, training techniques, and task conditions to build skills and proficiencies through repetition, increasing difficulty, and observation. Lastly, evaluating battle task training informs commanders’ assessments of unit task proficiency and understanding of future training needs.
To build a task crosswalk, the platoon and company leadership work together to identify the platoon and below collective tasks that are crucial to the successful accomplishment of the company mission-essential task list (METL). These collective tasks are further identified as battle tasks once approved by the company commander. Tasks that appear on the crosswalk under multiple METs are high payoff battle tasks, and the skills and proficiency gained through them transfers to all METs that require them.
The crosswalk continues with the selection of lower echelon battle tasks (squad, team, or crew). To complete the crosswalk, each echelon also identifies individual tasks that support the battle tasks. The selected battle tasks should be incorporated into the unit’s standard operating procedures. The battle task list is then treated like the unit’s METL. Next, the commander establishes priorities and issues guidance, building a unit training plan that focuses on the prioritized METs and corresponding battle tasks.
Commanders prioritize unit METs to identify tasks that are the most important to train in support of their mission and the resources needed to achieve a “T” (trained) proficiency. Commanders at all levels consider mission requirements and the next higher echelon unit’s METs when prioritizing their own METs. The battle tasks that support the prioritized company METs, particularly the high payoff battle tasks, are prioritized in the unit training plan.
Unit leaders select different environments, training techniques, and conditions to train battle tasks throughout the training plan to achieve task proficiency. Army training doctrine describes three main training environments: live, virtual, and constructive. Blended and integrated training environments are combinations of two or more training environments. FM 7-0 contains more about combined training environments in Appendix J. Commanders plan to use all available training environments to maximize realism in multi-echelon training, make the best use of resources, and implement the crawl-walk-run methodology in sequencing training events from relatively simple to increasingly complex.
Live training is conducted in field conditions using tactical equipment and should replicate realistic conditions. Units train battle tasks in live training events as often as possible, but since time and resources are usually limited, it is not always suitable or practical. In a virtual environment, units train specified tasks using simulators and computer-generated battlefield environments while preventing resource expenditures, equipment maintenance, and repair costs. Virtual training is very effective for exercising drills, decision-making, and communications skills. Units can easily be reset to complete multiple iterations, enabling units to enter live training at a higher level of competency while also conserving resources. Constructive training uses computer models and simulations to exercise command and staff functions - it involves real people interacting with simulated units operating simulated systems. Like virtual training, the constructive environment allows units to repeat sets of tasks in multiple iterations and conserve resources.
To achieve task proficiency, leaders use various training techniques. Battle drills and crew drills provide standard actions that link individual and collective tasks. Crew drills are collective actions taken by the crew of a weapon, piece of equipment, or vehicle to operate the given equipment in specific circumstances. Crew drills are coordinated, rehearsed, and initiated with minimal leader orders or cues. Both battle drills and crew drills develop rehearsed responses to common or likely battlefield scenarios.
Lane training is a company and below training technique designed to practice, observe, and evaluate individual and collective tasks within a prescribed course. Lane evaluators can reset the unit from the beginning, or at different points in the lane, to complete multiple iterations or retraining of the evaluated tasks.
Opportunity training, often referred to as hip-pocket training, is used to train on individual or crew-based tasks and skills when there are inactive periods during scheduled training (downtime). Opportunity training requires forethought, preparation, leader certification, and appropriate resourcing.
Sergeant’s time training, also called leader’s time training, is a scheduled block of time reserved on the training schedule for unit non-commissioned officers to train Soldiers and small units on specified tasks and skills. It also requires preparation, leader certification, and resourcing.
As the unit progresses through the unit training plan, leaders adjust task conditions to increase difficulty, which builds familiarity as well as Soldier and leader confidence. Leaders add realism and complexity to task conditions as rapidly as possible to achieve near-operational conditions. Task conditions adjusted in training can include limited visibility, degraded communications, loss of key leaders, and unexpected changes in an operational environment. Battle tasks can be trained during day or night conditions, in a classroom or in field conditions, or with conditions that include simulators, dry-fire, blank ammunition, submunitions, or live ammunition.
The last process is evaluating and assessing. Evaluation is done by observing the execution of a task and measuring the unit’s performance of the task against the published standard. Training and evaluation outlines (T&EOs) contain standards for battle drills and collective tasks. Evaluations can be executed using internal or external assets. Commanders ensure that every training event has a supporting evaluation plan. This plan provides trained and certified evaluators with a process to observe and record task proficiency. Evaluators record the results of their observations and provide them to the commander at the conclusion of training. The commander relies heavily on results of subordinates’ evaluated battle task proficiency in assessing the company’s MET proficiency.
Selecting battle tasks is a shared responsibility between leaders at multiple echelons. They must build dynamic training plans involving varied training environments and conditions to achieve battle task proficiency that supports the company’s prioritized METs. Leaders ensure that all training is evaluated to provide subordinates with feedback on the performance and to inform the commander’s assessment of the company MET proficiency. More on battle tasks and task crosswalks can be found under the Interactive Training Doctrine on ATN at https://atn.army.mil, in the Platoon Leader’s Guide to Training Management on ATN, and in FM 7-0. Lane training, external evaluations, and training environments are explained in more detail in the appendices of FM 7‑0.
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