Combined-Arms Training-Strategies Aid-short-and long-range training plans - development and execution of military personnel training programmes - Brief Article

CML Army Chemical Review, July, 2000 by Mike Souliere

Combined-Arms Training Strategies (CATSs) are the Army's overarching strategies for planning, resourcing, and executing short- and long-range individual and collective training. The CATSs discussed in this article are short-range collective-training strategies. They are the result of a five-year effort by the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Training, HQ, TRADOC to develop unit CATS. The CATSs will assist you in developing short- and long-range training plans. Unit commanders and staffs are the primary audiences of these CATSs; however, all leaders can use the CATSs components to integrate individual and collective training.

Starting June 2000, with the fielding of the Standard Army Training System (SATS)4.2, unit commanders and staffs will be able to download these CATSs from the Reimer Digital Library (General Dennis J. Reimer Training and Doctrine Digital Library Web site) in database format. They also will be able to download previously developed CATSs (in database format) from a compact disc (CD) issued with SATS 4.2 (for units with minimal Internet access). The CATS developed in the future will only be available through the Digital Library. HyperText-Markup-Language (HTML) versions of previously developed CATSs matrixes are also available from the Digital Library.

The Army Training and Evaluation Program (ARTEP) Mission Training Plan (MTP) collective tasks are the foundation for the unit CATSs and are organized to provide descriptive training options to the commander. They describe one way of organizing task-based, multiechelon training into a set of events that will achieve and maintain a high state of training readiness in today's environment of high personnel turbulence and key-leader turnover.

Commanders are the primary training managers and trainers of their organizations. FM 25-100, Training the Force, requires the commander to--

* Base training on wartime mission requirements.

* Identify applicable Army standards.

* Assess current levels of proficiency.

* Provide the required resources.

* Develop and execute training plans that result in proficient individuals, leaders, and units.

The CATSs--

* Provide a tool for commanders to use in carrying out this guidance.

* Recognize that the essence of training is to develop and maintain proficiency in executing mission-essential tasks.

* Emphasize that commanders must measure combined-arms proficiency against a clear standard.

* Emphasize that units must periodically train under rigorous, realistic conditions designed to challenge the unit, allowing the commander to make a valid assessment of the unit's mission-essential-task-list proficiency.

A commander can refine existing CATSs to support his unit's specific training requirements and local training conditions, or he can use them as they exist. When the commander downloads a CATS from the Digital Library or the SATS 4.2 CD, he can either view a CATS training event, copy it directly to build a SATS event, or modify it based on his requirements and conditions and then build his SATS training event. In HTML format and for the purpose of this article, a unit CATS is the CATS matrix (visible in HTML format on the Digital Library) and the CATS calendar/plan. The CATS matrix provides one view of the data linked to a CATS training event, such as the purpose of an event, the training audience, or the resources used. A commander using SATS will not see this matrix but will see the same data (in some cases more data) in data "folders" for each event. The CATS calendar/plan provides an example of how a unit CATS could be scheduled over a two-year period and illustrates a strategy envisioned by the CATS deve loper for training a unit to maintain collective-task proficiency within the "band of excellence."

Each matrix displays a unit's MTP collective tasks in grouping (Task Selections) to train in a number of different events. A unit's CATSs are a number of task selections and events that a unit could use to train each task selection and a calendar/plan showing how a commander can schedule these events over a two-year period.

                  Currently, there are four different
                 CATSs developed for chemical units as
                     shown in the following table.
TO&E       Unit Type
03472L000  HHD, Chemical Brigade (USAR)
03377L200  Chemical Company, ACR
03477A000  BIDS Company
03219F000  NBC Reconnaissance Detachment
           (Digitized)

Mike Souliere is the CATS functional expert at the Army Training Support Center, Fort Eustis, Virginia. He is a Major in the USAR and is currently the S3 of a Training Support Battalion (Lanes Training). His active duty assignments include COAC small-group leader and chemical-biological counter-terrorism course manager at the Chemical School; OPFOR Chemical Company Commander, Brigade Chemical OC, and Mechanized Infantry Task Force Chemical OC at the National Training Center; and Company XO, Smoke Platoon Leader, and Battalion Chemical Officer with the 3d Infantry Division in Germany. Mr. Souliere also works with the Chemical School to develop chemical units CATS.