The U. S. Army Future Concept for the Human Dimension

5-5. Conclusion

The Army’s challenge is to think beyond traditional business practices to identify and adopt the methods and technological advances needed to provide the right knowledge, training and education to Soldiers and their leaders when and where needed in order to make a qualitative change in their performance. The vision presented here provides a framework for considering the nature of the future Army TLE system and defines the context for the TLE S&T research, experimentation, and studies investments required to realize the vision. Although this has been the direction of the Army’s thinking for some time, rounding the corner on precision training and education will require a new mindset, new insights about knowledge and learning, and new tools and technologies.

The question is no longer how to use technology to do the same thing better. Now the question is how to use technology to change practice to reach new goals—as a catalyst for change and as a tool in creating, implementing, managing, and communicating a new conception of teaching and learning and a system that supports it.¹⁴⁸
There can be no doubt that realizing the vision for future TLE will require a deep and continuing investment in TLE S&T research, experimentation, and studies. Although policies, structural, process, and doctrine changes will be necessary parts of the evolution toward a precision training and education system, these changes alone will not be sufficient. These changes alone cannot revolutionize Army TLE. Specific new tools and information will be essential to extending reach far enough to realize the vision (for example, an infusion of new knowledge about emerging Soldier and leader skill requirements, effective learning methods, a variety of specific technological advancements, and information about the effectiveness and efficiency of alternative training and education technologies and approaches). Today, the lack of these tools and information is a roadblock to progress. Tomorrow, the right S&T research, experimentation, and studies will provide the discoveries needed to enable progress.
Although there is some overlap between the three areas of investigation (S&T research, experimentation, and studies), they each play a unique role in helping to achieve the goals embodied in this concept. For example, S&T research will provide innovative new learning principles, methods, models, and metrics to make TLE Soldier-centered and precise. S&T research will also produce the technological advances required to improve realism and access to training, education, and knowledge by Soldiers, leaders, and units. As the types of research problems that need addressing are not bounded by a single traditional discipline, future TLE S&T research will primarily be multidisciplinary and integrative in nature. Experimentation will provide the venues needed to try out new learning methods and technologies to refine the understanding of the TLE concept and capabilities. Studies will pull together existing information to support decisionmaking and, when applied to new or pilot TLE programs, tell us which approaches are most cost effective and learning effective.
Grasping the complexity of the future OE and mastering the knowledge and skills needed to conduct successfully full spectrum operations in that environment is a significant challenge for the Soldier and his leadership. The challenge dramatically increases when called upon to exercise those skills in conflict. Striving to defeat an adversary, while adhering to your own and the Army’s moral and ethical standards, taxes the Soldier morally, physically, and cognitively. The challenges inevitably produce stress in the Soldier. Emerging understanding of the physical and mental reactions of the human to stress suggests that—while stress is a natural and inevitable reaction to the environment—it need not be debilitating to the individual or the unit. The following chapter discusses the causes of stress, factors that mitigate its impact, and potential means of predicting, detecting, and treating stress before, during, and after its occurrence.

Vignette

Fort Carson, Colorado, March 2020
Sergeant Lance Topping and his men have been training together for two years. He understands the importance of constantly improving combat skills and keeping up on the latest TTPs. After uploading the current TTPs, Sergeant Topping accesses the unit training management tool taking a quick look at his squad’s readiness. He knows that it has been some time since his squad used the intelligence gathering skills so critical to a reconnaissance surveillance, and target acquisition unit. Reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition (RSTA) is all about intelligence. He scans the list of training available from the Army institutional knowledge center through DL and selects a training program, uploading the information onto the hand held computers of the two FSV-R teams in his squad.
They are at the training center on post, set up in a field environment. Each squad member sees his tablet computer screen flash the message that Topping has sent them a program. They verify that the download for their translator system is up to date. This particular program is set for the Indonesian scenario they will be using at the National Training Center. Sergeant Topping has his Soldiers zero their rifles and go through possible scenarios in the mobile virtual shooting environment. Both teams then complete the intelligence program that runs them through a virtual environment presenting various visual and electronic clues that they must process and report both individually and as teams. Topping’s assistant squad leader and the vehicle commander of his second FSV-R, is really quick in getting his crew through the routine. Unfortunately, he skips some clues and reads some others wrong which results in an unsatisfactory. After two more runs through the intelligence gathering routine, both teams in Topping’s squad have passed. Topping is frustrated that it took three iterations, but thankful at the same time that it was virtual and not in the valley at Irwin.
Topping checks his Soldiers’ medical monitors to ensure that they are healthy, hydrated, and ready for the next day before allowing them to turn in for the night.
The next morning, Topping sets the squad on the east tank trail to head out to the live, virtual, and constructive training site. As the FSV-Rs roll, Topping signs in to the instrumented range and sends the confirmation data that activates their systems and loads the current common operational picture. They are set up for the RSTA Challenge One program. It is pretty close to the training routine they’d completed the day before, except this was on the live range and a great deal more dicey.
Topping thinks back over his most recent training and all the times they drilled the idea of acting independently into their heads. In situation after situation they were forced to make a rapid assessment, decide on a course of action, and then take that action. It was tough enough just doing the assessment and making a choice. Getting one’s contemporaries to follow your instructions really challenged the students. During the training he had practiced adaptive-problem solving skills in numerous realistic scenarios and had received excellent feedback on his decisionmaking from his peers and instructors, as well as the automated coaches embedded in the scenarios. Today’s drill was a relevant situational training exercise designed to prepare teams, squads, and platoons for either actual operations or a rotation at one of the CTCs. Topping’s two-vehicle squad was the live part of the exercise. The platoon, company, and other units were virtual; meaning he could see their icons and observe their actions, actually interact with them digitally, and maneuver as part of the larger formation, but without any of them being there.
“Okay guys,” Topping says on the voice-activated intercom. “Let’s see what we have here.”
It’s a battalion insertion by C-17 transports and Condor joint heavy lift aircraft, he sees. One of the major operations they practiced often. His team is XY’d to the point of entry to the AO.¹⁴⁹ The maps adjust instantly, displaying new graphics and friendly and enemy arrays. Once again Topping’s squad is a point element charged with scouting the routes for the rest of the incoming combat forces, but, more importantly, deploying unmanned aerial systems and filling in the gaps in the automated common operational picture. How well he did alongside the virtual RSTA squads would determine how well the line companies saw the situation when they exited their aircraft. “Well.” Topping thought, “they actually see the situation while still in the air, but,” he reminded himself, “it’s our job to populate a large part of that picture.”
Sergeant Topping switches to what the unmanned aerial systems supporting his operation were seeing. Four suspicious looking military-age males milled about at a roadside stand. They didn’t seem to be armed. He would approach cautiously and then make the call on whether or not to stop and interrogate the men. He had recently reviewed tactical questioning techniques. He’d be looking for weapons residue on their persons with his remote sniffer while running digital images through the system to check identification. After assessing the risk was low, he could simulate getting out of the FSV-R to talk to them using a hand-held translator. Besides, the suspicious men were just video images. He’d have to list the questions he wanted to ask and run them through the system to see if they would produce any useful information.
All came up negative, but the digital response indicated that the men would have told them they had seen the enemy moving to the road but the sounds of the aerial drone had scared them off. The enemy has been harassing the locals for days and finding shelter with local supporters. Topping taps in a verbal thanks and keys the biometric device to determine veracity. In reality, he would have to be on the ground to talk to the men, but on this range, just indicating you were using the device produced a result.
“They’re telling the truth, Sergeant Topping,” his sensor specialist reported. “Looks like we’re being asked to do something about the potable water availability. Want me to report that?”
“Tell me what it means and I’ll answer your question.”
“Well, Sergeant, if the bad guys, the Anderians, I mean, had cut off the water supply, that would be valid intelligence, right?”
“Right you are Specialist. And, Mike,” he asked the gunner, “what do we do with this little tidbit of information?”
“Digital spot report, you know, Sergeant Topping. How many times have you drilled that into us?”
Topping played this little question and answer game with his squad to keep them on their toes. It was all well and good to have all the computer generated course, tests, and virtual verification that you’d made the right decision and taken the right action, but it was plain old leadership that makes you check and recheck your Soldiers just to be sure any one of them could take over your duties or anyone else in the crew should it be necessary.
They finished the run on the range with close to 95 percent accuracy on their reports. “Not bad for a squad that had to do three iterations statically,” Topping thought. It had been a good week. After they got back to the motor pool he’d give them some time to unload and service the vehicles and then cut them loose.
Topping accessed his education portal on his hand held computer selecting the automated Army Career Tracker to see if the system had updated his educational transcript. He jumped to his career map. He was gunning for staff sergeant and wanted to verify the prerequisite classes he still needed. He queued up a video teleconference class given back at Ft. Benning that he’ll attend later that day. He thinks about joining a multiplayer on-line game to practice and discuss tactics, but enough’s enough. One could do nothing else but play these games and take those courses.
“Nope,” he says to himself. “Not tonight, and not tomorrow either. Tonight I take the kids to the park. No more digits. Just some swings and running around and a little Frisbee. Man, I love this Army!
Computers and audiovisual tools have enhanced training for many years. Modeling and simulation grows more and more realistic at an unbelievable rate. Popular war games and official digital live, virtual, and constructive training are here today. They will only get better in the future, and all Soldiers will increasingly depend on DL as it replaces some—but not all—live classroom and field training. This ability to economize on actual exercises will save resources and enable cooperative and collaborative training for individuals, teams, squads, and larger units. This vignette is set in a stateside environment, but could just as easily fit a deployed unit on operations. Training is a human activity. Learning is a human activity. Over reliance on technology at the expense of nurturing leadership is dangerous. Balance is the answer.