Battle Focus Training Management
 

Posted Wednesday, October 5, 2005

The foundation of the training process is the Army training management cycle. The training management cycle and the necessary guidelines on how to plan, execute, and assess training and leader development is also found in FM 7-0. Understanding how the Army trains the Army to fight is key to successful joint, multinational, interagency, and combined arms operations. Effective training leads to units that execute the Army’s core competencies and capabilities.

Training management starts with the unit mission. From mission, unit leaders develop the mission essential task list (METL). The METL is an unconstrained statement of the tasks required to accomplish wartime missions. The availability of resources does not affect METL development, but resources for training are constrained and compete with other missions and requirements. Therefore, leaders develop the long-range, short-range, and near-term training plans to effectively utilize available resources to train for proficiency on METL tasks.

Planning is an extension of the battle focus concept that links organizational METL with the subsequent preparation, execution, and evaluation of training. The planning process ensures continuous coordination from long range planning, through short-range planning to near-term planning, which ultimately leads to training execution. The commander’s assessment provides direction and focus to the planning process. Through the training planning process, the commander’s guidance (training vision, goals, and priorities) is melded together with the METL and the training assessment into manageable training plans.

Long-range training plans:

• Are about one year out for AC battalion level organizations.
• Are about three years out for RC battalion level organizations.
• Disseminate METL and battle tasks.
• Establish training objectives for each METL.
• Schedule projected major training events.
• Identify long lead-time resources and allocate major resources such as major training area rotations.
• Identify major training support systems products and services and identify new requirements.

Short-range training plans:

• Are about three months for AC battalion level organizations.
• Are about one year out for RC battalion level organizations.
• Refine and expand upon appropriate portions of long-range plan.
• Cross-reference each training event with specific training objectives.
• Identify and allocate short-range lead time resources such as local training facilities.

Near-term training plans:

• Refine and expand upon short-range plan through conduct of training meetings.
• Determine best sequence for training.
• Provide specific guidance for trainers.
• Allocate training support systems, products and services, simulators and simulations, and similar resources to specific trainers.
• Publish detailed training schedules.
• Provide basis for executing and evaluating training.

Properly developed training plans will—

• Maintain a consistent battle focus.
• Be coordinated with habitually task organized supporting organizations.
• Focus on the correct time horizon.
• Be concerned with future proficiency.
• Incorporate risk management into all training plans.
• Establish organizational stability.
• Make the most efficient use of resources.

After training plans are developed, units execute training by preparing, conducting, and recovering from training. The process continues with training evaluations that provide bottom-up input to the organizational assessment. These assessments provide necessary feedback to the senior commander that assist in preparing the training assessment.