By Ann Roosevelt
The Army’s Combined Arms Center (CAC) released its newest training manual FM 7-0: Training for Full Spectrum Operations.
FM 7-0, released Dec. 16, provides the doctrine to guide Army training and training management, and looks at the basics of training soldiers for full spectrum operations.
The training principles and concepts discussed are intended to produce agile leaders, who can rapidly and easily adapt to changing, ambiguous situations, using both lethal and/or non-lethal means, Army leaders are saying in Webcasts and papers on the CAC Web site.
For the first time, FM 7-0 is synchronized with the service’s FM 3-0 Operations that calls on soldiers to be able to conduct simultaneous offensive, defensive and stability or civil support anywhere along the full spectrum of conflict. FM 3-0 raised stability or civil support operations to the same level as traditional offensive and defensive operations.
“The Army cannot train for the last war,” the manual says, and Army leadership vows no return to the pre-9/11 days.
The current operational environment requires a balance of training and leader development focusing on conditions midway between war and insurgency, FM 7-0 says. This “aim point,” the manual says, will enable soldiers “to sustain the proficiency in irregular warfare and limited intervention developed over the last seven years of conflict, while sustaining their capability for major combat operations.
The “aim point” is a culture change,because soldier training has focused mainly on irregular war as it applies to Iraq and Afghanistan.
To achieve this full spectrum training, Army headquarters will approve core mission-essential task lists (CMETL) for each brigade and higher unit, covering a mix of offensive, defensive, stability and civil support operations based on a single operational theme. These lists will provide a standard for Army capabilities across units of the same type. Smaller will units build their training based on their brigade’s CMETL.
Then once a unit receives a mission, training will focus on a Directed Mission Essential Task List developed from the CMETL.
Commanders, other leaders and NCOs are responsible for training. It is the commanders who work out the correct combination of live, virtual, constructive and game training that can replicate an operational environment. Commanders also determine what tasks require training, priorities, and the risks of not training certain tasks to a standard.
However, FM 7-0 does not lay out the “how” to do it part, such things as tactics, techniques and procedures. They will come on a Web-based FM 7-1, called the Army Training Network (ATN), which replaces the prior FM 7-1 Battle Focused Training. ATN will roll out in about 90 days and contain the application of FM 7-0 training concepts and have solutions to training challenges. It will also have its own blog and a link to a forum on the Battle Command Knowledge System forum.
Training doctrine may change over time, but some principles stay the same: “Train as you will fight,” says FM 7-0.
FM 7-0 and associated information is available at http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/.