Increasing the effectiveness of Army pre-deployment training

Abstract

Currently, commanders must ensure that Soldiers are proficient in hundreds of Core and Directed Mission Essential Tasks prior to deployment. However, Pre-Deployment training is constrained by limitations on available resources. As a result, commanders must decide whether to attempt to train everything to a limited level of proficiency, or to focus on certain tasks. Attempting to train everything is nearly impossible, as there is competition between units for finite training resources (land, ammo, etc.), and even if resources were infinite, there is not enough time. Soldiers may become "jacks of all trades, masters of none," and upon encountering some task later during deployment with which they are only somewhat familiar, a lack of complete proficiency can have critical effects. If instead a commander attempts to focus on a limited number of tasks and train those to levels of mastery, Soldiers will be very prepared to deal with situations involving those tasks, but when presented with situations not involving those tasks, unfamiliarity may produce catastrophic results. The result is that commanders often make decisions to prioritize training and allocate effort based upon higher guidance, intuition, or in the worst case, on what training is available. Overall, the decisions are, at best, guesses as to what may occur later during deployment. This research will attempt to identify what primarily influences decisions when training, and then propose a methodology for making more optimal decisions.