As the Army transforms its ranks and shifts resources back to large-scale combat formations, training will be key. And not all of it can be done in the real world.
Lt. Gen. Michael Lundy told attendees at the annual Association of the U.S. Army Annual Meeting & Exposition that the Army must improve and expand its “synthetic training environments.”
As the Combined Arms Center commander gave an overview of the new Army Field Manual 3-0 Operations, which reconfigures large formations for combat operations, he keyed in on cross-domain fires and the necessity for practice.
“This takes repetition, lots of repetition,” Lundy said. “You’ve got to create an environment where you will get those repetitions.”
The four-star said that from the squad to the theater level Army, that practice is crucial for competency. Live-fire training events and combined-arms training at the Army’s combat training centers will always be the benchmark.
But those exercises are expensive and limiting.
“There are certain activities you can only do in simulation,” Lundy said.
He mentioned cyber functions, electronic warfare and aviation maneuvers that are too dangerous to do live, but can be simulated and give soldiers an expanded experience as they prepare for real-world environments.
The general said the current simulations and synthetic environments have served their purposes but many, built in the 1980s, don’t meet current needs.
The Army must also expand the simulations. Currently only about eight installations have such simulators. There needs to be simulators at every home station at the company level.
While vehicle and aviation simulators have come a long way, the Army really needs a fully immersive dismounted soldier model.
“And it’s got to be able to scale from the squad to the company level,” Lundy said.
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.
