An Approach to Embedded Training for Future Leaders and Staff

Unlike many other U.S. Army procurement programs, the Future Combat Systems (FCS) program placed a premium on the design of training platforms and training content. All developers of FCS technologies were required to develop training concurrently. Thus, developers of the Unattended Ground Sensors (UGS), now being tested, delivered new equipment training with the UGS themselves. In addition, the FCS program required the widespread use of embedded training (ET) across platforms. This paper discusses both the tremendous opportunities and serious challenges of ubiquitous embedded training as proposed in the FCS program. While such widespread ET seems to offer near “any time any place” training, it also places heavy costs on the unit. In addition, widespread ET could cause the misapplication of ET technologies to training that could best be addressed using other approaches. That is, ET could drive the content of training and the design of training strategies, rather than the content and strategy driving the selection of appropriate training approaches and platforms. Thus, a major challenge is how to fit ET into a training strategy in an effective and efficient manner. To illustrate these issues, the training of leaders and battle staff will be used as a case study.