Vanguard Magazine

T TRAINING TRAINING THE ARMY OF TOMORROW The confirmation in late September of the second ro- tation of troops for the Afghanistan training mission was a timely reminder that the Canadian Forces are still engaged in a combat zone. Army training, howev- er, is no longer about preparing for a specific theatre. As Major-General Steve Bowes, commander of Land Force Doctrine and Training System, explained in a recent interview, the focus has shiſted to foun- dational training, both individual and collective, with a growing emphasis on specialized skill sets and com- plex problem-solving, all enhanced by the introduction of new technology. MGen Steve Bowes, above, and Canadian army training as part of Exercise Maple Resolve: Photos: MCpl Marc-Andre Gaudreault Q Has army doctrine changed significantly as a result of recent conflicts? I don't think there are any radical changes in our doctrine be- cause it is so broad-based. Our orientation and training have shifted. We've already run one version of Exercise Maple Re- solve in which we used a contemporary common training sce- nario. We're no longer preparing for the war, we're preparing for a war, full spectrum, focusing on what might be described as the messy middle. The doctrine supporting that is excellent. So the training regime right now is really foundation training. We're re- emphasizing some of the fundamentals of combined arms team operation, within a full spectrum context, fully recognizing that we need to be ready for the broadest range of tasks. Q But Afghanistan has leſt its mark? People sometimes assume that the moment a manual of doctrine hits the street it is the authoritative expression of a body of pro- fessional knowledge that is already existent within the organiza- tion. In fact, in some cases doctrine is catching up with practice. In the case of counter-insurgency operations, although we did not have doctrine, many of the skill sets were already resident in the army. So for stability operations, we've just formalized that in a way that helps us further teach the new generation. 14 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2012 www.vanguardcanada.com Counter-IED and force protection will be key in any future scenario. So those will always be part of our training. We have also worked well with the air force advancing air-land integra- tion so that we operate as one team. In today's environment, we need to optimize our ability to work together. Next year during JOINTEX, we'll bring together separate army, navy and air force exercises within one large joint exercise, conducting operations as we would fight in any future scenarios. Q Training is certainly more joint; is doctrine becoming more joint? I think it is in some areas. There may be gaps in others where we're still developing understanding of capabilities that need to be reinforced: influence activities, intelligence architecture, etc. Q Are you changing the way you teach? We want to advance the use of collaborative technology to en- hance our ability to do training closer to where soldiers live. We want to think of the CF and the army as a university or college. We can't afford a structure that allows us to have centres of excellence everywhere. But if we can leverage technology to enable more learning to occur where soldiers reside, that can only advantage us. The infantry school is in Gagetown; wouldn't it be great if a warrant officer in a reserve unit in Saskatchewan had access to the

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