As of 2022, Basic Combat Training lacked emphasis on foundational tactical skills and concepts essential for individual survival in large-scale combat operations, skills such as noise and light discipline, personal and positional camouflage, fighting positions to increase survivability, security, situational awareness and reacting to small unmanned aircraft systems.

From the summer of 2023 through this past winter, the 193rd Infantry Brigade, which conducts reception operations and Basic Combat Training for U.S. Army recruits at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, focused on creating a warfighting mindset and culture for trainees and cadre. The concept of refocusing Basic Combat Training to producing entry-level warfighters initially caused consternation and pushback, as much of this transition was about going back to training strategies and concepts that were commonplace before the global war on terrorism.

But it was necessary, and it needed to take place on a compressed timeline more like the turn of a speedboat than that of an aircraft carrier.

Antiquated Curriculum

Every Basic Combat Training cycle of soldiers that graduated before we could accomplish this transition was another 800 to 1,200 new troops who were unprepared for the wars that might lie ahead. These soldiers were disciplined and fit, yet lacked the tactical foundation necessary to survive in large-scale combat operations. A team composed of these soldiers would be suboptimal on the modern battlefield, regardless of their combat mission.

In early April 2023, the process began within the 193rd Infantry Brigade to modernize Basic Combat Training to better prepare new soldiers for the changing character of war. The brigade established an operational planning team made up of senior drill sergeants from each of the five Basic Combat Training battalions in the brigade and led by a sitting Basic Combat Training company commander. The senior drill sergeants were tasked with developing a plan to transition the existing event-driven administrative exercise, called the Forge, into a 72-hour tactical field training exercise built around a large-scale combat operations scenario: Forge 2.5.

This group of experienced professionals met throughout that month, operating with initial guidance from the brigade commander to embed a tactical focus—defined as noise and light discipline, personal and positional camouflage, fighting positions to increase survivability, known as to-standard fighting positions, security and situational awareness—within the Forge exercise. Drill sergeants were to lead their trainee squads and platoons as squad leaders and platoon sergeants. Battalion staffs were to deploy to the field to establish tactical operations centers and perform their duties in a quasi-wartime manner.

Every Forge 2.5 iteration was to be evaluated utilizing training and evaluation outlines by a brigade-level evaluation team to enable continued refinement through each battalion-level execution.

Training for Trainers

The initial iterations of Forge 2.5 showed that many drill sergeants were deficient in the basic tactical knowledge and experience necessary to lead trainees in a scenario-driven field training exercise. Planners developed a holistic, large-scale combat operations-focused leader professional development plan and cadre certification program that provided cadre with the education necessary to break the mold produced by 20 years of the global war on terrorism.

This leader professional development plan enabled the drill sergeants to think and act in preparation for the next war instead of being anchored to lessons learned from the global war on terrorism. The result was that no matter their MOS, cadre were armed with the competence and confidence to serve as tactical leaders.

Drill sergeants are masters of training the program of instruction and have been finely honed by the U.S. Army Drill Sergeant Academy, also at Fort Jackson, to expertly train basic soldier skills. However, without a focus on tactical leadership and survivability in large-scale combat operations, drill sergeants had been asked to enter a realm where they weren’t competent enough to be confident.

Leader professional development plans and cadre certification were good at the battalion level, but additional education and training were necessary at the Drill Sergeant Academy to create a true transformation. Academy leaders immediately identified where they could evolve training and education to produce not only a better drill sergeant, but also a better NCO, ready to lead trainees in a tactical environment.

As the brigade iterated through executions of the Forge, the lack of an overarching large-scale combat operations-focused scenario proved problematic. This missing scenario prevented realism and detracted from the purpose of the enhanced Forge.

Global Scenario

A U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) intelligence officer developed an overarching global scenario, informed by the National Defense Strategy, that provided the operational framework through the introduction of nine situational updates, or injects, throughout Basic Combat Training. These combined to add training realism and tactical purpose to every event, starting with reception and throughout Basic Combat Training.

The enemy situation developed by the TRADOC intelligence officer was based on a fictitious country named Olvana. To ensure the most realistic opposing force package possible, planners procured tiger-stripe uniforms, pneumatic guns, IED simulators, training rifles, Soviet-type light machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

Scenario immersion was further solidified by the creation of over 20 World War II-inspired propaganda posters. These are hung around the Basic Combat Training battalion and company areas on Fort Jackson to immerse trainees in a realistic, well-sourced scenario that provides added benefit to, and purpose for, every training event within Basic Combat Training.

Besides the conduct of Basic Combat Training, the 193rd Infantry Brigade is charged with receiving and in-processing upward of 30,000 civilians annually, who are destined for both the 193rd and 165th Infantry Brigades, as they in-process into the Army before movement to Basic Combat Training.

Excitement Builds

As the warfighting culture within Basic Combat Training began to root and develop, an opportunity was identified to introduce the newly arrived civilians to the concept of scenario-based training, begin the large-scale combat operations scenario immersion and, more appropriately, welcome these new trainees into their future warfighting profession.

Scenario injects and battle-focused discussions were easily threaded into the standard reception tasks to immediately provide a stronger sense of purpose and increased excitement and pride about what these soon-to-be soldiers had committed to accomplishing over the next 10 weeks.

Reception transformation led to a desire to make our handoff of trainees between the reception battalion and the Basic Combat Training battalions more tactically focused and purposeful. This process is called structured and disciplined pickup.

The handoff between the reception battalion and the Basic Combat Training battalions was a professional event focused on Army and unit history, discipline and Army Combat Fitness Test demonstrations.

With the newly found emphasis on warfighting, this event began to further reinforce the Army’s warfighting purpose, with drill sergeants leading trainees through physically demanding tactical tasks. This early inculcation enabled the trainees’ absolute connection to the Army’s past and future.

Through introduction to the tactical scenario and the warfighting profession at reception, built upon through a refined, structured and disciplined pickup, then codified throughout Basic Combat Training, realism, purpose and pride emerged to replace anxiety and confusion.

H2F Helps

Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) is a powerful weapon in the soldier’s arsenal, the application of which makes soldiers the best versions of themselves. There were new demands, on both drill sergeants and trainees, created by a 72-hour tactical field training exercise. These demands created a need for additional cadre/trainee investment in each of the five H2F domains (physical, mental, sleep, nutritional and spiritual); to prepare them for Forge 2.5; empower them throughout execution; and facilitate recovery post-execution. The 193rd Infantry Brigade’s H2F Team led the inclusion of H2F as a mission-enhancing element of the brigade’s Forge 2.5 transition.

This effort started by immersing the 193rd’s H2F Team within the Basic Combat Training environment throughout the 10-week Basic Combat Training cycle, while simultaneously instituting full five-domain H2F assessments on the brigade’s entire cadre population. The assessments educated cadre on their performance blind spots, while the immersion enabled the H2F team to assess the physical and mental demands on both trainees and cadre.

Once the subject-matter experts understood the stressors on both cadre and trainees, they were able to devise a training strategy to increase performance, not just during Forge 2.5, but throughout Basic Combat Training.

Making the Transition

After nearly nine months and almost 15 iterations of Forge 2.5, the 193rd Infantry Brigade had achieved transition from an administratively conducted Forge to the complete tactical focus of Forge 2.5. The brigade laid a firm tactical foundation and was ready for the added complexity necessary to complete the large-scale combat operations-focused transition and incorporate lessons learned from the ongoing war in Ukraine—small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) needed to enter the Forge.

Since their first usage during the global war on terrorism, sUAS have continued to become ever more present throughout global conflicts. Lessons learned from Ukraine show sUAS being used primarily for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and for aerial bombing and kamikaze attacks.

The 193rd Infantry Brigade’s use of sUAS within Forge 2.5 followed these tactical applications, and hence, mitigation techniques focused on diminishing the sUAS’ ability to identify targets.

Reinforcing Standards

This was done primarily through reinforcing the foundational tactical standards called for initially in Forge 2.5. The brigade developed two reactions to sUAS that were passive in nature, did not call for engaging the platforms and required no specialized equipment. These reactions address the types of sUAS contact in the individual soldier task framework essential in Basic Combat Training.

In a defensive scenario, the emphasis was placed on overhead concealment using natural vegetation. While patrolling or stationary in the open, vertically aligning oneself against a tree trunk enabled using the tree’s branches to conceal the soldier from observation. While “seeking cover” often involves lying prone, in a sUAS scenario, a horizontal body is much easier to observe from the air than a vertical one.

Through a large-scale combat operations scenario and continuous tactical operations, the Forge became purposeful, realistic and more challenging. It ensured that trainees received a firmer foundation of basic skills and empowered cadre and staffs to develop as leaders, NCOs, officers and soldiers. Its requisite trainee focus is on the foundational tactical skills of noise and light discipline, personal and positional camouflage, to-standard fighting positions, security and situational awareness to create an entry-level soldier with inherent skills to survive on the modern battlefield. Forge 2.5 transforms trainees, cadre and staff into warfighters ready for the future fight.

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Col. Scott White is the assistant chief of staff for operations for U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Fort Liberty, North Carolina. Previously, he was the commander of the 193rd Infantry Brigade, Fort Jackson, South Carolina. He deployed four times to Afghanistan and once to Iraq. He graduated in 1998 from The Citadel, South Carolina, and has two master’s degrees: one in defense analysis (irregular warfare) from the Naval Postgraduate School, and one in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College.

Command Sgt. Maj. Jonathan Duncan is the command sergeant major of the 193rd Infantry Brigade. Previously, he was the battalion command sergeant major for the 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment. He deployed three times to Iraq. He has a master’s in human resources and organization development from the University of Louisville, Kentucky.