I__. - International Military Testing Association

4. Situational Awareness and the Militarv Commander
Situational awareness has also been developed to deal with recent reanalyses of the sorts of thinking
that goes on under complex and rapidly changing conditions, especially when information inputs
and ouputs are degraded by blockages and noises of a variety of kinds and intensities. Essentially,
the Commander must be able to act upon knowledge of himself and his forces, the disposition of the
enemy forces, anticipate reaction of the enemy to his intiatives in the context rapidly changing conditions
and timelines.
The basis of the Commanders action is inputted information COMMUNICATED to him, mainly
audio (voice) and visual (eye); outputted action information COMMUNICATED by him, mainly
audio (voice) and psychomotor (eye-mind-finger-hand). What is of concern in the production of .
qualified COMMANDERS is the types and ranges of thinking that must occur in order to decide on,
and communicate, courses of action that are appropriate for given scenarios.
5. Training to Tactical and Strategic Actions
The effectiveness of combat elements depends to a great extent upon the ability of their personnel to
carry out three kinds of actions:
� Highly, efficient enactment of predictable routines, such as mobilizations, preparation for
action, decamping, assembly, deployment into and out of movement formation, and establishing
formations for classical types of actions. These are activities which recur with regularity in such
consistent form that a well-drilled unit literally has them down to a well honed science. These are
performed with minimal judgement because the “solution” is already known.
� Applying “Directing Staff Solutions”, or “classical tactics” effectively in appropriate field
and simulated situations. The clearest illustrations of these are the action sequences or drills in small
unit tactical manuals. Those tell the participant what to do and how to do it under most tactical
conditions. Directing Staff solutions require an element of active diagnosis of the context (i.e. a
military appreciation), a choice among alternative responses from a standardized repertoire, and adaptation
of those responses to match situational particulars.
� Improvisation. Patton observed that plans never survive the initial engagement. Substantially
the same sentiments of commanders and theoreticians across millenia demonstrate that under
firing line conditions, the classical solution sometimes cannot be ascertained, may not apply because
of locally evident threats or opportunites (or may even be counterproductive if it represents definitive
intelligence for the opposing force).
Under all battle conditions improvisations are required. Typical kinds of improvisation include:
� making tentative and partial diagnoses under uncertainty;
� using action to test diagnoses, clarify the context, and alter the context; and
� creating uncertainty for the opposing.force.
6. RelationshiD of, fPpG to ombat Related Doctrinal Training
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Training to doctrine usually takes up the following three forms:
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