The natural environment for infantry training is in the field where unit leaders learn the decisions made on a map may be different from those operating in the battlefield environment. When a unit is in garrison, the commander has a difficult challenge effectively promoting those same decision-making skills throughout the ranks. To better utilize his Marines’ time between field exercises, one battalion commander envisioned a solution that would foster tactics training across all echelons. The resulting Tactical Decision Kit (TDK) married the work being done by the Office of Naval Research to address small-unit decision-maker training and extant fielded simulators to replicate the real-world experience and form that connection between 2D tactical planning and 3D execution, resulting in better decision-makers.

The TDK supports a full spectrum of training, including tactical decision games, sand table exercises, competitive simulated engagements and field exercises across all phases of the mission from planning to execution to after-action review. Technologies employed include web-enabled collaborative technologies, HoloLens mixed-reality, low-cost drones and photogrammetric terrain models, streaming media, distributed simulation, adaptive training and after-action review capture and playback. The experimental battalion, 2^nd battalion 6^th Marines (2/6), experienced increased performance in tactical thinking and communications using competitive simulated engagements, shorter planning cycles and increased efficacy of after-action reviews in field exercises with ready access to data and visualization tools. This lead to the decision by the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps to field the TDKs as an experimental platform to all infantry units with the latitude for battalion commanders to develop a tactical training path for their Marines.

This paper will discuss the operational concepts, the technologies and training approaches employed to address them and analysis collected both during the initial trials and after fielding the kits across the Marine Corps.

Marcus Mainz

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Tactical Decision Kits for Infantry Training

A Smart Approach for After Action Review Visualization and Analysis