Because tactical missions are becoming increasingly complex, designing instructional systems to competently address complex mission based training needs is emerging as a significant problem. The need, for instance, to conduct a comprehensive, formal analysis of mission related training requirements as a prerequisite to actual system design is self-evident; yet, as indicated in a recent GAO Report (GAO / FPCD-83-4) this is rarely accomplished. Furthermore, in this and similar treatments on the subject (Olson, 1982; Smith, 1982; Beagles, 1982) a clear imperative emerges to formalize the process and conduct a professional examination of user needs first, then provide training systems that - and this is important - analytically correlate to these explicite user needs. Responding to this critique, a methodology, presented in this concept paper, has been developed and represents a structured, systematic approach for the formal analysis, definition, and prioritization of mission based training requirements, providing in the process an operationally focused analytical framework for the design and development of operational training systems that will satisfy significant user needs. Briefly, this methodology: 1) Structures the mission and defines and exercises significant threat impacted scenarios; 2) establishes boundary conditions, if necessary, to provide specific focus for the indepth analysis to follow; 3) specifies operator tasks germane to the application; 4) defines task characteristics where task loading and task complexity are examined, quantified and combined to form a task difficulty rating; 5) then combining task difficulty with mission importance (a collateral analysis that quantifies relative importance of mission segments), critical mission area statements are developed along with a fully supportable, prioritizated set of mission tasks and concomitant training requirements.