The need for focused, deliberate practice in the area of battlefield thinking is not new. The need for such training activity will be even greater in the future as our tactical leaders face a dynamic battlefield environment that places high demands on their mental agility. U.S. Army planning documents for the Future Combat System of Systems (FCS) specifically call out the requirement to develop, through training and experience, the thinking, confident, versatile, adaptive, and seasoned leaders at the tactical level required for the digitized, rapidly deployable objective force. To adequately prepare leaders, we must use every opportunity to improve the skills associated with decision-making performance. ° The term adaptive thinking has been used to describe the cognitive behavior of an officer who is confronted by unanticipated circumstances during the execution of a planned military operation (Lussier et al., 2000). The Think Like A Commander (TLAC) -- Adaptive Thinking Training Methodology has been used to address the need for focused deliberate practice of battlefield thinking skills. This training methodology uses cognitive battle drills to apply deliberate practice training concepts to commander s battlefield thinking skills and allows officers to model their battlefield understandings, plans, visualizations and decisions after expert tactician s thinking patterns.

The research described in this paper expands on earlier work by providing a fully functional computer-based application for instructional delivery that provides a number of tools and features used by the students (e.g., automated self-scoring and feedback). Furthermore, this research outlines the use of TLAC with Armor Captain Career Courses (ACCC) at Fort Knox, KY to develop thinking habits in U.S. Army Captains, and documents the initial results of an attempt to reduce the amount of time it might take to achieve a certain competency level as a commander of battlefield thinking. ° Preliminary data supports the notion the ATTM and TLAC can accelerate the development of battlefield thinking habits. Furthermore, user testing and feedback from both students and instructors has been very supportive. This paper will also introduces ongoing complementary efforts including two Phase II Small usines Inovatve Research contracts that will develop prototype Intelligent Tutor Systems (ITS) to train battle command conceptual skills by September 2003. °