The Army has recently been called upon to lead numerous Support and Stability Operations (SASOs) to relieve suffering and help local authorities respond to crises. To be successful during SASOs, Army officers must effectively interact with their counterparts from other military, civilian, and non-profit organizations. This holds true for both foreign deployments in the global war on terror and domestic crises such as Hurricane Katrina.

Unfortunately, current methods for training the crisis management skills that are required for success in SASOs are insufficient. Specifically, the Army's current "train as you fight" focus - with its emphasis on unstructured practice in whole-task environments, and the use of costly, high-fidelity simulation - is an inefficient approach to training. While these types of experiences may help to reinforce the existing knowledge of experienced crisis managers, they will not transform a good crisis manager into an expert one. The Army needs to develop training that incorporates the principles of deliberate practice, especially at lower echelons of command. Only after these crisis management skills have been trained to near automatic levels will learners receive the full benefit of less structured, high-fidelity practice environments that present learners with numerous distractions.

With this in mind, the US Army Research Institute developed the Red Cape: Crisis Action Planning and Execution training program. Red Cape uses the deliberate practice training technique to provide Army National Guard officers with the opportunity to practice their crisis management skills on 15 realistic homeland security and national disaster scenarios, including: earthquakes, dirty bomb attacks, prison riots, winter snowstorms, and sports riots. Red Cape was developed with the assistance of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) from the Indiana Army National Guard, the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, the Indiana Department of Transportation, the Indiana State Police, and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, among others.