The Combat Hunter program was first conceived in 2007 to meet a training gap in small unit close combat warfighting. This US Marine Corps (USMC) program of instruction (POI) trains the fundamentals of combat profiling, tracking, and optics-based observation, helping students become successful "combat hunters" in an irregular warfare battlespace. The two lead instructors, who also designed the original course, include a former undercover inner-city police detective and a man-tracker from Africa. Both possess extraordinary innate expertise, each with over 30-years experience in their respective fields.

However, the Combat Hunter POI is not currently available outside of the USMC, and the USMC's 10-day course actually represents a shortened version of what each instructor originally desired. Ideally, they would prefer a 20-day POI that includes 10 days of tracking instruction and 10 days of observation/profiling instruction. Thus, a hybrid Combat Hunter-like POI is currently being developed as a capability for the Joint community. The first step in its development was a 20-day course delivered this April by the two subject matter experts (SME) to 43 military and law enforcement trainees. A team of researchers was also embedded with the course. The researchers' goals were to (1) capture the content of the course and package it for greater deployability, (2) assess the instructional outcomes of the course, and (3) explicitly articulate the linkages between the course content and underlying scientific principles.

This paper describes the actual experience of the April course and research endeavor. It also provides details on the overall Joint Forces Command effort, outlining its rationale, goals, logistical processes, and data collection protocol.