Evolution in Training

FORUM Staff  |  Photos By AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE DEPARTMENT

From artificial intelligence and virtual reality to multilateral all-domain drills, military training has evolved in recent years as technology and partnerships advance across the Indo-Pacific and beyond. Australian Army Brig. Ben McLennan has witnessed the change firsthand. As commander of the Australian Defence Force’s (ADF) Combat Training Centre (CTC) and one of the directors of the biennial Australia-United States exercise Talisman Sabre, McLennan helped military professionals reach their potential while ensuring that Allied and Partner forces are prepared for war.

The Queensland-based CTC, which was established in 2003 and includes military personnel, contractors and public employees, conducts more than 40 events each year. Its mission: improve the ability of the ADF’s largest tactical teams “to respond to crisis and win in combat — today, tonight and tomorrow.”

McLennan, who is currently commander of the Australian Army 3rd Brigade (Armoured Amphibious) and previously served as an exchange officer to the Canadian Army and as the inaugural Australian Army liaison officer to the French Army, spoke with FORUM about trends in military training, the integration of technology and his advice to military professionals seeking to hone their skills. The conversation has been edited to fit FORUM’s format.

FORUM: What are some of the major developments in military training?

Brig. McLennan: There have been three major developments in advanced collective training in recent years. These developments are not unique to the Australian military. Indeed, allied combat training centers from the United States to France to South Korea and Singapore all tell a similar tale.

The first major development is a singular focus on rehearsing our military teams for war. These rehearsals seek to practice, practice, practice our tactical teams — across echelon, warfighting function, domain and Ally/Partner — for war as if it is their last opportunity to do so. Our mindset at CTC is that the team with whom we are partnering could be at war within 30 days — a type of war that our nation has not experienced since World War II. This sobering mindset steels, it galvanizes, it challenges our motivation to optimize the value of the rehearsals we design and conduct.

The features of these rehearsals include division, corps and amphibious force units of action leveraging this training to build readiness; full mission profiles — from mounting through deployment, joint-force entry and execution of tactical action; large-scale combat operations; an adversary that overmatches in all warfighting functions and domains, most of the time; regionally relevant archipelagic geography; realistic human, physical and informational terrain; and multidomain, joint and combined with Allies and Partners, enhancing those relationships that will hold when all else fails. And, perhaps most importantly, via thorough and coldly realistic training, forging tactical teams that are proud, iron-hard, disciplined and fit for what they must face.

The second major development is the elevation of advanced collective military training from company, battalion and brigade teams to division, corps and integrated/combined units of action. This elevation has enhanced the profile of all warfighting functions, especially command and control, fires, protection, and sustainment. Furthermore, it has encouraged closer integration of joint force elements and combining with Allies and Partners.

The third key development is the leveraging of advanced collective training to demonstrate combined capability, commitment and cohesion. That is, a tangible, indefatigable collective will to learn together, to be better together, to respond and win together, irrespective of the mission. No doubt this demonstrable resolve serves to deter potential adversaries.

FORUM: What do you anticipate will be the top trends in military training in the next five years?

Brig. McLennan: Encouragingly, my sense is there will be a deepening, an enrichment, of the above developments. That is, we will trend toward more realistic, immersive and challenging rehearsals for war; the routine practice of our warfighting corps and division units of action, joint and combined teams; and demonstrating tangibly that we are committed and prepared to respond decisively.

FORUM: How are emerging technologies incorporated into training and exercises? What are their benefits?

Brig. McLennan: New training technologies are continuously being trialed, tested and incorporated into our training and exercises. I have no doubt we will witness ongoing, valuable developments in military training technology. Indeed, it is already happening at pace and the Australian Army, alongside our Allies and Partners, consider industry as true partners — one of the parts that make our whole ready and rehearsed for war.

Some of the more exciting technological developments to enhance the realism, immersion and challenge of advanced collective training include shoot-shot/tracking laser/GPS systems that equip all echelons, warfighting functions and platforms; increasingly ergonomic systems; an array of options to fast-track high fidelity feedback to drive team learning and continuous improvement during exercises, and not simply waiting until the end of such exercises to provide feedback; and integration of other technologies that replicate contemporary and emerging battlefield trends such as drones, electronic warfare, cyber and space effects.

The benefit of these new training technologies … is an enriched learning environment where individuals and teams continuously improve.

It is also worth noting that our exercises provide a valuable opportunity to experiment and practice with new warfighting technologies — from battlefield helicopters to armored fighting vehicles to logistics, medical systems, platforms, equipment and even nutrition — that our Soldiers employ to outthink, outperform, out-team and outlast any opponent. Our events offer the most realistic replication of the tactical battlefield that we can safely achieve, one that continuously emulates the chaos, friction, chance and danger inherent to warfare. Our events offer the best possible battle lab for our Army headquarters, defense scientists, academic institutions, acquisition agencies and industry partners.

However, technology is not the sine qua non [indispensable factor] underpinning the design and conduct of effective advanced collective military training, and we should be cautious of biases and logical fallacies claiming otherwise. In my experience, and the sum of everything I know about how military forces have prepared for and won their nation’s wars, there is no substitute for a trained soldiery. That is, our young men and women, our joint and combined teams … in the mud for extended periods. Hard, visceral training that prizes learning and continuous improvement in the most realistic and immersive way possible is the timeless winning formula to survive and win on the battlefield. It produces soldiers, sailors, aviators and teams that are iron-hard. These indelible learning experiences extract the drops of sweat that save gallons of blood. It really is a simple formula, yet so incredibly hard to do consistently well.

FORUM: Can you discuss the CTC’s history and some of its major initiatives?

Brig. McLennan: Our Army, like all others, exists for two reasons: to fight our nation’s wars or to prepare to fight them. It would be fair to say the jewel of the Australian Army’s crown is our realistic and tough individual and collective training, ensuring it optimizes the learning and continuous improvement of our people and our teams. Even when our Army has confronted resource challenges, we have cleaved to this cultural trait; we have stayed true to ourselves. We have rejected the allure of shortcuts. Success in designing and conducting realistic and tough individual and collective training is hard, neither guaranteed by resources nor funding. Rather, it is a resolute mindset enabled by competent, courageous and committed officers, warrant officers, noncommissioned officers and Soldiers.

While the CTC is celebrating its 21st birthday [in 2024], our heritage traces to our nation’s darkest hour, in 1942, following the fall of Singapore [to imperial Japanese forces] and the encroaching threat to our north. In response to this strategic shock, our Army established a jungle training center. Much like the CTC today, the aim of this training center was to rehearse our teams for war … to enhance relationships with our closest ally, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, to reconnoiter the punishing terrain in which we would operate, survive and fight, and to demonstrate commitment, capability and cohesion.

Fast forward to 2003 and, to emulate the success of the U.S. Army’s National Training Center and Joint Readiness Training Center, our Army’s leadership established the CTC. Its mission: design and conduct the most realistic, immersive and challenging advanced collective training possible to coach continuous improvement in the ability of the Army’s largest tactical teams to respond to crisis or conflict.

The CTC’s key initiatives are threefold. First, its primary focus is to enable tactical commanders to achieve their objectives via the design/conduct of CTC events. Second, the CTC’s performance coaching approach seeks to enable key individuals, commanders and staffs to reach their high-performing potential in a no-consequence environment. Finally, it leverages what I will unabashedly describe as the world’s best military training areas — enhanced by the Australian community’s willingness to privilege us with access to and use of their towns and rural areas — for advanced collective training.

By virtue of Australia’s expansive geography, from the outset, the CTC has taken training to the point of need, loading up our traveling circus on the back of trucks and in the bellies of aircraft to meet our Army, integrated and combined tactical teams as close to their home station and proximate communities as possible.

It is worth adding that many allied combat training centers are pursuing similar initiatives, and we routinely benchmark and emulate their inspiring, cutting-edge examples.

FORUM: How have the CTC’s partnerships, including with the U.S. Army’s Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center (JPMRC), evolved in recent years? What are the benefits of such bilateral and multilateral initiatives?

Brig. McLennan: When I was a lieutenant, our Army routinely trained with two nations: the United States and Papua New Guinea. Today, the CTC routinely designs, conducts and executes advanced collective training with 16 nations. Our Army routinely engages with many more. Thus, it would be fair to say that our international partnerships have grown exponentially. This trend equally applies to the CTC’s partnerships with allied combat training centers from the U.S. Army, British Army, Canadian Army, New Zealand Army, Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, French Army and Republic of Korea Army, and emerging [partnerships] with the German Army and the Philippine Army.

Perhaps this growth is best exemplified by the CTC-JPMRC partnership, one characterized by routine commander-to-commander engagement, sharing of information and continuous people exchanges. For example, the CTC deploys coaches and exercise control staff to each JPMRC Alaska and Hawaii rotation. The JPMRC reciprocates during CTC’s division/formation warfighter exercises. Importantly, those involved in these exchanges are not observers; rather, they are required to roll up their sleeves and contribute. In addition, since 2023, the CTC and JPMRC codesign and co-conduct the land domain component of exercise Talisman Sabre, one of the world’s largest military exercises.

The allied combat training center network, a manifestation of what former U.S. Army Pacific Commander Gen. Charles Flynn describes as the strategic land power network, offers an array of benefits. It adds value to the rehearsal, readying, relationship, reconnaissance and demonstration objectives. Given we are all pursuing near-identical missions, grappling with comparable challenges and pursuing corresponding opportunities, it flattens our individual and collective learning curves. The allied network allows us all to learn from each other, routinely challenging and informing the entrenched mental models or cultural proclivities characterizing, and sometimes constraining, each nation’s approach to advanced collective training, thereby shining a light into each other’s potential blind spots.

FORUM: The biennial exercise Talisman Sabre will mark its 20th anniversary in 2025. How many participants are anticipated and what can they expect to gain from the experience?

Brig. McLennan: It will be the Olympics of war games conducted in Australia’s best training areas, our field of dreams. It offers a unique rallying point for Allies and Partners to rehearse — as if it is their last opportunity to do so — to ready, to enhance relationships, to reconnoiter regionally relevant terrain and to demonstrate our indefatigable will, our unified resolve.

I expect about 17 nations will participate in 2025. This level of allied participation will be the largest to date, with total boots on ground likely summing about 35,000. It will offer an unmatched ability to train en masse … against realistic adversaries across multiple tactical echelons and all warfighting functions and domains, and alongside Partners and Allies, working with and learning from each other. Talisman Sabre 2025 will also offer many opportunities to exemplify, experiment and modernize concepts, doctrine and equipment. Gracious Aussie hospitality will be the icing on the cake!

FORUM: Can you outline the planning process for major multilateral exercises such as Talisman Sabre and how planners determine specific training goals?

Brig. McLennan: There is a saying, gifted to us by the ancients, that unless a ship’s captain knows to what port he/she is steering, no wind is favorable. This proverb applies to exercise design, be they small and single-nation or enormous and multilateral, such as Talisman Sabre. This is the key. It is paramount that commanders — not staff or planners — determine exercise objectives. They are the ship’s captain. They are accountable for the outcomes achieved by their teams undertaking the exercise. Their expertise, judgment and visualization are indispensable. Just as importantly, commanders must supervise the staff, the planners, throughout planning and execution to ensure the exercise proves safe to our people, our teams, our equipment and environment, as well as effective in propelling learning and driving continuous improvement in the ability of their teams to survive, fight and win.

Pulling Talisman Sabre together is a remarkable enterprise, demanding 18 months of detailed planning. Establishing objectives, first and foremost, the majority of Talisman Sabre’s subsequent planning effort seeks to orchestrate, to synchronize, the extraordinary integration (people, platform and process) and logistics requirements. It is an incredible effort, one personifying [World War II-era U.S. Army Gen.] Omar Bradley’s maxim that “Amateurs talk strategy; professionals talk logistics.”

FORUM: Can you tell us about your career path, particularly your previous role at the CTC?

Brig. McLennan: If I was to summarize my career profile, it would be servant of Australia, Army officer and member of the profession of arms, tactical leader, and trainer. I have had the privilege to serve with extraordinary people and teams from platoon to joint task group level, in Australia and elsewhere, in meaningful staff appointments and with many of Australia’s close Allies and Partners.

Annually, the CTC designs and conducts over 40 events, usually joint, routinely combined, achieving the Australian Chief of Army’s direction that every team, every year will rehearse, ready, enhance relationships, reconnoiter and demonstrate. As commander of the CTC, I had the honor to work with a diverse team drawn from the Army, the Defence Department, industry, academia, the community, and our Allies and Partners to coach continuous improvement in the ability of large tactical teams to respond to crisis and win in combat. Coaching means helping individuals and teams reach their high-performing potential. 

Seeing ordinary people cohere into extraordinary teams, showing pride in their colors while under significant pressure, is a real privilege. Observing people and teams learn and improve, often transitioning from our coaching support to self-regulated learning, the most potent form of learning, is both edifying and inspiring.

FORUM: What advice would you share with military professionals seeking to develop their skills?

Brig. McLennan: All too often we forget that learning is never neat and that it is rarely linear. It involves change, mostly very personal, and change is always difficult. Humbly, I would commend all military professionals to:

• Study your profession so that you can be the best that you can be.
• Practice, practice, practice! Practice makes progress; practice makes permanent; practice makes perfect. The best of us at any endeavor are those who practice the most. There are no shortcuts.
• Find a way.