Taking Training to the Warfighter: Heavy Brigade Combat Team Tactical Leaders Course

Over the years, the U. S. Army Armor School consistently focused on providing individual training for initial entry soldiers, professional military education for leaders, and functional training to augment these programs of instruction. The Armor School recently received a directive from the U. S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) commanding general “to become more responsive to the operational force.” Simultaneous to this directive, the Armor School realized that heavy brigade combat teams (HBCTs) have no systemic mechanism to receive support from the schoolhouse. As a result, the Training Development Division, Directorate of Training, Doctrine, and Combat Development-Experimentation (TDCD-E) developed a holistic HBCT training strategy to support the operational force. This strategy includes updates to HBCT combined arms training strategies (CATS) and development of HBCT training support packages (TSPs) to address emerging core mission essential task lists (CMETL), as well as an HBCT gunnery mobile training team (MTT) to align with new gunnery doctrine. One of the cornerstones of this strategy is the design and development of the HBCT tactical leaders course (TLC). As designed, the HBCT TLC has a flexible methodology of two 1-week MTTs that can be scheduled back-to-back or at different times during a unit’s reset/retrain cycle. The course has a tailorable menu of both a core curriculum and a series of elective topics. The HBCT TLC will include 16 hours of unit-specific core doctrinal updates; however, the remainder of the course is tailorable to the unit’s unique training needs.

Brigade, Fort Knox; and training specialist, 16th Cavalry Regiment, Fort Knox. HBCT Tactical Leaders Course from Page 21