A paraphrased quote from the Battle Management Symposium states the “BMC2 (Battle Management Command and Control) enterprise is the only community that comprehensively integrates Surveillance, Identification, and Communications capabilities to simultaneously and persistently perform Information Management (IM) and Force Management (FM) across the entirety of the continuum of control.” BMC2 operators, like any skilled professional, require training, and training to provide persistent information and force management across the continuum of control can be challenging to facilitate. Simulation training offers 100-400 level training for ABMs to practice Information Management and Force Management.
Information Management
Information Management is the disciplined process of turning available data into usable mission knowledge by determining what information matters, who needs it, how it should move, and when it must arrive to enable timely decisions and force employment. Another aspect of Information Management includes determining primary, alternate, contingency, and emergency (PACE) communication pathways. Once the pathways are confirmed, ensuring that the relevant data flows from sensor to effector, whether kinetic or non-kinetic, requires a C2ABM professional. As “Tater” Williams wrote in Make It Make Sense, “[Air Battle Managers] must possess intimate knowledge of communication plans and must grasp the implications contained within.” Effective information management minimizes the prevalence of “perception errors” that occur in nearly every training mission. Simulation event training allows the briefing, practice, and debriefing of information management to focus on what needs to be pulled from data for action or passed to another agency.
Force Management
Force Management is the pairing of fuel, effectors, and sensors to meet the commander’s intent within the prescribed acceptable levels of risk (ALR). This includes managing the composition of an air package, the timeline to enable effects delivery and threat mitigation, coordinating launch and recovery operations, and coordinating to conduct Agile Combat Employment. Air Battle Managers (ABMs) can use simulation training to balance all aspects of Force Management to orchestrate facts and “data into coherent actions.”
100 – 400 Level Training Defined
Simulator training scales from 100 (beginner), 200 (intermediate), 300 (advanced), and 400 (expert)To define these simply, each level requires different levels of instruction. A 100-level event is designed for a beginner who is starting to learn and requires constant instruction. 200-level (intermediate) events are for those who have learned the basic skills and tasks but still require some instructional guidance to achieve mission success. 300-level (advanced) events are for those with a strong grasp of the skill requirements and who can perform tasks independently. 400-level (expert) training is designed to achieve mastery to the point where one can teach or guide others.
100 Level Training: “Beginner”
100-Level training for the Battle Management enterprise, both ABM and Weapons Director (WD), focuses on learning the true fundamentals and basic building blocks. This training starts at the Undergraduate level, whether at the 337th Air Control Squadron (ACS) at Tyndall AFB or the 607 ACS at Luke AFB. Simulation-based training is used to build familiarity and proficiency before student training progresses to controlling live aircraft, as specified in both units’ syllabi. It allows the reps and sets for new C2ABM practitioners to get the basics. Upon graduation, individuals are sent to their first Mission Design Series (MDS). There, the individual is put into Initial Qualification Training, or IQT. The individual is first taught how to use the interfaces of their system to perform their role within the Battle Management Team (BMT). Once familiar with their system, beginners are taught how to manage information within the BMT. From there, these beginners can begin using information management to enable force management.
100-level simulation training can allow students to practice multiple repetitions of Information and Force Management. Take the example of an aircraft takeoff: The C2ABM practitioner can practice information management by following the Air Tasking Order and the Wing Operations chat, compare whether reality aligns with the plan, and inform the BMT. Another member of the BMT may then pass the takeoff data to an air refueling aircraft, or tanker, in a nearby orbit, and receive a new estimate of remaining fuel available. The BMT lead then further manages information and pushes it up, down, and laterally across the battlespace using electronic communications, and executes force management by refining the tanker refueling plan based on the available information.
Besides local simulation with contracted simulated-entity support, the 132 CTS, home of the Distributed Training Operations Center, or DTOC, can support this training using a robust cadre of Air National Guard members. The DTOC supports several Battle Management squadrons and Joint partners by connecting networked simulators and providing dedicated support for simulated entities. Local or DTOC simulator events can provide the numerous repetitions required to reinforce basic aspects of information and force management.
Information Management at the 100-level starts with a simple ritual, a radio check. Practicing the same litany repeatedly may seem tedious, but it enables the ABM to build confidence in their actions via voice on the radio. In an almost robotic, or monotone voice, the ABM solidifies the correct format, content, and priority of data. Information Management quickly supports Force Management decisions or updates. Providing a clear check-in to marshaling aircraft leads to a flight lead knowing the status of formation and disposition of the adversary forces.
200-Level Training: “Intermediate”
200-Level training can then expand the skillset. Multiple takeoff locations with multiple contributors of sensors require the Battle Management Enterprise to coordinate for accuracy. Simulator training can quickly create multi-axis threats or targets, causing the BMT to improve accuracy. Increases in aircraft count and various timelines to be managed will challenge the C2ABM practitioner to do their part well. Intermediate-level C2ABM operators can identify problems, such as a delay in takeoff, work with the BMT to determine whether the delay affects the mission, and, if it does, help create a plan to mitigate it.
200-Level Training can be conducted using the DTOC’s more advanced scenarios, or through Air Combat Command’s Disturbed Training Center or CAF DTC. DTOC and DTC missions are typically collectively referred to as “DMOs” (Distributed Mission Operations). 200-Level information and force management training could include multi-lane, multi-frequency, and multi-platform training opportunities – often directly with operators of other platforms using their own networked simulators. BMTs can divide tasks amongst roles between tanker management and threat awareness. Units across the world can schedule in their crews for a mass scenario – including a mass brief and debrief, all hosted on the simulator network. These 200-level events create opportunities for Force Management and correlation of integrated Surveillance, Identification, and Communications, while also requiring Information Management to ensure that the critical pieces of information are passed to all relevant parties, be they within the BMT or on another MDS, within the sim scenario.
200-Level training for Information Management and Force Management helps the ABM understand their role within the BMT. The ABM who understands their role now learns how their actions support other members of the BMT. Information, such as weather, that could impact operations needs to be shared across multiple formations and locations. In this example, a weather report could affect a tanker’s timing requiring BMTs to work through immediate communication, initial follow-on decisions, and a cascading series of decisions internally and externally.
300-Level Training: “Advanced”
300-level training expands on the BMT and MDS functions to the Joint fight. Advanced training can now include additional joint capabilities, as well as allies or partners in simulation-based information and force management. This training can provide expertise on how each component or service speaks, what the others expect to hear, and how all parties will then use the information to take action. Advanced Information Management is recognizing critical passageways and holding others to them. Simulation training can missionize scenarios to enable sectors and regions that require proactive sensor and identification integration. Sharing data for multiple air packages’ takeoff and time-to-employ effects, while combining with other domain effects, requires management. Synchronization requires communication and an understanding of the desired effect. ABMs can work through the noise to provide the right signal to solve multi-domain coordination challenges and can be trained without risk to force or mission, all within a simulation.
300-level simulation training is supported by 705 CTS’ Distributed Mission Operations Center, or DMOC. The DMOC provides robust training opportunities to execute the Commander’s intent at low cost without any true risk to force or mission. On average, the DMOC provides 4-hour events that can allow decisions by a BMT, or even an individual, to experience second- and third-order effects of decisions. C2ABM professionals will need the ability to maintain common situational awareness and adapt to changing conditions to meet the Commander’s intent through Information and Force Management practiced over theater-specific scenarios.
300-level training for Information Management and Force Management takes the check-in example from multiple locations and multiple agencies. One BMT may only know a part of the puzzle of the timing for assets and needs to coordinate the marshal or egress with another BMT. This multi-team, multi-unit training can be focused on large missions with multiple moving parts requiring synchronization of timing and abilities. The individual ABM needs to understand how their actions affect the BMT and the overall Mission.
400-Level Training: “Expert”
An advanced skill set now enables the guidance and instruction of others. Whether it is leading a team or setting understandable priorities, the ABM who can translate for beginners to experts on the “Why” can help create more experts in Information and Force Management. A simulation event can be used to test the clarity of guidance, accuracy of priorities, and ability to monitor and teach the tasks that enable the mission. While all simulator events may build the proficiency required to reach this level, simulations hosted by units designed specifically to provide 400-level training, such as the Joint Integrated Test and Training Center- Nellis, JITTC-N, can create uniquely complex simulated environments and bring together experts from across multiple platforms to practice all aspects of air warfare – including information and force management – at the highest levels.
400-level is the transition from increasing one’s individual skillset to increasing another’s. The ability to distill theater products into straightforward actions for beginners requires understanding their capabilities and communicating precisely when, how, and why something is required of them. The expert teaches the intermediate level, but expands their knowledge on the impacts of Information and Force Management, such as the criticality of communicating and adjusting for something like a force packaging issue due to a delayed takeoff. The expert helps the advanced individual understand the theater scenario and learn more about the different domains’ capabilities and interdependences.
Conclusion
Simulation training allows the Battle Management enterprise to conduct Information Management and Force Management Training. The opportunities to practice at an appropriate scale and scope are there for the taking. A proactive, deliberate plan to put ABMs and BMTs through 100-400-level training will increase their ability to support the Joint Force.
Maj David “Solo” Blessman, USAF, is an Air Battle Manager, husband, and father.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the U.S. Air Force, Department of Defense, or U.S. government.
Photo by Egor Komarov on Pexels.
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