How To Train A Military - TopPodcast.com

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

How To Train A Military — Government
How To Train A Military

Training a military force is a proposition unlike the one faced by other civil organisations: It has to prepare people to perform in the chaos and turmoil of battle – even simple tasks like making deliveries or baking bread become very different in the face of artillery fire or roadside bombs. It’s not just about mental pressure and physical discomfort, it is about facing death while doing the mundane and business-as-usual tasks. It is, perhaps, the greatest test of humans and has always been so. As military training has evolved (along with the force it enables), so have the opportunities in technologies such as simulation: are the benefits without bounds, or is there a point that the benefits of simulation tail off? What mix of virtual and physical performance maximises performance? And amongst all of this is the reality of organisational culture, and the cost-effectiveness of training. How much of this training can be outsourced to a commercial provider? What is the optimal amount of training done away from the cauldron of combat, and how much must be exercised under arms and stressing conditions? Answering these questions is crucial if we are to all understand the importance of training in a military force – and how to optimise it to win in the greatest of contests. Listen to the series as we talk to people who think a lot about military training – from the professional soldiers and commanders to the academics who study it, as well as the commercial operators who are increasingly being employed to deliver it.

Copyright: © 2023

Latest Episodes:

Military training, Primes and SMEs May 23, 2023

Show notes

As simulators have taken an increasingly prominent role in military training since the 1980s, their complexity – and cost - has also changed. Buying, operating and maintaining those systems has become too expensive for militaries to run themselves and commercial partners have slowly but steadily grown their own role in the process. Over the past 20 years, defence primes have brought out independent training providers and taken over many of these contracts but SMEs are providing in increasingly important role. These small boutique companies provide specialist knowledge to the commercial giants, in data analytics or gaming level VR, and play an important role as disruptors in keeping both the military and defence primes honest: Provided the prime has a culture that accepts and sees the need for these behaviours. Peter talks to Alan Roan, co-founder of Cervus and a veteran from the British Army, about where an SME fits into the commercial provision of military training.

Money, exercises and simulation May 16, 2023

Show notes

Peter talks to Professor Jim Storr about the use of simulators in the British military since the 1980s. Why and how they have become such a central element of force development for Western militaries, and what we have failed to extract from their potential use. It seems that simulators have far more potential than we current get from them: and even if we did, they still cannot entirely replace the need for live training events – especially at the combined arms and joint level of exercises. Three people in a room wearing VR headsets really does not make an effective fighting force. Nor one ready for the realities of combat. Industry professionals, it seems, don't think so either.

What could the military learn from civil teaching and training? May 09, 2023

Show notes

Teacher training includes education processes, systems, human behaviours and methods of engagement with students. That profession has been doing it for a while but which, if any, of those skills and what parts of that knowledge could be transferred to military training that might optimise training - even if just a little bit? Peter talks to Kate Heaton, an experienced teacher and HR professional in Higher and Further Education in the UK. Kate also has worked with the UK military which makes her identification of what can be transferred so accessible. The secret, revealed over this episode, is less about process and more about how we treat and value our own teachers and instructors. On the way to this conclusion, there are some surprising similarities but also some key differences. Genuinely interesting comparisons.

Whither the intellectual renaissance in education and training? May 02, 2023

Show notes

After their experience in Vietnam, the US military actively pursued thinking about warfare in different ways - and reorientated training and education along those lines. It is surprising that, 50 years later, militaries seem unwilling to examine – let alone acknowledge the utility of – approaches outside manoeuvre warfare, mission command, innovation, multi-domain operations, dispersal, and the philosophy of 'our' rules-based order. Peter talks to Professor Heather Venable about why this is, whether the West can escape from the intellectual prison of its own making, and the need for Allies who are willing to think differently, and challenge the orthodoxy. Right now, to feels like the Australian Defence Force stands alone in the former category: something that US forces might need more than ever.

First learn, then train, then fight Apr 25, 2023

Show notes

You can train a military as much as you want, but if you are not training the right skills for the coming fight, it is all wasted effort. Learning first is vital. The British military experience around the First World War – before, during and after – can be salutary when thinking about military training and education. Just as the British Army was getting serious about professional military skills, it was torn apart by indecision about whether the lessons from the Boer War would be useful for all future campaigns or were completely context specific. Dr Aimée Fox from King's College, London talks to Peter about how the military learned, how that impacted on training and education, and why some of those tensions remain extant today.

Simulation has changed military training. A lot. Apr 18, 2023

Show notes

When militaries started using simulators back in the 1930s, live training remained the priority. Things have reversed now where live training opportunities seem to be few and far between. Most militaries seem to have adopted the strategy of General Charles Krulak USMC who, in the 1990s, purchased commercially available gaming equipment to hone his troops decision-making under pressure. Today, as explained by Rusmat Ahmed from Bohemia International Simulations, the opportunities are better than ever but much depends on who is in charge. And the future shouldn't simply be about integrating at ever greater scale – not if value-for-money and training outcomes are the predominant consideration.

Training for lethality, readiness and deterrence Apr 04, 2023

Show notes

Former UK Chief of Defence Staff General David Richards talks to Peter Roberts about how important training is in generating a capable and lethal military force, and whether technology can substitute for live field exercises. General David's former experiences in integrating computers and simulation into training and education is illuminating, but comes with a warning that simulation alone cannot replace time in the field, at sea, or in the air: something no one in industry believes and yet has become fashionable for military and political leaders to gravitate towards. Recounting his experience during a former period of great power competition and preparing for conventional combat on a grand scale, General David talks through the pressures on budgets and why training becomes a "quick saving" but, in capability terms, cutting training and education budgets is not only a false economy but ultimately dangerous.

Trailer episode: Why now and why is this an important conversation? Mar 28, 2023

Show notes

Military training budgets are getting hot in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. Holding big live exercises is expensive. Very expensive. And as military budgets are increasingly under pressure from over budget equipment costs, and pay rises for service personnel, cuts to the training budgets look like easy 'savings'. But there isnt much evidence that postponing exercises or curtailing them can do anything else other than to reduce the combat effectivness of military forces. Simulation offers a possible alternative, yet even those who provide these services do not say it is a replacement for live training in the field, at sea or in the air. If we continue to simply look at and measure military training through a financial prism, we will be on a hiding to nothing. This podcast wants to look at where we started to disregard the importance of training military forces in the UK, and what we can do about it.

Related Podcasts