Decisive Action Training Environment (DATE)

Purpose

The purpose of the Decisive Action Training Environment (DATE) document, version 3.0, is to provide the US Army training community with a detailed description of the conditions of five operational environments (OEs) in the Caucasus region; specifically the fictional countries of Ariana, Atropia, Donovia, Gorgas, and Limaria. It presents trainers with a tool to assist in the construction of scenarios for specific training events but does not provide a complete scenario. The DATE offers discussions of OE conditions through the political, military, economic, social, information, infrastructure, physical environment, and time (PMESII-PT) variables. Real-world information for gray space states that border DATE countries can be utilized in scenarios, however the states cannot be use as belligerents. This DATE applies to all US Army units (Active Army, Army National Guard, and Army Reserve) that participate in an Army or joint training exercise.

The DATE is constructed using real-world conditions to challenge unit training objectives, but uses artificial data to provide a fictional setting that can be manipulated for suitability to any training event, to include decisive operations. Section 2: Variables of the OE and Orders of Battle (OBs) provides the bulk of these details. The variable discussion explores the complex and ever-changing combination of conditions, circumstances, and influences that could affect military operations within a given OE. The PMESII-PT variables offer insight into each fictitious country’s independent, dynamic, and multidimensional environment. By defining these variables’ makeup and interoperability as they relate to a specific country, a picture emerges of the environment’s nature and characteristics. The OBs, which follow each country’s PMESII-PT variable discussions, contain the administrative force structure (AFS).

How to use DATE

The DATE is a tool for the training community to use across training events ranging from rotations at the Combat Training Centers (CTCs) to individual home station training (HST) events. It is the baseline document for all the conditions and characteristics of the five OEs in the region. Exercise planners should use this document for all exercise and scenario design requirements. A map showing the location of each CTC component within each region is located in Appendix D.

The DATE was developed and designed to allow for flexibility and creativity in its application. Not all conditions in the document need to be represented during each training event. Specific training requirements should drive the scenario development and conditions replicated. If additional description or detail is needed for a given condition, each exercise planner can add that narrative to the condition. The goal is to keep the baseline conditions stable—including group naming conventions and associated conditions—while allowing for any additional narrative to be added as required by the training tasks. Below are examples of acceptable and unacceptable changes to the DATE OEs:

Acceptable: Adding detail on the Bilasuvar Freedom Brigade (BFB) insurgent group, including biographies of main players.
Unacceptable: Turning the BFB into an anti-Donovian radical religious group.
Acceptable: Shutting down the Baku subway due to a labor dispute or natural disaster.
Unacceptable: Stating that Baku has no underground tunnel systems.
Acceptable: Limiting the size and number of Donovian units in play due to the country focusing its military efforts on other, higher-priority, issues.
Unacceptable: Reducing the size of the entire Donovian Army to one division.
Acceptable: Creating a massive natural disaster in Ariana, where the helpful response by Western nations caused the Arianian government to moderate its inflationary rhetoric toward the West.
Unacceptable: Creating a revolution that unseated the Arianian government and replaced it with a strongly pro-Western one.
Acceptable: A drought causes decreased employment in the agricultural field (currently over 50%) in Gorgas as people seek jobs in the services sector.

Unacceptable: Saying that over 50% of the populace works in the oil industry.

Certain aspects of DATE OEs are clearly divergent from real-world OEs. These include:

OE Combatant Commands (COCOMs): No COCOM is defined for any of the OEs in the DATE. Instead, the exercise designer determines which COCOM each country will fall under for that exercise. This allows a COCOM to either “own” the entire region or be required to engage in inter-COCOM coordination due to other COCOM(s) having responsibility for one or more of the countries used in the exercise.
Black Sea Access: Any and all geopolitical impediments to the transit of military vessels into and out of the Black Sea are suspended within the DATE environment. If training purposes require such an impediment, it can be introduced at the discretion of the exercise designer.

Two different categories of dates exist in this document. The first are “fixed” dates, which are those that have a specific day/month/year. An example is the Council of Guardians Revolution in Ariana, which took place in early 1979. Fixed dates do not change with the passage of time. The second category is “sliding” dates, which are described as having occurred a certain number of years ago. An example is the Four Traitors incident in Donovia, which happened 20 years ago. Sliding dates change with the passage of time: an exercise held in 2014 would place the Four Traitors incident in 1994, while one held in 2023 will place the Four Traitors incident in 2003. With few exceptions, all post-1989 dates are sliding dates. The timelines provided in the Time variable of each OE are broken out by fixed and sliding dates for convenience, but some overlap of the two may occur.

A Summary of Changes appears on page 6 of this Section and a threat actor chart can be found on page 22. All substantive changes appear in bold and italicized green text.

DATE Sections

This DATE contains four sections.

· Section 1: Strategic Setting describes the strategic situation of each actor across the Caucasus region and provides an overview of some key strategic issues. This section sets

the stage for the document and presents a starting point for discussing the strategic environment and developing a specific scenario. A particular exercise or training event may need to add more discussion or specific strategic issues to this discussion to support the training requirements necessary for scenario construction and exercise execution.

· Section 2: Variables of the OE and Orders of Battle provides a comprehensive and complimentary look at the PMESII-PT variables as they apply to the region, specifically Ariana, Atropia, Donovia, Gorgas, and Limaria. This section enables the scenario writers and exercise designers to better understand the regional conditions. Detailed OBs, derived from the TC 7-100 series, are provided to adequately stress US Army units across the spectrum of operations.

· Section 3: Events provides a list of non-country specific events that can be used to test the mission essential task list (METL) of various friendly elements.

· Section 4: Orders of Battle Appendices is comprised of four parts. Organizational equipment tables of selected units are in an online version of Appendix A at https://atn.army.mil/dsp_template.aspx?dpID=311. Appendix B provides instructions on how to task organize opposing force (OPFOR) units for combat. Appendix C consists of the OPFOR equipment tier tables from the Worldwide Equipment Guide (WEG). Appendix D is the Road to War, previously found in this section (the Strategic Setting).

Variables of the OE and Orders of Battle

VARIABLES OF THE OE

The variables serve as the DATE’s nucleus and concentrate on the conditions and characteristics of each variable that would significantly impact the military if deployed to that area of the world. Known by the acronym PMESII-PT, the variables center on the political, military, economic, social, information, infrastructure, physical environment, and time components of an OE. In this case, the variables are operationalized to the countries of Ariana, Atropia, Donovia, Gorgas, and Limaria. In effect, this section helps to define the “composite of the conditions, circumstances, and influences that affect the employment of capabilities and bear on the decisions of commanders.” (JP 3-0, definition of an operational environment) Many conditions, activities, and events affect more than one variable and appear in more than one of the PMESII-PT sections.

Each PMESII-PT variable covers the minimum requirements necessary for scenario development and exercise design. This section provides a common baseline of conditions from which various training events may be developed. The political variable defines the government types, their loyalties, stability, and effectiveness. The military variable specifies the types of military organizations; their tactics, capabilities, and weaponry; as well as their level of activity or aggressiveness. The economic variable describes each country’s economic emphasis, structure, financial institutions, and the presence of any shadow economy. The social variable outlines the region’s demographic mix, social volatility, education levels, ethnicity, religious diversity, societal transience, criminal tolerance, and most prevalent languages. The information variable explains the area’s information environment complexity, methods of information distribution, and level of sophistication. For each country, the infrastructure variable outlines the urban layout, building density, level of utilities and services available, and the transportation and information architecture present. The physical environment variable describes the area’s landforms, natural hazards, vegetation, and climate. The time variable expresses the culture’s conceptual view of time, describes important annual events, and explains how each group may use time to its advantage. The actual variables contain more details than the minimum requirements and provide comprehensive information to the reader unfamiliar with the operational area.

ORDERS OF BATTLE

All five countries have an administrative force structure (AFS) to manage their military forces in peacetime. This AFS is the aggregate of various military headquarters, facilities, and installations designed to man, train, equip, and sustain the forces. In peacetime, forces are commonly grouped into divisions, corps, or armies for administrative purposes. The AFS includes all components of the armed forcesnot only regular, standing forces (active component), but also reserve and militia forces (reserve component). Normally, these administrative groupings differ from the country’s order of battle (OB), which is its go-to-war (fighting) force structure that is task-organized to meet the combat situation. For information on how to use the AFS to obtain an OB, see Appendix B: OPFOR Task-Organizing for Combat on page 836.

Appendices

Section 4, Order of Battle and Road to War Appendices, is comprised of four parts. An online version of Appendix A, located at https://atn.army.mil/dsp_template.aspx?dpID=311 under the Threat Force Structure section, provides organizational equipment tables of selected units. Appendix B provides instructions on how to task organize OPFOR units for combat. Appendix C consists of the OPFOR equipment tier tables from the Worldwide Equipment Guide (WEG). Appendix D is the Road to War previously found in the Strategic Setting.

Organizations and equipment tables not contained in either the Orders of Battle or Appendix A, or those units lower than brigade level, can be found in FM 7-100.4, Opposing Force Organization Guide, Volumes I through IV. Due to size limitations, the complete set of OPFOR tables (8,000 pages in length) cannot be included in the DATE. For easy access to FM 7-100.4, Opposing Force Organization Guide, go to: https://atn.army.mil/dsp_template.aspx?dpID=311.

Note. All of the OPFOR organizations listed in the organizational directories are constructed using Microsoft Office® software (MS Word®, MS PowerPoint®, and MS Excel®). The use of these commonly available tools should allow trainers and planners to tailor and/or task-organize units individually or collectively to meet specific training and/or simulation requirements.

Appendix A, Organizational Equipment Tables, contains select tables of equipment by type and echelon of organization. Each unit contains a comprehensive detailed listing of organizations, personnel (by officer, NCO, and enlisted), and equipment (by nomenclature) of its subordinate units in an MS Excel® chart. Totals are also provided by parent and subordinate unit. Equipment in FM 7-100.4 is tier 2, however it can be easily modified to represent any tier necessary for training. Detailed information on individual items of equipment can be found in the WEG, Volumes I thru III.

Note: OPFOR equipment is broken into four tiers in order to portray systems for adversaries with varying levels of ability. The tier tables provide a convenient means for military trainers to replicate the OPFOR's equipment capability. Tier 2 (default OPFOR level) reflects modern competitive systems fielded in significant numbers for the last 10 to 20 years. See Appendix C and the WEG Vol 1, Chap 1, and Vol II, Chap 1 for additional information.

Appendix B, Task-Organization for Combat, describes how each of the five countries must task- organize its forces from its AFS into the appropriate war-fighting orders of battle (ground, air, and naval). In order to properly task-organize, senior OPFOR commanders of each country will analyze their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of their enemy. They will also consider how best to counter or mitigate what the enemy has (or its capabilities) and/or how to best exploit their own advantage(s).

The mitigation or exploitation may be by means of equipment, tactics, or organization—or more likely all of these. However, the process generally starts with the proper task organization of forces with the proper equipment to facilitate appropriate tactics, techniques, and procedures. OPFOR commanders must consider where the assets required for a particular task organization are located within the AFS and how to get them allocated to the task organization that needs them, when and where it needs them.

The following examples illustrate the conversion of the 301st Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade, 1st Army of Ariana (AFS) into the 301st Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade Tactical Group (BTG) (task-organized for combat). The red in the AFS highlights units in the 301st that are not applicable to impending combat operations and are therefore either removed or replaced in the conversion to the BTG. The yellow in the BTG shows gained organizations/capabilities needed to successfully complete the combat mission.

Detailed information on task-organizing OPFOR units to meet US training requirements and the mission essential task list (METL) can be found in FM 7-100.4, Chapter Two and FM 7-100.4, Appendix B. Also see TC 7-101, Exercise Design, for assistance in designing and executing a training exercise and producing an OE that achieves desired unit training objectives while fielding a challenging OPFOR consistent with Hybrid Threat OPFOR doctrine as described in the TC 7-100 series.

Appendix C divides the OPFOR’s equipment into four “tiers” in order to portray threat systems for adversaries with varying levels of ability. The tier tables provide a convenient means for military trainers to replicate the OPFOR's equipment capability. The tables also provide the US military’s training community with an instrument to create a flexible and challenging technological threat in an ever-changing operational environment.

Appendix D, Road to War, provides trainers with a potential starting point in applying the DATE to exercises. This road to war is not meant to serve as a required start point or the only way, but rather as a feasible path to conflict in the DATE OEs.