Using the DATE

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. 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 administrative force structures for each OE provide a baseline for developing an Order of Battle for exercise implementation.

DATE OEs are available for Caucasus("Prime"), Africa, Europe, and Pacific.

What is DATE?

• A composite model of the real-world environment
• All conditions and actors are real; fictitious names used for AR 350-2 (Opposing Force Program) compliance
• DATE is centered on a region that provides a range of geographical features and conditions with embedded realistic actors that make up the full range of potential threat capabilities
• DATE provides the conditions required to effectively train for Decisive Action operations
• DATE provides all the conditions needed to realistically and effectively challenge ANY Army task – conditions were cross-walked with Decisive Action METL (mission essential task list)
• DATE provides multiple realistic challenges to collective tasks
• It provides a complex OE with Hybrid Strategies that can be employed to challenge any unit’s training objective
• Dynamic document – regularly updated to incorporate new conditions
• Scalable – scale to level of complexity based on training objectives

How to Use the 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 Operational Environments(OE) in the selected region. Exercise planners should use this document for all exercise and scenario design requirements.

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.

Examples of Acceptable and Unacceptable Alterations to DATE content:

Acceptable

NOT acceptable

Adding detail on the Bilasuvar Freedom Brigade (BFB) insurgent group, including biographies of main players. Shutting down the Baku subway due to a labor dispute or natural disaster. Limiting the size and number of Donovian units in play due to the country focusing its military efforts on other, higher-priority, issues. 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. A drought causes decreased employment in the agricultural field (currently over 50%) in Gorgas as people seek jobs in the services sector.

Turning the BFB into an anti-Donovian radical religious group. Stating that Baku has no underground tunnel systems. Reducing the size of the entire Donovian Army to one division. Creating a revolution that unseated the Arianian government and replaced it with a strongly pro-Western one. Saying that over 50% of the populace works in the oil industry.

See also TC 7-101 Exercise Design.

Divergent Aspects of DATE from real-world OEs.

• 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.

Changes

Requests for changes or alterations may be addressed to (NAME/ADDRESS GOES HERE)

A Summary of Changes can be requested by sending an email from a military address to: (NAME/ADDRESS GOES HERE)