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.
Contents
What is DATE?
The intent of the DATE is to give enough detail for the designer to rapidly build a plausible scenario while describing a range of variations that allow for flexibility. For example, DATE describes the basic state of a country's economy, political system, or infrastructure, and then also describes the conditions that could cause that system to change for the better or worse. It also attempts to guide the amount of change that system could reasonably expect to sustain. At the designer's discretion, any DATE country could be allied or belligerent with any of the other DATE countries.
Key components and characteristics:
- 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 |
|---|---|
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See also TC 7-101 Exercise Design.
Divergent Aspects of DATE from real-world OEs.
The dual and competing purposes of the DATE are to 1) provide a complex set of realistic training situations that a unit could face and 2) standardize a multipurpose exercise operational environment to reduce the "backstory learning curve" for exercise participants and the opposing forces (OPFOR). Therefore it cannot, by design, account for the complex dynamics that are considered in Mission Rehearsal Exercises (MRXs), and is not a substitute for them. TC 7-101 discusses the issues the command and training community should consider before deciding on a DATE or MRX-oriented training event.
Time.
While describing OE variables requires a some historical narrative, the DATE Knowledge Base has intentionally reduced the timelines seen in earlier DATE products. The more detailed discussions may be helpful for particular OE assessments or "roads to war", however placing them in the overall body of DATE material would reduce the DATEs flexibility by fixing relationships between certain countries. Historical discussions are only used to provide a plausible rationale for why a condition might be the way it is.
Space.
The fictitious countries of the DATE exist in four separate geographic regions. It may be initially frustrating that the territory adjacent to the DATE countries is "grayed out" and only vaguely described in the narratives. DATE developers have broadened their geographic considerations attempting to balance the two purposes stated above.
International Relations.
The only nations in play for designers are own force (US and exercise partners) and DATE countries. The United Nations and its various entities are also in play, however, the exercise participants and the DATE countries are the only acceptable force providers. Designers are free to describe relations between nations in the different DATE OEs. For example, the DATE Pacific country of Olvana may have a military mission to Amari in DATE Africa or Donovia in DATE Caspian.
- 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.
Providing Feedback
Community feedback for the DATE products is solicited from designated customer groups selected by the DATE proponent, including . If you would like to contribute and do not already have a login, please use the Help Desk button (at the lower-right of the screen).
Revision by the users is essential for the DATE Knowledge Base to serve the exercise design community. The wiki-media nature of the DATE Knowledge Base enables direct feedback via a revision tool. Most helpful is a "line-in, line-out" recommendation. To help DATE developers improve the product, it's important to know the nature of the issue.
Errors
- internal contradiction or inconsistency between variables (e.g. a tier 1 military with a tier 5 GDP)
- factual error (usually related to the physical variable)
- aggregated conditions described do not exist in the target OE (e.g. overemphasis on one dimension within a variable skews the real story of the variable across the OE)
Omissions
- significant conditions in the OE not described in the DATE
- additional support required across variables to establish a plausible condition
Scope
Recommended revisions to increase the detail in either time (history) or space (geography) within the DATE should include rationale. Specifically, explain what training tasks cannot be fully developed in an exercise without the added detail. Please review "Providing DATE Feedback"