Army Training

The Army assesses the performance of units during their rotations at the combat training centers, identifies lessons learned from their battle experience, and shares this information so that training and doctrine can be fine tuned. Despite this effort, GAO found that Army units repeat many of the same mistakes during maneuvers at the combat training centers. Some of these mistakes could have serious consequences on a real battlefield. For example, when fighting broke out in the Persian Gulf, Army officials sought to resolve problems in Army training that could contribute to fratricide incidents. Most of these problems had been identified two years earlier but had yet to be corrected. The Army is not reaping all the benefits of the lessons learned at the training centers because the Training and Doctrine Command's program lacks procedures for assigning priorities to the lessons and for tracking the schools' use of them.

GAO found that: (1) the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) has overall responsibility for the Army's lessons learned program and has assigned responsibility for the program to its Combined Arms Command; (2) despite the lessons learned program, Army units repeat many of the same mistakes during maneuver exercises at combat training centers; (3) the TRADOC program lacks procedures for assigning priorities to the lessons learned; (4) TRADOC lacks follow-up procedures for tracking use and impact of lessons learned; and (5) the schools are not held accountable for ensuring that identified problems are resolved.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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