A necessary component of all military training is the large-force exercise (LFE). While LFEs vary in size and scope across the services, in the Navy LFEs typically involve integrating numerous ships, aircraft, and staffs to achieve a common objective and/or demonstrate a concept of operations. Over the years, much has been written about the outcomes of these exercises, but few articles examine what is included in their planning phase. Developing and then orchestrating an LFE is no easy task and often requires many months to prepare and organize all supporting assets.
I am an exercise planner on the Carrier Strike Group 15 (CSG-15) staff, which is responsible for planning and observing LFEs for Pacific Fleet staffs, CSGs, and amphibious ready groups (ARGs). The premier exercise CSG-15 executes is the composite training unit exercise, which certifies CSGs and ARGs for deployment. Although I am not a professional Navy operational planner, through this experience I have witnessed many exercise planning successes and failures and have determined there are methods for controlling the chaos that surrounds LFE planning. There are six tenets for exercise planning for planners of any experience level that, if heeded, will lead a team through a successful training evolution.
1. Plan to a schedule. As soon as an exercise planning order is generated and a staff assembles to begin planning, the clock has started. For a lead planner, every minute until execution will be necessary to develop, organize, and schedule all LFE elements. Creating a schedule and identifying key planning deadlines is an essential early step. These deadlines, such as those for planning conferences or interim progress reviews, will structure the schedule and aid staff members in time management. The best way to manage this coordinated effort, which often occurs in a distributed work environment, is to unite the team to the same timeline so deadlines are recognized and met.
2. Use visual aids. LFEs are comparable to an orchestra when in execution. Like an orchestra, an LFE unites numerous entities to perform in unison from the same sheet of music, keeping time and executing their individual roles when called on. During rehearsal, an orchestra practices using sheet music to learn each part before a performance. Planning an LFE is very similar; however, instead of sheet music, planners may benefit from visual aids—graphics, charts or maps, or relevant graphs or tables. Verbally describing exercise events that involve numerous ships and aircraft is far more difficult than depicting the schedule graphically. The other benefit of visual aids is that they allow viewers a better opportunity to check for completeness and coherence to ensure all system elements are represented and produce the expected outcomes of the processes involved.
At CSG-15, we used a visual aid known as the “sync matrix.” This is an organically generated Excel document that depicts all participating units, each hour of the day, and all exercise events listed for these units. This left-to-right moving schedule allows any planner to quickly see everything happening in the exercise at every point throughout the day. It assists planners in identifying logistical conflicts and facilitates easier airspace and range coordination for the exercise.
3. Hold efficient meetings. Time is a valuable resource in exercise planning, and meetings are a notable time demand. Unfortunately, “how to hold an efficient meeting” is not something taught in the Navy. CSG-15 regularly held operational planning team (OPT) meetings for each exercise being planned. Facilitated by the lead planner, these meetings would last from 20 to 60 minutes. When they did not work well, it was primarily because the facilitator did not have a clear agenda or was unwilling to take charge and make use of the allocated time. The last thing a time-constrained team needs is to sit in a room and discuss redundant or irrelevant information. When holding a meeting, the facilitator needs to keep three things in mind: time, purpose, and audience.
Ensure the meeting’s agenda fits the allotted time. In general, people need a break after 50 minutes of sitting and receiving information. If a meeting extends past the 50-minute mark, it is either too long or requires a break period. A meeting’s purpose is the why behind the assembly. Is the discussion worth attendees’ time? An agenda distributed prior to the meeting prevents discussions at meetings from becoming circular and losing focus. Last, the facilitator needs to consider the audience. Do the purpose and time allotted match the list of requested attendees? Nothing will derail a meeting more than realizing an important stakeholder was not invited. In addition, audience size must be considered. If the intent of the meeting is to solve problems, sometimes having too many speakers will prevent useful discussion. If a meeting requires a large group, but discussion on a small level is required, it may be beneficial to distribute the rules of engagement regarding the discussed topics prior to the meeting. At CSG-15, as the OPT meeting developed a more efficient framework, the time spent in each meeting decreased. This resulted in greater participation from attendees because they knew their time would not be wasted.
4. Manage communication. When planning an exercise, there are several lines of communication that need to be established. There is communication among the planning staff, communication to the training audience, and communication with all the support entities and range managers. With numerous staff members working different aspects of the exercise simultaneously, communication becomes complex and at times cumbersome. It is imperative to identify and organize methods for passing information to these various parties. Generating distinct email distribution lists will save time. In addition, it is critical to ensure virtual methods for holding classified meetings exist and that the capability extends to remote participants.
Frequently, planning participants may be deployed or at sea in the local area when dialing into remote conferences. Teams must maintain redundant methods for sharing information during conferences. At CSG-15, both because of the dispersed locations of exercise participants and the COVID-19 mitigations in place, lead planners ensured remote participants had copies of all digital documents to be briefed and that the conference room participant list was vetted well in advance. Microphone protocol was also promulgated to ensure remote participants did not cause disruptions during planning conferences.
5. Generate a flexible scheduling product. No matter how many contingencies are established, during an LFE there are always unexpected events that require replanning and changes to the sequence of events (SOE). While the planning team may be able to predict many potential interruptions, knowing the change and adjustment process will better prepare the team to adapt and make necessary SOE changes. For example, often during the composite unit training exercise, one or more ships would experience mechanical casualties that required unplanned pierside maintenance. These multiday delays would disrupt the scenario’s progress and require the range scheduling team to build a new SOE to allow the ships to make up missed events.
Our team identified exactly what events were required for certification and what could be dropped to maintain scenario integrity. We became proficient at anticipating the need to adjust the ranges and airspace for the exercise events when it appeared a disruption was possible. After significant SOE changes were made, an effective chain of communication ensured all parties understood the changes. No exercise can be planned to perfection, so it behooves a planning team not to make success contingent on critical events that, if lost, lead to an overall failure.
6. Rehearse. Regardless of the type of exercise, the officer conducting exercise (OCE) and his or her team must rehearse the game plan, movement of forces, and day-to-day events to ensure smooth execution. How this is done will likely vary based on exercise size and scope. CSG-15’s rehearsal technique centers on a series of rehearsal-of-concept (ROC) drills that walk through the exercise SOE. The planners conduct a broad but comprehensive walkthrough to verify the accuracy of scheduled air and sea space, the time-speed-distance of blue and red forces for each event, and the timing of the actual SOE when compared to the scenario and intelligence-driven plot. After the initial ROC drill, the team conducts smaller ROC drills of the large and complex events within the exercise that require additional detail to ensure all training objectives are achievable and all required resources for the event are available.
Rehearsal provides the final synchronization of the staff to ensure all are on the same page before commencement. Once an exercise begins, communication will become more encumbered as the staff becomes consumed monitoring and evaluating the training audience. Therefore, the more effort put toward a thorough rehearsal, the better prepared a staff will be for the unexpected problems that occur throughout execution.
These six tenets are a culmination of lessons learned and actions observed during my time on the CSG-15 staff. They are the basic planning skills that worked well for our staff while we planned exercises meant to push participants to a high training state. Every exercise is different, and, more important, every team charged with planning exercises will vary in size, skill, and experience. At the end of the day, the best things a team can do to be successful with exercise planning are to organize quickly, identify primary objectives, communicate clearly, and rehearse.
