Capturing Insights from Firefights to Improve Training

The military of the future will be conducting missions that are fundamentally different from those of the past. Missions will be more varied due to changes in world political alignment, shifts in how wars are waged and technological advancements. Despite improvements in technology and tactics, casualties will still remain a part of war; with some research concluding that a soldier has the greatest likelihood of becoming a casualty within the first few firefights. To reduce the number of casualties while continuing to ensure superiority of U.S. armed forces, training has been the backbone which supports soldier survivability. Even with current training methods however, the belief remains that lives are lost most frequently during a soldier’s first few firefights. This same body of research also states that if a soldier does survive these crucial first fights, they will typically go on to survive their tour. This proposal discusses research methodologies seeking to statistically verify if soldiers who survive their initial firefights will survive their tour. Additionally, once verified, the factors that allow survivability will be identified and researched. Training will then be developed that includes the identified factors. The result of this work will help to increase soldier survivability during conflict.