FACCC: redesigned for today and tomorrow.

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Within the last three years, the Field Artillery Captain's Career Course (FACCC) has undergone two major redesigns; a third major redesign will be implemented soon, and a fourth one has been proposed.

The first redesign, in 2006, met the challenges, demands and skill sets required by the contemporary operating environment (COE). (See "Rapid Redesign of FACCC: A Four-Week Process for Updating Courses for an Army at War" by Major Robert A. Krieg in the July-August 2006 edition of Field Artillery.)

The second redesign, released in February of this year, met the challenges posed by a corps of young officers who lack artillery experience, aligned the program of instruction (POI) with emerging doctrine (including Field Manual [FM] 3-0 Operations, FM 3-24 Counterinsurgency and draft FM 3-09 Fires Support), incorporated lessons learned from past redesigns and, again, revamped the training required for the changing COE.

Lethal skills atrophy is the most pressing concern facing FA forces and is the reason behind the next major redesign-extending classes from 20 to 24 weeks and a proposed redesign that would extend classes to 36 weeks. As Artillerymen continue to conduct an overwhelming number of nonstandard missions, they continue to degrade their abilities to provide lethal fires. This concern, based upon feedback from maneuver commanders in the force, was stated by Chief of Field Artillery Major General (MG) Peter M. Vangjel when he presented the "Status of the Field Artillery" and the "FA Campaign Plan" during the Fires Seminar at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in June.

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Why FACCC POI was Redesigned. Just two years after the 2006 redesign, the increasing atrophy of FA skills and emerging doctrine dictated a need for a redesign of the FACCC. Two FACCC classes-Class 2-08 and Class 3-08, which graduated in June and August, respectively-have attended and given feedback on the newest FACCC redesign (see Figure 1).

Atrophy of FA Skills. Surveys performed in December 2007 at the FACCC identified that two out of every three captains reporting to the course have not performed traditional company-grade FA tasks or basic Artillery skills they learned at their FA officer basic courses. Furthermore, today's FACCC students who did have traditional companygrade FA jobs often have a polarized experience.

For example, due to brigade combat team (BCT) modularity, many young FA officers are assigned to maneuver units as company and battalion fire support officers, but never get to serve in a fires battalion. The 2006 FACCC redesign assumed that the students had experience in FA functions. Although we don't have a similar statistic to compare to, it is highly likely that today's pool of students increasingly are experienced at the skill sets required of stability operations and have practically no experience in performing FA functions when compared to the FACCC students of two to three years ago.

New Educational Demands. In redesigning the current course, the FA School realized that the POI must meet the student's educational demands based upon their experiences or lack thereof. So, the school focused on redesigning the POI to reset the students' FA knowledge base and on taking the instruction of stability operations (to include counterinsurgency or COIN) to the next level.

The FACCC always has taught battalion fire support planning and FA battalion planning. However, previous methods of instruction assumed that FA captains already had developed a base understanding of maneuver and fire support/ FA battalion operations. Today, the school can't make that assumption.

Emerging Doctrine. Since the initial POI redesign in early 2006, FM 3-24 and the newest edition of FM 3-0 were published. These two significant pieces of Army doctrine dramatically affect operations in the COE. In addition to the recent release of FM 3-0, doctrine developers are continuing to draft a new FM 3-09 that will serve as the catalyst to update all fire support doctrine. Based on these and other doctrinal changes still in progress, the need to update the FACCC classes and perform some restructuring of the POIs was obvious.

The Current FACCC POI. Changes to the current POI were incorporated to meet new educational demands and included both emerging doctrine and technologies. Changes include a new command and control module; more indepth instructions on how to coordinate nonlethal fires; updated COIN theory, planning and application instructions; and practical exercises modified to meet current doctrinal information.

Meeting New Educational Demands. The FA School deliberately redesigned the POI to provide FACCC students with instruction that could serve in lieu of fire support and FA experience they may have missed in their initial assignments.

Students first need to understand basic offensive and defensive maneuver operations and tactics in major combat operations thoroughly. The school added one week dedicated to offensive operations and another week to defensive operations by using the FM 3-90 series of manuals as references. These two weeks include several injects of fire support considerations and practical exercises, challenging students to consider how they-as future battalion fire support officers and fires battalion staff officers-can support their maneuver commanders best with coordinated and integrated fires. This teaches them the "art" of fires planning.

Then, the course begins to teach the science of fires planning, spending one week on how to plan fires as part of a maneuver task force and as a staff officer in a fires battalion. Students are required complete up to seven practical exercises individually and as a group in preparation for their midterm exams, during which they will be tested on developing operational plans.

After midterm tests, all students are taken on a staff ride to the battlefield at Pea Ridge, Arkansas. Added in the redesign, this is the culminating event for major combat operations at the battalion level and above. Students are required to study this historical battlefield, describe the maneuver tactics used and how planning and leader decisions affected the outcome of the battle. This analysis of Pea Ridge fosters officer professional research and self-study development.

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COIN (and stability operations in general) is another part of the POI redesigned based on students' experience levels. The old POI focused on ensuring our FA captains understood the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) of planning and executing cordon and searches, convoy security, counter-improvised explosive device operations and other similar operations. Although all of these TTPs are important, most FACCC students already have learned those TTPs through on-the-job training. To prepare students to be battalion staff officers and battery commanders in a COIN environment, new instruction and several practical exercises were added. This forces the students to understand their operational environment better and gives them the skills to create long range plans nested with their higher headquarters' intent.

The new instruction and practical exercises are consistent with FM 3-24, introducing skills such as socio-cultural analysis, social-network analysis, battalion long-range planning and foreign media interviews. Also, the school improved instruction on retained topics including pattern analysis, leader engagements, battalion and company raids, cultural awareness and battalion targeting in a COIN environment.

Command and Control. Based on the new FM 3-0, the school created a new stand-alone module in the POI that deals directly with command and control. In it, battle command theory is introduced and linked to the staff processes. Also in this module, the elements of combat power, the concept of mission command, understanding full-spectrum operations and the structure of modular BCTs and other brigades are introduced.

Adding these new doctrinal concepts to previously taught command and control subjects (such as command and support relationships, terms and graphics, introduction to digital systems and effective communications) is intended to create a common language and understanding of Army operations. This serves as a foundation and context for students to apply to more complex tasks later in the course-such as developing a long-range plan based on higher headquarters' campaign plans or planning simultaneous lethal and nonlethal fires.

Nonlethal Fires. The new FM 3-0 clearly defines the new fires warfighting function as "...the related tasks and systems that provide collective and coordinated use of Army indirect fires, joint fires and command and control warfare, including nonlethal fires." In the old POI, there wasn't a block of instruction that thoroughly taught students how to coordinate nonlethal fires.

Now, the Fort Sill resident Tactical Information Operations Course (TIOC) is embedded into the FACCC course and, upon successful completion of this block, students are awarded the associated tactical IO additional skill identifier "P4." The TIOC is placed just before the Stability/ COIN Operations module, which prepares students to integrate nonlethal fires successfully into the many practical exercises. Initial feedback from classes 2-08 and 3-08 indicate that embedding the TIOC is a huge success and better prepares captains for returning to the force.

COIN Theory, Planning and Application. The school assessed the COIN operations classes and adjusted them to reflect the doctrine accurately from FM 3-24, which was released December 2006. This change further ensures that future battalion staff officers and battery commanders operating in a COIN environment are well versed in a common doctrinal COIN theory, planning and application.

Practical Exercises. There was a final area of the FACCC POI that needed updating based on new doctrine and emerging technologies. Several practical exercises were outdated in regards to force structure (modularity BCTs) and the use of special munitions including Copperhead versus Excalibur/Guided Multiple-Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) and the use of Lightweight Countermortar Radars and Unmanned Aircraft Systems. Instructors spent several weeks creating, reinventing or updating many practical exercises and tests so that students use more realistic scenarios.

The Way Ahead. Working closely with fires doctrine developers, the school leaders understand that the new FM 3-0 is creating several changes to fires doctrine and is reassessing the FACCC POI against these developing changes. With increased emphasis on mission command, these leaders are working with the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California; the Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Polk, Louisiana; and fires doctrine developers to create solutions for necessary changes to fires planning methods at the brigade, battalion and company levels. In addition, the school is monitoring the development of the new FM 3-09 closely to ensure that, once it is published, the FACCC POI will be ready with the most current doctrinal concepts.

Upcoming Redesign. There are several additions in the new FACCC POI, but there is one thing the school could not add-time. Currently, several POI blocks do not get past the "familiarization" level of instruction. This is true especially in regards to resetting our FA captains with their core competencies-the most pressing concern being lethal skills atrophy. MG Vangjel's solutions, proposed at the Fires Seminar, to address the atrophy are to expand the FACCC in two distinct phases. The first phase, expanding the class length from 20 to 24 weeks has been approved by the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC).

24-Week Class. The first phase is to extend the course from the current 20 weeks to 24 weeks is shown in Figure 2. The additional four weeks will allow the school to immerse students thoroughly in practical applications to develop the skills required to become experts at coordinating lethal fires at the battalion level and delivering fires at the battery level. Specifically, graduates would be competent at all tasks required of Soldiers and leaders in the fire support, delivery section and fire direction center tables outlined in the FM 3-09.8 Field Artillery Gunnery. This would provide units with a fires expert (FACCC graduate) who is prepared to plan and execute FA core competency training while serving on a battalion staff or as a battery commander.

36-Week Course. In the second phase, proposed by the general, the school potentially could extend the course to 36 weeks (see Figure 3).

According to the new FM 3.0's definition of fires warfighting function, it requires fire supporters to coordinate the "...use of Army indirect fires, joint fires and command and control warfare, including nonlethal fires, through the targeting process." The current 20-week and the soon-to-be 24-week POIs do not provide the required time to ensure that captains know the capabilities of these types of fires and their effects nor know how to coordinate them.

So, the intent of this expansion is to embed outside courses into the FACCC POI that would ensure captains go to their gaining units with the required credentials to coordinate all of these fires.

Potential embedded courses in a 36-week expanded POI may include the Joint Fires Observer course, the six-week Electronic Warfare Course and Central Command Collateral Damage Estimate Certification as well as other blocks of instruction.

Lessons Learned from Initial Feedback. One of the greatest lessons learned from the 2006 redesign is that the school must maintain an adaptive POI that is scrutinized constantly and updated as necessary. Instructors owe this to the students and to the force.

Based on the current redesign, there are several lessons learned during class 2-08-the pilot course. The school took these lessons and made minor adjustments to the POI, starting with class 3-08. Some of these changes include adding more time for practical exercises in fire support and fires battalion planning; adding special munitions instruction like Excalibur and GMLRS; and continually improving the many quizzes, tests and practical exercises. The school will continue to assess and adapt the POI based on lessons learned, emerging doctrine and changes to current operations around the globe.

Any feedback, questions or suggestions about the current or future FACCC POI designs are welcome. To do so, contact Major Sittenauer by email at [e-mail] or Major Morgan at [e-mail].

Figure 1: Current Field Artillery Captain's Career Course (FACCC)
Overview (20 Weeks)

Gunnery

3 Weeks

Module 1: Ballistics and
Manual Safety

Module 2: Advanced FA
Tactical Data System

* Mission Processing
* Database Management
* Fires Planning
* Automated Safety

Module 3: Gunnery Troubleshooting
and Tactical
Fire Direction

Joint and Combined Arms

14 Weeks

Module 1: Command and
Control

* Effective Communications
  (Written/Spoken)
* Command Support Relationships

* Digital Information Systems
  Familiarization
* Military Terms and Graphics
* Overview of Command
  Theory and Staff Processes

Module 2: Major Combat
Ops (MCO)

* Contemporary Operating
  Environment (COE)
* Offensive Operations (Ops)
  and Fire Support Considerations
* Defensive Ops and Fire Support
  Considerations
* Joint Fires
* Sustainment Ops
* Staff Ride: Pea Ridge,
  Arkansas

Module 3: Process of Processes

* Intelligence Preparation of the
  Battlefield
* Military Decision Making Process
  (MDMP)
* Targeting
* Task Force Fire Support Planning
* Fires Battalion (Bn) Ops Planning

Module 4: Ops Order Practical
Exercises (PEs)

* Bn-level Offensive and Defensive
MDMP PEs

Module 5: Stability Ops

* Tactical Information Ops (Fort Sill Resident Course)
* Counterinsurgency (COIN) Ops (Brigade and below)
* Bn-level Targeting in COE
* Media Training/PE
* Leader Engagement Training/PE

Battery (Btry) Command

3 Weeks

Module 1: MCO

* FA Equipment Familiarization
* Special Munitions (Excaliber, Guided Multiple-Launch
  Rocket System)
* Troop Leading Procedures
* FA Btry Ops Planning

Module 2: COIN Ops

* Btry-level COIN Planning
and Execution

Module 3: Training Management,
Administration &
Logistics

* Uniform Code of Military Justice
* Leadership Development
* Btry Supply Ops
* Btry Maintenance Ops
* Personnel Administration

Figure 2: Expanded FACCC (24 Weeks) with Additions to Rebuild
Conventional Skills

Reset/Gunnery

7 Weeks

Reset Block Adds:

Hands on Training

* Fires Support
* Fire Direction
* Weapons Systems

Joint and Combined Arms

14 Weeks

Live Fire Training

* Cannons
* Observed Fires

Btry Command

3 Weeks

Certification

* Fire Direction
* Observed Fires
* Weapons Systems

Figure 3: Proposed FACCC (36 Weeks) with Additions to
Sustain and Regain Competencies and Train New Fires Tasks

Reset/Gunnery

7 Weeks

Additions:
Joint Fires Observer
Information Systems
Tailored Electronic Warfare
Course

Joint and Combined Arms

23 Weeks

Central Command Collateral
Damage Estimate

Capstone Command
Post Exercise

Btry Command

4 Weeks

Additions:
Army Family Team Building

Joint Firepower Course

2 Weeks

Additions:
Mobile Training Team

MAJ Peter M. Sittenauer and MAJ Cornelius L. Morgan, both FA

Major Peter M. Sittenauer, Field Artillery (FA), is a Class Team Leader/Scheduler and Small Group Instructor in the FA Captain's Career Course (FACCC) at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Previously he served as an Observer/Controller at the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) at Fort Polk, Louisiana. He was the Division Artillery Fire Control Officer and Commander of B Battery, 1st Battalion, 94th FA (B/1-94 FA) in the 1st Armored Division, stationed in Germany, deploying to Operation Iraqi Freedom (OI F) I and II. While assigned to the 101 st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, he served as a Company Fire Support Officer (FSO), Battery Fire Direction Officer (FDO) and Battery Executive Officer, deploying with Task Force 2-327 Infantry to Kosovo. He holds a master's in Administration from Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant.

Major Cornelius L. Morgan, FA, is the Senior Instructor and Battery Commander at the FACCC. He served as an Observer/ Controller at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California. Previously, he was the Battalion FDO, Assistant Battalion S3 for 4-27 FA in Baumholder, Germany, with duties as Task Force FSO for 2-6 Infantry. He was the Service Battery Commander for 4-27 FA, deploying in support of OIF, conducting combat operations in Baghdad and An Bar Province. He also served as a Battery FDO, Armor Company FSO and Battalion Targeting Officer the 2-82 FA, 1 st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. He holds a master's degree in Management and Leadership from Webster University at St. Louis, Missouri.

The authors would like thank Major James N. Hickman, former FACCC senior instructor, who orchestrated the major POI redesign implemented in 2008 and, also, the following instructors who played significant roles in the redesign: Majors Dudley C. Brownell, Jason Hicks, Charles E. Krieger, Blake W. Keil and Justin M. Collins (Australian instructor).