Naval Intelligence Training:
Some Thoughts on the Future
by Captain Frank P. Notz, USN (Retired)
During the past decade we have created a modern, high-technology military
with the ability to envision, establish and convert programs (force multipliers)
into battlefield successes. One of the force multipliers we have worked
hard to achieve is superior training. This commitment to training has been
truly evident in our recent conflicts, including the winning of the Cold
War. Old warriors know, however, that any future endeavors will demand the
same results. The edge we have created in training is a continuing responsibility,
something we must protect from being hollowed out. While it is possible
for "pop-up" technological surprises to happen, "pop-up"
training surprises are the result of a breakdown in the system. So the challenge
in the future will be to keep providing our people high levels of competence
and confidence (to excel) while simultaneously ensuring we are getting the
highest return on our shrinking investment in training.
As the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps continue on the present drawdown
road to meet the budgetary realities of the future, the onus on the training
establishment will be to become more effective and efficient with fewer
resources. Training organizations must continue to provide superior battle-winning
training in a more complex, but less resource-rich, environment. While this
will take some imagination and resource realignments, the exploding world
of communications and information exchange methods will allow this transition
to take place. Here in Dam Neck, Virginia, at the Navy and Marine Corps
Intelligence Training Center (NMITC), we are preparing for the information
age.
Future Training Support
During the next several years, the training environment will change
at NMITC. We will be taking advantage of several technological innovations
in information management to transition toward modernized training methods.
We will still offer initial skill-level training at the schoolhouse. Using
the new information technology, NMITC will also provide specialized and
advanced training at the intelligence work center or unit training center,
afloat or ashore. Accordingly, we are laying the groundwork for NMITC to
become an organization comprised of a schoolhouse that provides--
- Classroom instruction for basic skill-level training.
- Some specialized training.
- Several television studios to "beam out" intermediate and
advanced training to fleet and joint intelligence organizations.
What should the NMITC of the future look like? One can envision an
in-residence facility equipped to teach initial skills, advanced abilities,
and specialized systems training, coupled with high technology facilities
to transmit intelligence training to the consumers. More specifically, the
facility will revolve around the following three concepts.
Basic Skills Training
NMITC will always be a basic skills training center that instills
the methods of our tradecraft into the new Navy and Marine Corps officer
and enlisted intelligence specialists of the future. Basic skills training
will remain a Service requirement. This center will get them started in
the intelligence business and ensure they absorb the Navy and Marine Corps
intelligence "culture" support to the operating forces. The NMITC
will always have a requirement to teach Navy and Marine Corps operations
intelligence to ensure we are supporting the vision of "From the Sea"
strategy and the maritime expeditionary environment.
The biggest changes for basic skills training will be--
- Keeping up with the changing operational environment.
- Inculcating an awareness of joint intelligence precepts.
- Providing more systems training as the Services continue to transition
to advanced technology systems for handling and manipulating intelligence
data.
Because of the unique demands of the maritime environment, we will
continue to instruct our Service intelligence officers and enlisted personnel
in basic skills to meet the basic requirements of the fleet and fleet marine
forces.
Specialized System Training
The NMITC facility will also include several advanced technology
systems labs. They will teach officers and "C" school students
the use of specialized intelligence data-handling systems. This training
will be system-specific to support the technological weapons of the future.
Editor's Note: "C" schools are similar to follow-on courses
like the Electronic Warfare Operators Course at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
Intermediate and Advanced Skills Training
The real revolution will come in how we conduct intermediate level
and advanced skill training. This revolution will occur by employing the
intelligence video tele-training (VTT) capabilities we hope to establish.
The VTT facilities will develop and transmit intelligence courses to the
fleets and joint arena via the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications
System or Defense Message System communications VTT systems. At NMITC, we
are just entering the world of tele-training.
Editor's Note: "The Information Age and the Coming Training
Revolution" by Brigadier General Charles W. Thomas in the July-September
1995 issue of the Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin discusses
the Intelligence Center's "distance learning" and "school
without walls" concepts.
Conceptually, this kind of interactive training lends itself well
to the many non-technical training courses we presently offer. Eventually,
we will be able to sit in a studio and instruct students on certain aspects
of functional intelligence or instruct them on a system, whether it be the
Navy Tactical Command System-Afloat, Tactical Aircraft Mission Planning
System, the EMERALD counternarcotics database, or the Joint Deployable Intelligence
Support System.
We are looking at supporting this effort with an interactive gaming
and training facility. That will allow certain facilities here at NMITC
and at other training commands or facilities, units or elements to hook-up
to live training practical exercises. The age of interactive video will
eventually allow us to interact with intelligence schoolhouses of the other
Services. We could take advantage of their expertise in teaching their basic
intelligence (joint to us) principles to our personnel. We will also have
a supporting interactive library research system. We can use the system
to train future intelligence professionals about all the data resources
available to them, not just the classified ones.
Joint Operations Training
Another aspect of the future training environment will be the continuing
incorporation of joint intelligence training into our training routine at
the NMITC. Our people will have to be smart about the operational environment
and requirements of the Navy and Marine Corps. They will also need to have
a basic understanding of the warfare requirements of the other Services
and how these come together in the joint environment. We must instruct our
people in the concepts of how "jointness" comes into play and
the systems the other Services are using to manage and manipulate data.
Someday, these systems might have enough commonality to enable training
on common hardware and software applications. Meanwhile, we are entering
this joint field by establishing specific joint training courses for operational
intelligence systems, and joint task force intelligence management. The
current NMITC mid- career course is also moving toward the joint environment.
We continue to call on the national and joint leadership to lecture at this
course and are slowly expanding the participation of the other Services.
Reserve Unit Training
One can readily see the applications the above training will have
on our intelligence forces. We envision being able to tele-train entire
reserve units from a common studio at the NMITC. Besides saving training
resources, this will allow us to keep the reserve intelligence force current
on many operational and training issues. This is particularly important
for joint items which the reserves are routinely taking on in support of
the active Services.
Conclusion
Where will all this take us down the long road? We plan to eventually
have a training system where the customer could tune in to training sessions
taught in a schoolhouse and transmitted via a VTT signal. Intelligence center
managers could assess their organizational strengths and weaknesses. Using
that assessment, they could, for the first time, be able to develop a time-shared
training plan to reinforce or correct any deficiencies. We could use some
of this same technology to teach our in-residence basic courses.
In summary, these are exciting times in the training world. We need
to integrate conventional training wisdom and practices, still the solid
foundation for professionalism, with some of the new and exciting training
techniques. At the NMITC, I think we have devised a pathway into the future
that incorporates these advances while ensuring we remain committed to our
basic training requirements for future Navy and Marine Corps intelligence
professionals.
Prior to his retirement in August 1995, Captain Notz served three
years as Commander, NMITC. He is a 1995 recipient of the National Military
Intelligence Association Rufus L. Taylor Award for Naval Intelligence Professional
Excellence. Captain Notz graduated from the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania.
He has held numerous staff and command positions in intelligence elements
ashore and afloat, including Deputy Director for Intelligence at U.S. European
Command.
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