Implementing the Battle Command Training Program

This report presents the results of a RAND study examining the implementation of the U.S. Army's Battle Command Training Program (BCTP), which consists of three phases: a five-day Battle Seminar of workshops and decision exercises, a week-long computer-driven command post exercise (called the WarFighter Exercise) three to six months after the seminar, and a take-home Sustainment Exercise four to six months after the WarFighter Exercise. The report examines the BCTP based on the common understanding between the BCTP and its clients about its purposes, methods, and evaluation criteria, and on the data collection and analysis strategies required of the BCTP to provide feedback to client units and to higher-echelon doctrinal and readiness agencies. The authors make recommendations designed to increase the BCTP's ability to improve Army training both in terms of short-term issues of individual division readiness and long-term issues of higher-echelon command and control.