METL Task Selection and the Current Operational Environment

摘要

The operational environment since 1989 has changed significantly since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the Soviet Union. The collapse of the Soviet Union catapulted the US into the role of sole remaining super power. The US role as super power required the US Army to deploy to Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, Macedonia, Croatia, Eastern Slovenia, Hungary, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Kosovo since 1990. The current operational environment precipitated changes in the National Security Strategy (NSS), and the National Military Strategy (NMS) that ultimately changed force structure in the army. Specific threats that the US must respond to are; regional threats, transnational threats, and threats from the spread of dangerous technologies, foreign intelligence collection and failed states. These threats require responses from the US political leadership and the army. This monograph analyzes literature to define the changes in the current operational environment. Next, this study reviews US Army training doctrine to determine whether the current army doctrine is adequate. Criteria selected for this monograph are: Common METL tasks, relevance and responsiveness. Changes to METL task selection, such as adding Stability and Support Operations (SASO) tasks, are required. These changes become evident once the criteria are applied to the doctrine and the changes in the current operational environment. US Army capstone training manual, FM 25-100 1988, is outdated. Chapters in this manual, specifically the METL and Battle Focus, continue to serve the army's training very well. FM 25-100, however, was written for the Cold War with the Soviet Union, and is still the fundamental training manual for MTW only. Relevance defined as time of arrival to conflict with a trained force that can be withdrawn to an MTW is difficult to achieve with current doctrine. The current US Army Division system deploys on short notice to an MTW, but deploys slowly to a SASO.