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RISK MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES - TRAINING

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We must train as we intend to fight. Since the goal of operations is mission accomplishment with minimum losses, training must provide proficiency in the most effective methods to reach this goal. Risk management is one of these methods. It affords the capability to conduct tough, realistic training while minimizing losses due to accidents, including fratricide.

For they had learned that true safety was to be found in long previous training, and not in eloquent exhortations uttered when they were going into action.5--Thucydides, c.404 B.C. The best form of "welfare" for the troops is a superlative state of training, for this saves unnecessary casualties.6--Field Marshall Erwin Rommel

The watchword of risk management is help the commander improve what he is already doing. Therefore, risk management should be integrated into existing command processes. In training, it is the training management cycle (FM 25-101).

Risk management should be integrated into each phase of the training management cycle.

1. COMMANDER'S GUIDANCE. The commander establishes his policy for protecting the force which includes risk guidance. The commander's risk management goals, objectives and priority actions are developed and included in the Training Guidance (see generic example at Enclosure 1). These should adequately address the unit's past accident experience (see real-world example at Enclosure 2).

2. PLANNING. As part of the Commander's Training Assessment, a protection assessment should be performed. The objective is to identify unit strengths and weaknesses in protection and risk management by examining the unit's Mission-Essential Task List (METL), Battlefield Operating Systems (BOSs) and METT-T conditions. The commander is then provided recommendations for sustainment or improvement in these areas. If the unit has a quarterly safety day, it may be convenient to schedule the protection assessment as part of the safety day activities.

Several protection assessment tools were successfully used during the CTC risk management tests and are listed at Enclosure 3. The tools are too bulky to be included in this newsletter, but they may be obtained by accessing the U.S. Army Safety Program Homepage on the Internet at http://safety.army.mil or by phoning DSN 558/CM (334) 255-3013/2091/2131.

One tool deserves special note: Safety Study Guides and Quizzes (ground and aviation). This tool addresses the problem that at CTCs, O/Cs must make a very large number of on-the-spot corrections for safety violations.

If soldiers do not know the safety rules, violations and accidents will surely follow. The Study Guides and Quizzes enable commanders and leaders to identify what safety guidance the soldiers do not know and establish training to provide that knowledge before deployment for field training exercises.

3. EXECUTION. Mission risk management procedures for this phase of training are the same as those for operations (train as you fight) and are described in the next section. During training missions, the unit's risk management and safety performance is observed as follows:

a. O/Cs are assigned to observe, record and report on the unit's performance. For home-station exercises, O/Cs typically come from sister units. For CTC exercises, O/Cs are from the resident operations group.

b. The chart at Enclosure 4 may be used by O/Cs as a guide in observing the unit's risk management performance.

c. The form at Enclosure 5 may be used by O/Cs to record observed safety/fratricide incidents. The flow chart at Enclosure 6 may be used by O/Cs to determine the reasons for the incidents observed.

4. ASSESSMENT. For the training mission After-Action Review (AAR):

a. The O/Cs analyze their observations and provide an assessment to the unit commander. The chart at Enclosure 7 is an example of how the risk management performance assessment can be presented. The chart at Enclosure 8 is an example of how the safety assessment can be presented. O/Cs should report any safety controls considered unnecessarily restrictive and any other opportunities to improve training realism/effectiveness.

b. The Safety Officer assesses how well unit performance met the commander's risk guidance and provides recommended changes to risk guidance and controls to the G3/S3.

c. The commander uses AAR information to determine if the unit's performance met his risk guidance and the effectiveness of controls implemented during the planning and execution phases. He then ensures that necessary changes are fed back into the training management cycle and the unit's standing operating procedures (SOP).

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Concept
Risk Management Procedures - Operations

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