The Enterprising Soldier
Abstract
This article argues that, while the nine core behaviours are an excellent base for our soldiers, it is perhaps time to consider enhancing their skills to ensure they are better prepared for the dual factors of an operationally busy Army and competitive enemies. This article proposes the Enterprising Soldier model, to provide the Australian Army and the Land Force with a capability edge over known and anticipated enemies, which takes the Australian soldier beyond Army’s nine core behaviours. This article proposes four ideas where Enterprising Soldier may be considered by Army: Army Individual Readiness Notice, education, ethics and culture.
Enterprise, n., boldness or readiness in undertaking, adventurous spirit, or energy.
- The Macquarie Dictionary1
The Australian Army values soldiers with enterprise. These soldiers are, by definition, bold, ready, adventurous and energetic. ‘Enterprising’ soldiers are developed beyond Army’s nine core behaviours and could potentially provide the Australian Army and its land force with a capability edge over both known and anticipated enemies. The Enterprising Soldier model proposed in this article will enhance the skills of Army’s people to ensure that they are better prepared for service in an operationally busy Army—and better able to fight competitive enemies. The Enterprising Soldier program proposes four enhancements to the skills of Army’s soldiers focusing on Army Individual Readiness Notice (AIRN), education, ethics and culture.
Background
In May 2007, the then Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Peter Leahy, introduced the ‘I’m An Australian Soldier’ initiative. This initiative is built on nine core behaviours that describe a soldier ‘ready to meet any challenge on operations’.2 In the three years since the introduction of the nine core behaviours and in an era characterised by ‘persistent conflict’, Army’s soldiers have maintained continuous operational deployments both regionally and in the Middle East, and have performed exceptionally well.3 Australian soldiers are fighting competitive, lethal, adaptable and agile enemies and Army needs to ensure that its soldiers continue to adapt faster than their adversaries. They must be bold, ready, adventurous and energetic—they must be ‘enterprising’ soldiers.
Who is the Enterprising Solider?
The enterprising soldier is every soldier in the land force.4 Enterprising soldiers hold Army’s nine core behaviours at the centre of their professional competence, but are ready to move beyond these to become bold, ready, adventurous and energetic. Every soldier has the potential to be enterprising.
The Enterprising Soldier model is designed to complement Army’s existing processes in support of deployed forces. Establishing a program in competition with current Army processes would be wasteful and counterproductive. However, for the Enterprising Soldier model to succeed in generating effective adaptation throughout all levels of Army, it will need to be implemented through a consultative and inclusive process. For the Enterprising Soldier model to work, Army must trust its leaders. Every leader has the potential to be enterprising and every leader is crucial to the process of implementing this initiative.
The Enterprising Soldier Model
The Enterprising Soldier model consists of four enhancements to Army, the first of which focuses on the Army Individual Readiness Notice (AIRN). Army should expand AIRN ‘measures of capability’ available to soldiers to allow them to develop beyond the nine core behaviours. The second enhancement focuses on education for soldiers—as distinct from training, while the third applies to soldiers’ skills in understanding and applying ethics. Fourth, Army should provide cultural education—as distinct from cultural ‘awareness’—for its soldiers.
These four enhancements are offered as initial discussion points; this list is neither comprehensive nor complete. It is important to note that Enterprising Soldier can simultaneously enhance the nine core behaviours and support Army’s existing continuous learning processes.5
Enterprising Soldier: Four Enhancements to Army
Expanded AIRN ‘measures of capability’. The AIRN measures the capabilities of soldiers in six areas: individual availability, employment proficiency, medical fitness, dental fitness, physical fitness, and weapon proficiency.6 All measurements are annual except physical fitness and weapon proficiency, which are bi-annual. AIRN is recorded on the Personnel Management Key Solution (PMKeyS) database, which enables a central measurement of soldier compliance with the six capability requirements.
Enterprising Soldier would expand the ‘measures of capability’ beyond existing AIRN requirements. This expansion would assist in developing ‘enterprising’ soldiers. Expanded measures of capability could include proficiency in combat fitness, weapons handling, swimming, navigation, unarmed combat, first aid, enhanced shooting and marksmanship, the delivery of orders, and tactics. Additional proficiencies could range from inoculation currency to certified proficiency in Helicopter Underwater Escape Training and should be recorded on PMKeyS.
Expanded AIRN measures of capability would develop enterprising soldiers through the enhancement of skills that boost confidence and professional mastery, generating soldiers who are bold, ready, adventurous and energetic.7 An expanded AIRN would also provide Army’s chain of command with additional measures to assess Army’s preparedness and enhance Army’s fighting power.8
Enhanced education for soldiers—as distinct from training. Training has been defined as the ‘development in oneself or another of certain skills, habits, and attitudes’.9 The Australian Army trains soldiers to a high standard—clearly illustrated in the performance of Australian soldiers in conflict in the decades following the Second World War.10 From the mountains of Korea and Afghanistan to the jungles of Malaya, Borneo, Vietnam, Cambodia, Rwanda, East Timor and the Solomon Islands, to the arid climates of Somalia and Iraq, Australian soldiers have constantly trained, learned and adapted to changing, uncertain and complex circumstances against agile, lethal and determined enemies.
The less easily measured corollary of training is education, defined as ‘imparting or acquisition of knowledge, skill’.11 In this area, the Australian soldier is not as well supported. While the reduction in Army educational opportunities has been largely incremental, these changes are cumulative and may eventually affect the overall education and capability of Australian soldiers. The Australian Army, like most large government organisations, no longer recruits and educates soldiers as teenage apprentices; this task is largely left to private enterprise.12 The full-time Year 12 education program that Army conducted at Gallipoli Barracks, Enoggera, in the 1990s, and which produced many competent officers directly from the ranks of soldiers, has been replaced by distributed and outsourced part-time Year 12 programs. The former Subject 3 education courses for sergeant and warrant officer, which provided both English and mathematics competencies, has largely disappeared. The Defence Assisted Study Scheme, which assists soldiers to enhance their educational qualifications in their own time, has been reduced in scope and funding.13
Enterprising Soldier would address the cumulative effect of these incremental changes to Army education which threaten to populate Army with soldiers who are well trained, but inadequately educated. Army’s education programs must encourage and develop soldiers capable of bold actions, ready responses, with an adventurous spirit and energetic behaviour. The aim of education policies developed under the Enterprising Soldier initiative is the generation of enterprising soldiers.
Enhancing the soldier’s ability to understand and apply ethics.14 Ethical behaviour in the Australian Army relies, in the first instance, on the system of moral principles communicated to soldiers by their parents and other key people in their early development including relatives, guardians, teachers and mentors. This system of moral principles forms one criterion for the selection of soldiers to serve in the Australian Army. Once selected, soldiers receive training in ethics, which includes an understanding of the Australian Army’s nine core behaviours.
Enterprising Soldier would build on Army’s current level of ethics training to enhance confidence and professional mastery and develop enterprising soldiers. The Enterprising Soldier model would include an ethics program that examines the current and expected future ethical dilemmas that occur in operational theatres worldwide. In addition, ethical ‘think tanks’ could partner the Australian Army in developing tailored ethics training to be delivered directly to soldiers.15 With enhanced confidence and professional mastery based on a comprehensive understanding of ethics, Australian soldiers would become bolder, choosing the right actions with more confidence; ready for the challenges of increasingly complex battlespaces; adventurous in thinking—particularly critical thinking; and tenacious in seeking the right ethically based results for all missions.
Cultural education—as distinct from cultural ‘awareness’—for soldiers. The operational performance of Australian soldiers suggests that they are empathetic people. There are many iconic images and stories from all wars that show Australian soldiers caring for non-combatants, enemy combatants and for their mates. The apparently natural empathy of Australian soldiers for people of foreign cultures is remarkable given the fact that these are soldiers drawn largely from a monolingual society that is generally Australian-born; only 43 per cent of Australians or their parents were born overseas.16
Enterprising Soldier would examine whether the Australian Army can continue to rely on preparing monolingual soldiers enabled by cultural ‘awareness’ training to meet agile enemies. Enterprising Soldier would replace cultural ‘awareness’ training with cultural education. Cultural education requires soldiers to be immersed in the environment, language, religion and habits of both friends and enemies. Such immersion could be provided by broader recruiting—creating a more diversified, more cosmopolitan Army population—and by attaching people from relevant cultures to units prior to and during deployments. Through immersing soldiers in a culture (or cultures), the Enterprising Soldier model would generate its own learning and educational experiences that would act to support other centrally directed cultural training. An Enterprising Soldier cultural education program would aim to give soldiers increased confidence and competence in operating in a culturally complex environment.
It is also time for the Australian Army to consider a US Army Foreign Area Officer (FAO)-style trade or career path for Australian soldiers as a component of an Enterprising Soldier cultural education program. The US Army FAO
encompasses positions which require the application of foreign area expertise, political-military awareness, foreign language proficiency, and professional military knowledge and experience with military activities having an economic, social, cultural, or political impact.17
US Army FAO ‘serve as attaches; security assistance officers; political-military operations, plans and policy officers; political-military intelligence staff officers; liaison officers to foreign military organizations; and service school instructors.’18 The Australian Army has no such program. Instead, individuals gain expertise in ‘foreign areas’ including Australia’s immediate region through self-selection, via additional study, actively managing their own career opportunities, and personal interest.
There is no doubt that Australia’s friends—and its competitive, lethal, adaptable and agile enemies—understand the ad hoc nature of Army’s ‘foreign area’ program. An Enterprising Soldier cultural education program would support an Australian Army
FAO system tailored to Australian operational requirements. This program would concentrate on giving soldiers the ‘foreign area’ skills that enable them to act boldly, yet sensitively, within a different culture, and provide them the ready tools to support Army’s warfighting capabilities.
Conclusion
The Australian Army needs to look beyond the nine core behaviours and examine its ability to develop an ‘enterprising’ soldier with a capability edge over known and anticipated enemies. The Enterprising Soldier model described in this article is designed to foster Army’s development of such soldiers, particularly in the land force. This program is not entirely new; Enterprising Soldier is designed to complement rather than replace Army’s existing programs and is based on the enhancement of AIRN, education, ethics and cultural training. The Enterprising Soldier model will simultaneously enhance the nine core behaviours and support Army’s existing continuous learning processes. In recognition of the quality of existing skills and experience, the implementation of this program would be accompanied by broad consultation and the inclusion of ideas and feedback garnered from all levels of Army.
Ultimately, Enterprising Soldier will ensure that Australian soldiers continue to adapt faster than the enemy. It will develop soldiers who are bold, ready, adventurous and energetic—who are enterprising in an age of adaptation.
About the Author
Colonel Chris Field is a student at the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies, Canberra.
Endnotes
1 The Macquarie Dictionary Online <http://www.macquariedictionary.com.au> accessed 19 October 2009.
2 ‘I’m An Australian Soldier’, Army News, edition 1165, 3 May 2007, <http://www.defence.gov.au/news/armynews/editions/1165/features/feature0…; accessed 1 March 2010. The Army’s Nine Core Behaviours: 1 – Every soldier an expert in close combat; 2 – Every soldier a leader; 3 – Every soldier physically tough; 4 – Every soldier mentally prepared; 5 – Every soldier committed to continuous learning and self development; 6 – Every soldier courageous; 7 – Every soldier takes the initiative; 8 – Every soldier works for the team; 9 – Every soldier demonstrates compassion.
3 ‘Persistent conflict’ is a term popularised by the Chief of Staff of the US Army, General George W Casey Jr, in his first interview after assuming command of the US Army on 11 May 2007. Casey commented that ‘The US military is involved in a “persistent conflict” and the Army must be prepared to handle the commitment.’ See <http://www.army.mil/-news/2007/05/15/3219-gen-casey-says-army-must-be-p…; accessed 26 November 2009.
4 The land force will consist of task-organised elements drawn from all ADF services and other government agencies including the deployable civilian capacity and, potentially, non-government organisations. The land force will be optimised for joint operations, operating in a joint environment, and relying on joint enabling capabilities for full effect. The land force is also required to be trained, equipped and resourced for effective interaction with coalition partners and commercial contractors where applicable. Developing definition, Adaptive Campaigning – Future Land Operating Concept, Head Modernisation and Strategic Planning – Army, Australian Army Headquarters, Canberra, September 2009, p. xii.
5 For an excellent summary of how Army learns, see ‘Army Learning Environment’, Vanguard – Leading from the Front, issue 5, October 2009, p. 1, <http://www.defence.gov.au/army/lwsc/Docs/Vanguard_005.pdf> accessed 1 March 2010.
6 Defence Instruction (Army) Operations 80–1 Army Individual Readiness Notice, 16 January 2004.
7 Professional mastery describes soldiers’ ability to execute their duties; their ability to perform these duties in a range of circumstances; their self-confidence to act autonomously despite risk and ambiguity; and their understanding of the purpose and consequences of their actions. Land Warfare Doctrine 1, The Fundamentals of Land Warfare, 2008, p. 93.
8 Fighting power is the result of the integration of three interdependent components: the intellectual component provides the knowledge to fight, the moral component provides the will to fight and the physical component provides the means to fight. The Fundamentals of Land Warfare, p. 61.
9 The Macquarie Dictionary Online accessed 17 December 2009.
10 Post-Second World War was chosen as a time-frame comparison for this article because this period represents the expansion and development of the Australian Regular Army as a component of a standing ADF. During and prior to the Second World War, the Australian Army had a small Permanent Military Force and a large Militia (Reserve) force.
11 The Macquarie Dictionary Online <http://www.macquariedictionary.com.au> accessed 17 December 2009.
12 Dr Phillip Toner of the University of Western Sydney notes that ‘a major contributor to the reduction in apprentice numbers over the 1990s has been the large scale withdrawal of all levels of government from apprentice training ... largely due to the corporatisation or privatisation of state and Commonwealth government activities.’ <http://www.aph.gov.au/Library/Pubs/RN/2005-06/06rn29.htm> accessed 17 December 2009.
13 As advertised on the Defence Jobs website, under the Defence Assisted Study Scheme (DASS), soldiers ‘may receive a part payment, of up to 75% depending on the course, of all compulsory fees.’ <http://www.defencejobs.gov.au/army/training/OngoingTraining.aspx> accessed 16 December 2009. However, DEFGRAM NO 682/2009 dated 27 October 2009, ‘Defence Assisted Study Scheme – Changes to Sponsorship and Call for Applications Semester 1, 2010’, reduces the advertised DASS assistance from 75%: ‘any studies undertaken after 01 January 2010 will be reimbursed at 60% of the member’s allowable study expenses.’
14 Ethics is defined as ‘a system of moral principles, by which human actions and proposals may be judged good or bad or right or wrong’, The Macquarie Dictionary Online <http://www.macquariedictionary.com.au> accessed 17 December 2009.
15 Ethical think tanks include the Ethics Centre of South Australia <http://www.ecsa.edu.au/Research/EthicalTheory.aspx>; St James Ethics Centre <http://www.ethics.org.au>; and the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics <http://www.cappe.edu.au>, sites accessed 17 December 2009.
16 Australian Government – Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, <http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/people_culture.html> accessed 18 December 2009. Of the 57 per cent of Australians born in Australia, 2.3 per cent are indigenous.
17 US Army Commissioned Officer Jobs – Foreign Area Officer, <http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/aroffjobs/blforeign.htm> accessed 20 December 2009.
18 Ibid.
