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Throughout history, the Army has used a variety of animals in support of military operations. Horses and mules carried soldiers and pulled equipment such as artillery and ammunition, birds were used to detect dangerous chemicals and carry messages, and dogs were and still are used to detect enemy personnel, narcotics, and explosives. Now the Army is using the CATS to support training. That's right, "CATS!" When you think of a cat, you might envision a silent hunter stalking its prey. Like the cat, the CATS is also a silent--almost unknown but readily available--training tool.

What is the CATS?

The Combined Arms Training Strategy (CATS) is the Army's overarching strategy for planning, resourcing, and executing short- and long-range individual and collective training. Training strategies are the result of a multiyear effort sponsored by the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Training, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. Unit commanders and staffs are the primary audience of the CATS; however, all leaders can use its components to integrate individual and collective training. Army Training and Evaluation Program mission training plan collective tasks are the foundation of the CATS.

How Will the CATS Benefit a Unit?

The CATS integrates the appropriate training resources for heavy, light, and special operations forces. The CATS is a flexible system that does not limit leaders but rather provides them with a menu of training tasks, events, and resources to plan and manage training. A variety of links takes the user directly to applicable supporting individual and collective tasks. This decreases the need to sort through training materials used to develop training plans, schedules, and resource cost estimations (such as fuel and ammunition).

The CATS is the foundation of the unit-oriented training strategy used by the Standard Army Training System (SATS). The CATS and SATS assist trainers in designing military training programs, determining unit readiness, planning mobilizations, and developing training budgets. The CATS organizes tasks and provides descriptive training options for commanders. It describes one way of organizing task-based, multiechelon training into a set of events that will achieve and maintain a high state of readiness in today's environment of high personnel turbulence and leader turnover.

# posted by Medical Information : 11:28 PM