The centrality of unit training to military effectiveness is widely recognized. As has been demonstrated repeatedly throughout history, a well-trained military unit will almost always outperform a poorly trained unit in battle, no matter which side is more numerous or better equipped. The challenge for the researcher is identifying objectively measurable characteristics that distinguish a well-trained military from a poorly trained one. The most obvious and commonly used measure is the amount of time spent training. Without question, for a unit or individual to reach a given level of proficiency, a certain minimum amount of training time will be required. However, simply logging a specified amount of training time does not guarantee that a given level of proficiency will be achieved. More important than the amount of time spent training is the quality of the training that occurs during that time. As one example, number of flying hours is a commonly used measure of aircraft crew proficiency. But a training mission that consists simply of an aircraft navigating to a fixed point, conducting a single action (e.g., a simulated bombing run or fighter engagement), and then returning to base does not provide nearly as much training as a mission of shorter duration that presents a flight crew with multiple challenging situations in the course of a single flight.

A review of the extant literature on military training did not uncover any explicit generalizations about the characteristics of effective training. Analysis of publications of the U.S. military and related sources, however, reveals a number of implicit beliefs about the characteristics of an effective training regime. According to these publications, effective military training has the following characteristics:

• Unit commanders have primary responsibility for training. Armed forces exist to conduct military operations. When not actively conducting military operations, their primary mission is to be prepared to conduct such operations when called upon. Ensuring that the unit is prepared, therefore, must be the primary responsibility of the unit commander. If a unit's commander is not the person with ultimately responsibility for the unit's training, it is unlikely that the unit will be well trained.

• Training is intensive. The more actual training and the less idle time that occurs during a training period, the more effective the training period will be.

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