Operationalizing Command Maintenance to Train Organizational Systems and Build a Culture of Maintenance Readiness

Summer 2022 Operationalizing Command Maintenance to Train Organizational Systems and Build a Culture of Maintenance Readiness by MAJ Gary M. Klein Task Force Strike was preparing for crew-gunnery Table IVs tomorrow, but the commander and executive officer were beginning to get nervous. The battalion’s M1A2 crews were conduct ing live-fire accuracy screening tests (LFASTs). Its M2A3 crews were zeroing their M242 Bushmasters (25mm sin gle-barrel chain-driven autocannons), but things were not going well. It all started the day before when sev eral vehicles unexpectedly broke down before making it to the range. Some vehicles never made it out of the mo torpool, while others broke down for seemingly simple issues. Also, some crews were troubleshooting radios af ter they were unable to communicate with personnel in the range tower dur ing Table IIIs. Issues continued to pile up, and operational-readiness (OR) rates continued to drop as crews dis covered turret, main gun and ancil lary-weapon-system faults during LFAST and zero. After meeting at the maintenance col lection point, the commander and ex ecutive officer agreed to meet again later that evening to discuss what had gone wrong. In the meantime, the bat talion executive officer was research ing several questions. The battalion had been conducting command main tenance every week, so why had they not discovered more of their mainte nance issues before now? Had they provided enough orders and guidance to their company commanders to en sure Soldiers were conducting all pre ventative-maintenance checks and services (PMCS) on their vehicles? Had their Soldiers not performed PMCS on their ancillary equipment? Why was there such a large discrepancy be tween the equipment-status report (ESR) before deploying to the field and today’s ESR? The executive officer de cided to have some initial recommen dations ready for his meeting with the commander so they could mitigate the current volume of maintenance challenges for next month’s platoon gunnery. Incorporating PMCS Command maintenance is a well-known weekly event where Soldiers conduct PMCS on their vehicles. It of ten happens on Mondays, or the first duty day of the week, to ensure units maintain their equipment according to the Army’s 10-level technical manuals (TMs). Command maintenance is a great way to incorporate routine PMCS into a unit’s battle rhythm. Depending on a unit’s operations tempo (OPTEMPO), priorities and depth of planning, com mand maintenance is also an opportu nity to build a broader culture of read iness. Commanders and leaders at all echelons should operationalize com mand maintenance to deliberately ex ercise all aspects of their maintenance systems and, as able, achieve addi tional training objectives, including re porting and command-post operations, communications-systems readiness and rollout exercises.1 Admittedly it is challenging to incor porate all the readiness activities in this article every week, but command ers can modulate the specified tasks of each week’s command maintenance based on their priorities and the unit’s OPTEMPO. If the commander assesses that Soldiers need more time to con duct PMCS, he or she might direct a course of action (CoA) that focuses ex clusively on conducting PMCS on their rolling stock that week (Table 1, CoA 1). On the other hand, if a unit is on Red Cycle and is not conducting as much collective training at the time, the commander might choose to con duct everything from PMCS on rolling stock up to rollout exercises (Table 1, CoA 6). During most weeks, commanders will likely fall somewhere in the middle, selectively conducting some readiness activities but not others. Figure 1. Troopers from 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, conduct PMCS on their M2A3 Bradleys at Fort Bliss, TX. (Photo by MAJ Steve Modugno, 2nd Bri gade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Public Affairs)

Summer 2022 Maintenance objectives At a minimum, Soldiers conduct PMCS on their vehicles during command maintenance, but which checks are they conducting? Army TMs include before, during and after, as well as weekly and monthly checks.2 So, how do commanders ensure their Soldiers conduct all these checks over time? Without more guidance, Soldiers may only conduct before, during and after PMCS every week to ensure their ve hicles are dispatched. However, to en sure all checks are conducted, leaders need to build a battle rhythm to add weekly and monthly checks to their training calendars to ensure these checks are completed as well. The command-maintenance battle rhythm included in Table 2 is one ex ample of how commanders can imple ment this idea within their units. Table 2 details a command-maintenance technique whereby a commander in curs some risk by not conducting weekly-level PMCS checks each week, but this time saved enables Soldiers to conduct checks on ancillary equip ment and other maintenance systems that might otherwise be overlooked. Arguably, this deliberate decision is better than an alternative, which is that Soldiers may never conduct week ly or monthly checks or may never touch their ancillary equipment. Soldiers must maintain their ancillary equipment, too. So when do you maintain your communications equip ment; weapons and mounts; vehicular weapon systems; chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) equip ment; optics; night-vision devices; tents; and other equipment? Like com mand decisions regarding what PMCS checks to conduct each week, com manders must focus their Soldiers’ maintenance efforts on ancillary equipment as well. Table 2 details a battle rhythm that emphasizes shooting (weapons), mov ing (rolling stock and optics) and com municating (communications equip ment and generators) while assuming some risk on CBRN, tents, command-post equipment, basic-issue items (BII), etc. This ancillary-equipment PMCS battle rhythm provides clear guidance and predictability for com pany/battery/troop (C/B/T) command ers to dedicate time on their training calendars to PMCS all organizational equipment. A benefit of creating a battle rhythm for ancillary-equipment PMCS is that 10-level operator PMCS can be syn chronized with 20-level maintainer PMCS to enable services. Some opera tor checks on ancillary equipment are redundant with 20-level services (for example, M4 10-level functions checks and M4 20-level quarterly services, and PVS-14 (night-vision monocular) 10-level PMCS and PVS-14 20-level semi-annual services).3 Services must be a team effort among operators,

Summer 2022 maintainers and commodity-shop leaders, including arms-room and CBRN noncommissioned officers (NCOs) in charge and officers in charge. Some organizations struggle with an cillary-equipment services because they do not enable their commodity shops with operator assistance. Oper ators should conduct PMCS under the supervision of commodity-shop sub ject-matter experts to increase Soldier proficiency on their equipment and drastically reduce the time required to complete ancillary services. By creat ing a battle rhythm for PMCS ancillary equipment, leaders are dedicating time to directed services. Finally, what systems does your unit’s leadership use to ensure your organi zation stays current on its other main tenance systems: the Army Oil Analy sis Program (AOAP); test, measure ment and diagnostic equipment (TMDE); maintenance work orders (MWOs)/safety-of-use messages (SOUMs); and combat-spares inspec tion? Leaders likely cover these topics in weekly maintenance meetings, but command maintenance is an ideal time to capitalize on engaged opera tors and leaders so the required ac tions are completed while Soldiers are already fully engaged in the motor pool. Commanders should incorporate re porting requirements to ensure lead ers are doing their research to deter mine when these maintenance re quirements are due so that Soldiers anticipate and execute the necessary actions to meet required suspenses. Just like ancillary services, the sus penses for these maintenance systems should be added to C/B/T training cal endars to ensure they are synchro nized with the unit’s training and oth er requirements. By emphasizing these maintenance systems during command maintenance, commanders can proactively address these require ments when Soldiers are already fo cusing on equipment maintenance. Maintenance reporting and command-post operations Depending on the commander’s priorities and time available, leaders may wish to add reporting and mini mally manned command-post opera tions to command maintenance to maintain or improve readiness in com mand-and-control systems and pro cesses. While Soldiers and leaders at the platoon-and-below-level are exe cuting the tasks necessary to achieve command-maintenance objectives, leaders at C/B/T-and-above echelons should be supervising these actions to coach, teach and ensure their units maintain high maintenance-readiness levels. One way to achieve this – while simul taneously building proficiency at com munications systems, reporting and battle tracking – is to establish very simple C/B/T, battalion/squadron, and maybe even brigade-level command posts. To ensure the priority remains on maintenance, command posts should be an economy-of-force effort during command maintenance, but they should also have enough man ning to accomplish a few key tasks: re ceive and send reports, battle-track maintenance efforts and provide com munications expertise to enable com munications-systems troubleshooting. A unit can likely achieve these objec tives with one radiotelephone opera tor (RTO), one battle NCO and one sig nal-support-systems specialist (mili tary-occupation specialty 25U). Command maintenance is a great op portunity to train on reporting, includ ing building RTO proficiency and unit-reporting standing operating proce dures (SOPs). At a minimum, com mand posts at echelon need an RTO to send and receive reports on radios and Joint Battle Command-Platforms (JBCPs). Ideally, command posts should in clude a battle NCO to enable the team to update trackers, proactively seek out information, provide assistance to subordinate units and maintain a maintenance common operating pic ture (COP). Finally, having one 25U Soldier on hand to troubleshoot radi os and JBC-Ps is extremely valuable to help maintain and teach communica tions equipment techniques to other Soldiers. Command maintenance is a low-threat environment to train RTOs and battle NCOs. It’s also an ideal time to build familiarity and experience with report ing formats and SOPs. Report formats should mirror, or at least be modified versions of, reports from the unit’s tactical SOP (TACSOP). Example re ports might include using command-update brief (CUB) formats for mid- or end-of-day situation reports (SITREPs) and slant-reporting SOPs (for instance, tanks/Bradleys/Bradley fire-support teams/M1064s/M88s). Table 3 is an example command-main tenance timeline that includes a midday JBC-P SITREP and an end-of-day CUB via frequency modulation (FM) radio. Given the weekly frequency, command maintenance is an out standing opportunity to achieve sets and repetitions on reporting and com mand-post procedures. With a command post capable of re ceiving and sending reports, the next step is to build and update a COP nest ed with the unit’s TACSOP. Two track ers pertinent to command mainte nance and part of a unit’s larger COP are a combat-power tracker and the unit’s communications-status (COM STAT) tracker.4 As Soldiers execute PMCS on their ve hicles, they should report via radio and JBC-Ps. This allows the battle NCO to update and track the maintenance readiness of their vehicles while vali dating the communications systems associated with each vehicle and up dating the COMSTAT as each crew checks in. Vehicle crew members should report the status of PMCS and their vehicle’s OR (fully mission-capa ble or non-mission-capable, and any new faults discovered). Then, the command post can compile this information and compare it to the unit’s Global Combat Support System-Army (GCSS-A) ESR to update the unit’s combat-power tracker. Battletracking maintenance like this enables leaders to receive initial notification of changes to the ESR based on that week’s equipment maintenance and inspection worksheets (DA Form 5988- Es). To maximize communications training during command maintenance, lead ers may choose to communicate using a combination of encrypted radio and JBC-P systems to build proficiency and

Summer 2022 validate these systems. In addition to validating the radios are operating properly, reporting using encrypted ra dios on frequency-hop (FH) cypher text (CT) is a great technique to ensure units’ communications- security (COMSEC) systems are fully functional and efficient. Leaders sometimes over look their COMSEC systems until they deploy to the field, overlooking ques tions such as:

• How many COMSEC custodians do you need in your unit?

• Where are they assigned?

• Have your Soldiers established accounts/systems to draw and issue COMSEC efficiently and effectively? If a company only has one COMSEC custodian, it will take “forever” to load new COMSEC during command main tenance when communications keys change. This same challenge would be exacerbated when the company is dis persed across an operational area dur ing collective training or combat oper ations. So, command maintenance is a great opportunity to learn in a forgiv ing environment and build repetitions. Similarly, battalion S-6 personnel sometimes find themselves with insuf ficient accounts and systems in place to draw new COMSEC and share them across subordinate units’ simple-key loaders. Having all crews turn on their radios, validate or load new COMSEC keys and report command-mainte nance progress via FM (FH CT) vali dates the unit’s COMSEC readiness. In addition to using FM systems, lead ers should incorporate reporting via JBC-Ps to validate those systems as well. This is another system that bri gade-and-below units almost always include in their primary, alternate, contingency and emergency commu nications plan. However, maintaining JBC-P OR rates is challenging without emphasis and supervision. Command ers should incorporate JBC-P reporting into command maintenance as a forc ing function to track JBC-P OR rates. This can be as simple as operators sending a test message from each JBC- P system or a more thorough SITREP as referenced in the command-main tenance timeline of Table 3. Troubleshooting JBC-P problems in the field is much more difficult than in the motorpool because of the relative shortage of operator-level JBC-P trou bleshooting expertise. Common chal lenges range from simple misunder standing of proper start-up and shutdown procedures to the inability to troubleshoot potential JBC-P wiring faults and the availability of JBC-P re pairs parts. Communications-systems repair parts are usually centralized at the battalion S-6 shop in garrison and command posts in the field. With the proper planning, standards and supervision, these potential challeng es – low JBC-P OR rates and operator-level troubleshooting expertise – can be addressed during command main tenance to increase unit readiness in the field. Culture of readiness: rollout exercises Finally, commanders may wish to use command maintenance as an oppor tunity to test a subordinate unit’s overall readiness. To this end, leaders can order units to conduct simple, no-notice rollout exercises during com mand maintenance. Some preparation is required, but leaders at all echelons can randomly select subordinate units to rollout to the field with no prior no tice, challenging their Soldiers and leaders to own all aspects of readiness and create a culture of maintenance excellence. Commanders can give these units a simple tactical task to conduct during rollout exercises such as conducting a short convoy or estab lishing an assembly area in a close-in training area. Rollouts test subordinate units’ ability to maintain their systems, enable leaders to check readiness, ensure that maintenance systems of record (GCSS-A) reflect reality and encourage competitiveness between units to prove their readiness. Rollouts test various unit systems, from its ESR to

Summer 2022 testing communications systems at distance, and its ability to execute ba sic tactical tasks. Leaders should know which vehicles are capable of deploy ing to the field and which can’t based on its ESR. However, a rollout will test the accu racy of a unit’s ESR, sometimes reveal ing previously unknown faults or is sues. Also, leaders will often discover inefficiencies in simple tasks or sys tems such as drawing weapons from the arms room, the system used to fill radios across the unit or the storage systems used to store ancillary equip ment. Finally, rollouts can be used to train and test a unit’s proficiency in basic tactical tasks such as movement tech niques, high-frequency radio-commu nications tests, reporting procedures, establishing a retransmission station, establishing an assembly area, etc. If conducted frequently enough, com manders will find that their subordi nate units will take pride in their abil ity to execute these tasks and they will compete to see how quickly they can complete these tasks to standard. To ensure Soldiers can rollout on short notice, leaders should consider stan dardizing the creation of monthly alert dispatches. Alert dispatches (DA Form 5987-1-E) can be authorized for ex tended periods of time depending on local command orders or policies.5 To ensure the frequency of PMCS, and quality control and quality assurance checks, standard dispatches (DA Form 5987-E) are usually only authorized for up to seven days. So it’s wise for com manders to implement more controls on the use of month-long 5987-1-E alert dispatches. Common controls in clude requiring company commanders to collect and secure their C/B/T’s alert dispatches to manage when they are used. Also, Soldiers should be re quired to have a valid Form 5988-E and complete PMCS on the same day they use an alert dispatch. Either way, creating monthly alert dis patches makes it easier to conduct alert rollouts and minimizes the re quirement for equipment records parts specialists (ERPS) to create dis patches during command mainte nance since ERPS clerks need to be conducting maintenance on their own equipment at that time. Conclusion Most Army units conduct command maintenance in some way, shape or form, but the specifics – PMCS fre quencies, what equipment is main tained and the depth of systems exer cised – often vary from one unit to the next. Commanders and leaders at all Figure 2. Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 35th Armor Regiment conduct PMCS on their M1A2 Abrams tank at Fort Bliss, TX. (U.S. Army photo by MAJ Steve Modugno, 2/1 Armored Division Public Affairs)

Summer 2022 echelons should operationalize com mand maintenance to exercise all as pects of their maintenance systems while seizing the opportunity to achieve additional training objectives on communications systems, com mand-post operations and simple tac tical tasks during rollout exercises. Command maintenance is a great way to incorporate routine PMCS into a unit’s battle rhythm, but it is also an opportunity to build a culture of main tenance and readiness. After struggling through crew gunnery due to maintenance issues, Task Force Strike’s commander and executive of ficer decided to be more prescriptive with weekly command-maintenance tasks. Battalion orders now directed what checks to conduct each week on what equipment while requiring re porting and periodic rollout exercises to validate their ESRs. Soldiers and leaders bemoaned these changes at first, but they realized the wisdom and enjoyed the fruits of their labor at their next gunnery. Higher OR rates at platoon gunnery enabled them to train on their own vehicles; spend less time fixing faults that could have been dis covered before deploying to the field; and focus more on shooting, moving and communicating. MAJ Gary M. Klein is the brigade exec utive officer, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Fort Bliss, TX. His previous assign ments include squadron executive of ficer and operations officer, 1-1 Caval ry, Fort Bliss; plans officer, 1st Armored Division, Fort Bliss; Maneuver Cap tain’s Career Course (MCCC) small-group leader, Command and Tactics Directorate, Maneuver Center of Excel lence, Fort Benning, GA; troop senior observer/coach/trainer, Operations Group, Joint Readiness Training Cen ter, Fort Polk, LA; and commander, Troop B and Headquarters and Head quarters Troop, 1st Squadron, 33rd Cav alry Regiment, Fort Campbell, KY. MAJ Klein’s military schools include the Ad vanced Military Studies Program, Command and General Staff Officer Course, MCCC, Armor Basic Officer Leader’s Course and Ranger, Airborne and Air-Assault Schools. He has a bachelor’s of science degree in bio chemistry from the University of Mich igan, a master’s of arts degree in mili tary operations from the School of Ad vanced Military Studies and a master’s of science degree in medicinal chemis try from the University of Illinois-Chi cago. Notes 1 This article uses the term “rollout exer cise,” but some leaders might call these “deployment readiness exercises (DREs)” or “emergency DREs (EDREs).” The author deliberately chose not to use the term DRE because AR 525-93, Army Deploy ment and Redeployment, October 2019, Paragraphs 3-6 to 3-9 (Conducting a De ployment Readiness Exercise) state that DREs must include load teams and other unit-movement related tasks, which is beyond the author’s recommendation for command maintenance. That being said, FM 7-0, Training, June 2021, Paragraph F-8 (EDRE) states that “[c]ommanders [can] vary the scope and complexity” of EDREs based on mission variables, which might signal an addition or change to fu ture regulatory language. 2 Commanders need to know if any of their equipment has multiple manuals to ensure Soldiers are conducting checks on all subcomponents. For instance, an M2A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle has both hull and turret TMs. The hull TM is 9-2350-294-10-1, while there are two turret TMs: TM 9-2350-294-10-2-1 and TM 9-2350-294-10-2-2. 3 Operator 10-level M4 functions checks satisfy nearly 50 percent of the quarterly services requirement. See TM 9-1005- 319-10, Operator’s Manual for Rifle, 5.56 mm, M16 and M4, August 2016, and TM 9-1005-319-23&P, Unit and Di rect Support Maintenance Manual for Rifle, 5.56 mm, M16 and M4, April 2019. In the 10-level TM, Work Package 10 in Chapter 2 covers operator functions checks, and Chapter 2, Section III of the -23&P covers quarterly PMCS require ments. Also, operators can conduct two-thirds of a PVS-14 180-day service, which has three requirements: 10-level PMCS, purging (must be conducted by direct-support mechanics) and a 10-level reso lution test. See Section III of TM 11-5855- 306-23&P, Field Maintenance Manual for Monocular Night-Vision Device AN/ PVS-14, September 2013, and TM 11- 5855-306-10, Operator Manual for Monocular Night Vision Device AN/PVS- 14, October 2010. 4 See Gary M. Klein and Ragan T. Ruther ford, “The Armored Brigade Combat Team Cavalry Squadron’s Combat Trains during Large-Scale Combat Operations: Balancing Maintenance, Recovery, Free dom of Maneuver,” ARMOR, Fall 2020 edition, for an example combat-power tracker that was successfully used during command maintenance and at the Na tional Training Center. 5 See DA Pam 750-8, The Army Mainte nance Management System Users’ Man ual, August 2005. Acronym Quick-Scan AOAP – Army Oil Analysis Program BII – basic-issue item CBRN – chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear C/B/T – company/battery/troop CoA – course of action COMSEC – communications security COMSTAT – communications status COP – common operating picture CT – cypher text CUB – command-update brief DRE – deployment-readiness exercise EDRE – emergency deployment-readiness exercise ERPS – equipment records parts specialist ESR – equipment-status report FH – frequency hop FM – frequency modulation GCSS-A – Global Combat Support System-Army JBC-P – Joint Battle Command-Platform LFAST – live-fire accuracy screening test MCCC – Maneuver Captain’s Career Course MWO – maintenance work order NCO – noncommissioned officer OPTEMPO – operations tempo OR – operational readiness PMCS – preventative-maintenance checks and services RTO – radiotelephone operator SITREP – situation report SOP – standing operating procedure SOUM – safety-of-use message TACSOP – tactical SOP TM – technical manual TMDE – test, measurement and diagnostic equipment