The Army Special Operations Academy pays attention to cultivating students’ ability to respond to
occasions
on the battlefield-
"For this reconnaissance, I revised the instructor’s basic plan"
In the mid-winter season, the hinterland of northern Guangxi is rainy and rainy.
At midnight, a reconnaissance guided strike drill at the Army Special Operations Academy began quietly.
Taking advantage of the darkness, the red commander and student Liu Feihong led the special forces team, infiltrating along the dangerous roads in the mountains and forests to the "enemy" defense depth No. 1 highland.
Prior intelligence showed that the "enemy" missile positions were empty.
Liu Feihong was about to carry out reconnaissance as planned, and suddenly discovered that the situation was abnormal: "The vegetation here is sparse and the location is open. If you go out for reconnaissance according to the'basic case' given by the instructor in the class, it is very likely that our whereabouts will be exposed."
After on-site analysis, Liu Feihong decisively changed the action plan.
They circled and interspersed to the "enemy" No. 2 high ground, concealedly obtained the parameters of the missile launch position, guided the air force to strike accurately, and caught the "enemy" by surprise.
"The target has been destroyed, the red side wins!" Walking out of the guidance department, Li Zhiyong, director of the armed reconnaissance teaching and research section of the hospital, gave a satisfied smile.
He told the author that in this exercise, the student special forces team did not act in accordance with the "basic plan" given by the instructor, but came up with a temporary plan that was more in line with the battlefield environment. This was due to the college's emphasis on cultivating students to dare to question in their daily teaching. , The spirit of pragmatism and innovation encourages students to think independently, sparks innovation in the collision of ideas, and promotes the improvement of students' command ability.
"The battlefield situation changes rapidly. The special forces members often go deep behind enemy lines to perform special tasks. Faced with unpredictable dangers and special situations, they can only resolve them on the basis of their own research. Therefore, it is particularly important to cultivate the battlefield ability of special forces students." According to the leaders of the hospital, they encourage students to study and refine with a suspicious attitude, and guide them to dismantle the plan, analyze the problem, find the crux of the problem, and prescribe the right medicine in the speculative discussion.
However, in the process of cultivating the innovative spirit and adaptability of the special warfare students on the battlefield, the academy has gone through a detour.
Once, Li Zhiyong organized team tactics teaching.
At the beginning of the class, he announced the "basic case". When soliciting the opinions of the trainees, the audience was silent and there was no objection.
The trainees generally believed that Teacher Li is a senior expert, and there will be no mistakes in his plan.
However, after the assault and capture of prisoners drill began, the special forces team launched operations in accordance with the "basic case", only to find that the battlefield environment and the plan were obviously different, and they were all in a hurry, and finally came back in despair.
The lesson of this failure caused Li Zhiyong to deeply reflect.
He clearly realizes that the battlefield environment is changeable, and tactics teaching should not set standard answers.
At the resumption summary meeting after the event, Li Zhiyong encouraged the students to actively speak and express their opinions.
Everyone used their brains, spoke enthusiastically, and drafted several innovative action plans.
In the follow-up exercise test, the trainee Ju Ben led the special forces team to a surprise victory in accordance with his own plan of action.
This tortuous experience has become the "ideological igniting point" for the implementation of open teaching in the tactical classroom of the college.
Since then, the college has organized tactical teaching and no longer regards the "basic case" of the instructors as the "standard case", but instead guides the students to open up their minds, diverge their thinking, and adapt to changes on the basis of the "basic case".
They also required the trainees to independently complete the team command and coordinated work as a commander, independently test the feasibility of the temporary aircraft plan, and constantly temper the trainees' ability to find the "best solution on the battlefield" by setting up complex environments and dangerous conditions.
Today, Li Zhiyong's tactics class is full of vitality and brilliant.
He encouraged the trainees to change their roles and act as small teachers, walk up to the podium to share their own ideas for formulating plans, and stimulate thought sparks in the collision of ideas.
In addition, he organized the selection of "the most powerful brain" and "best debater", and the "flavor of war" and "flavor of gunpowder" came in the classroom, and the atmosphere was lively and tense.
"For this reconnaissance, I amended the'basic case' of the instructors." Liu Feihong proudly told the author: The open classroom has yielded many results. In the recent many actual combat drills organized by the college, the special forces students reacted to changes and unexpectedly succeeded. The drill task was successfully completed.
Short comment
There is no standard plan for combat
■Niu Haijun
"Soldiers are impermanent, and water is impermanent."
War is complex and cannot be replicated.
Even a small encounter may change tactics due to changes in the enemy's situation, our situation, and the environment.
There is no standard plan for combat, and victory on the battlefield calls for innovative thinking.
The teaching innovation experience of the Army Special Operations Academy enlightens us: In order to connect the academy's classrooms to the future battlefield, we should actively jump out of the inertial thinking of "basic cases" and "standard cases", and strive to cultivate students' ability to adapt to the battlefield.
Future wars will be fast-paced and uncertain, and the one-time effects of combat methods will become more obvious. This will place extremely high demands on the commander’s ability to respond immediately to the battlefield.
As the cradle for cultivating future battlefield commanders, military academies must firmly establish a clear direction for combat education, organize practical teaching in depth, dare to break rules, do not set standard answers, be less "familiar with routines", more "surprise", and constantly Training students to find the "best solution on the battlefield" ability.
Only in this way can we cope with and win surprisingly in future wars.
Huang Xianmin An Yaguang