Developing U.S. Service M&S Professionals: Inter-Service Differences in the Education, Training, and Management of Uniform and Government M&S Personnel
(Room S320F)
29 Nov 17
8:30 AM
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9:00 AM
It is said time and time again: "We are only as good as our people." It is critical to have uniformed officers and government service personnel significantly involved in properly shaping modeling and simulation (M&S) programs as the services increasingly adopt M&S; live, virtual, and constructive (LVC) simulations, virtual environments (VEs) and digital engineering (DE) solutions that address training, acquisition, and assessment missions. Yet, investment by the defense establishment and the military services in recruiting, educating, promoting, retaining and utilizing uniformed and government M&S professionals is mixed at best. Each service designates these officers and civilians differently, with the Army having a functional area (57) and career program (36), the Navy a subspecialty (6202), the Marine Corps a military occupational specialty (8825), and the Air Force identifies three special experience identifiers for M&S that cover positions that require awareness, management or senior leadership skills. However, these differences are more than semantics. The differences between the Army and Navy show just how dissimilar different service approaches can be. For example, the Army has scores of billets requiring an FA-57, and once Army officers become FA-57s they will almost always fill an M&S billet. In contrast, the Navy has significantly reduced the number of billets requiring an M&S subspecialty code, and Navy officers who receive that designation may never serve in an M&S position during the remainder of their careers. This paper describes the education, training and workforce management of uniformed and government M&S professionals in the U.S. military services. It then presents applicable insights and lessons learned, looking specifically at similarities and differences in how the services recruit, educate, train and manage their M&S workforces. The goal is to better educate and empower warfighting simulation professionals.