Preparing for future combat environments: Optimising Physical Conditioning for the 21st Century Soldier

Abstract

Preparing for the operational environment is a fundamental principle of military doctrine. This thesis looks at current and historical military practice and aims to determine future training initiatives to help better prepare the soldier for conflict conditions. Whilst the future of military conflict will always be determined by politics, the potential reaction time can be very short, so we must be in a position of continuous training for operations, with optimum ramp up opportunities for readiness. During operations in Afghanistan the campaign Formation Operational Readiness Mechanism (FORM) Fitness Doctrine (CFFD) provided guidance for the physical preparation of all ranks, tailored to the specific requirements for Operation HERRICK. Building on the success of CFFD, we must re-analyse our physical preparation for operations philosophies to align them with the requirements of contingency. Whilst the exact physical requirements for future operations are inherently unknown, it is essential that we derive appropriate physical training (PT) philosophies and methodologies to efficiently and effectively promote physical fitness and injury resilience.