Marines may see tougher CFT, more cyber training in '16

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. — Making rank could get more competitive next year as leaders consider tough new fitness test scoring at the same time new education requirements become mandatory for promotion for thousands of Marines.

Marines should expect more rigorous standards could see tougher scoring ​on the Combat Fitness Test rolled out in fiscal year 2016, Maj. Gen. James Lukeman, the head of Training and Education Command, told Marine Corps Times.

"Not surprisingly, as Marines train to the events in the Combat Fitness Test, they are doing better," he said. "…What we're looking at is rebalancing the scoring on the Combat Fitness Test a little bit to raise the bar on [what's considered] first class."

That could come at a time when some of the Corps' most populous ranks are facing new rules for completing education requirements in order to be eligible for promotion to the next rank. Meanwhile, And​ leaders are looking at ways to incorporate more simulated and cyber training into lessons for Marines at every rank.

The changes comes​ at a time when Marine leaders are determined to make are looking at making ​the Corps more technically savvy as troops face cyber threats at home and abroad and work with state-of-the art equipment like the F-35B joint strike fighter.

Here's a look at how training and education requirements are likely to evolve in 2016.

The CFT review

Marines will likely see CFT scoring get harder tougher​, roughly two years after TECOM launched a review of the 7-year-old functional fitness test.

Marine Corps Times first reported that the CFT's scoring system could get tougher in 2013, when Lukeman's predecessor, now retired Maj. Gen. Tom Murray, said the service would review data collected on all Marines who completed the test since it was introduced in 2008. If it was determined that a high percentage were earning perfect or near-perfect scores, it could mean the scoring system needed an adjustment, Murray said.

That data is now in and it appears that Marines have learned to master the sprint, ammo can lift, and maneuver under fire events.

"Nowadays, somewhere above 90 percent of Marines score a first class on the Combat Fitness Test," Lukeman said. "The standards may have been too low when we established them to begin with on the CFT."

TECOM will now work with manpower officials to determine what a​effects changes to the scoring system would have on promotions, Lukeman said.

"Because t​The CFT is part of our composite score, so [for] any action in that regard, we need to make sure it doesn't have adverse effects across the force," he said.

Marines won't see any chnages to the of the ​CFT events change​, the scoring could simply be adjusted so that it won't be it's not ​as easy to receive a first-class score, Lukeman he ​said.

No changes have been recommended made ​to the commandant yet, Lukeman said, since TECOM and manpower officials are still examining possible impacts. But it's likely that Marines will see the scoring system change next year, he added.

PME for promotion

Lukeman and his team also continue to carefully monitor plans to make new ​resident education experiences a requirement for promotion.

They're on track to continue with the plan that goes into effect Oct. 1, requiring all lance corporals to complete a new, command-sponsored leadership and ethics seminar to be eligible for promotion to corporal. Corporals must also begin attending a resident version of corporals course in order to be eligible for promotion to sergeant.

"The challenge was to make sure that we could deliver this training," Lukeman said. "That was one of our concerns incorporating this PME requirement, was ​that the demand was now on the operating force to do this training."

Since units have successfully incorporated the training, Lukeman said the promotion requirements will go into effect as planned.

Next year, any sergeant interested in making it to staff noncommissioned officer must first complete a resident version of Sergeants Course. That plan is also ​on track to go into effect, as planned, on Oct. 1, 2016, he said.

"The folks that run the staff NCO academies around the country and in Okinawa have done a great job creating the capacity for all sergeants in the Marine Corps to go through the resident course," Lukeman said.

High-tech training

In his 2015 Commandant's Planning Guidance, Gen. Joseph F. ​Dunford, Jr.​ tasked the Corps with better integrating greater integration of ​technology into training and education to better ​prep Marines for tomorrow's complex battlefields.

Specifically, he called for greater integration of immersive training and simulation technologies — especially high-tech simulators — to cultivate decision making at the small-unit level.

"My intent is for Marines to encounter their initial tactical and ethical dilemmas in a simulated battlefield vice actual combat," Dunford wrote.

Now ​Lukeman is now leading theis​ charge to see this aspiration realized across the force, and TECOM is working closely with the Office of Naval Research to bring this next generation of augmented reality training systems to the field.

For example, the Augmented Immersive Team Trainer received its first field test at the Infantry Officer Course at Quantico in August.

The AITT system — digitally linked, helmet-mounted displays that superimpose battlefield effects onto a real environment — enables Marines to call for fire or close air support in the field without real artillery or aircraft, and without being confined to a classroom.

"With augmented reality, I can use my weapon, I can use my comm gear, I can talk to my squadmates while I have these pieces of simulation introduced into the world that I'm in," Lukeman said.

"We want to build our muscle memory with our weapons systems and our communications systems."

However, b​Bringing such systems to the table is expensive, and the Corps is operating in a fiscally constrained environment.

However, Such ​high-tech training systems will certainly be more ​cost-effective in the long term since they don't rely on aircraft or munitions, which not only are expensive but are costly and ​take time time-consuming ​to coordinate, staff and equip., but​

"We have to make choices, which ones to invest in and which ones not to invest in, particularly when you've got emerging technologies coming out and only so many dollars in the budget on how ​to do it," he said.

Cyber lessons for every Marine

Perhaps the biggest change One of the greatest changes ​in training and education, however,​ will come as the Corps adapts to new global challenges of the cyber realm.

Marines will not only ​see not only more cyber training in PME, but an increased push across the board to hone every Marine's ability to navigate the complex digital terrain.

"This is one of those areas where it's across all the MOS'​s and all the grades, so it's not just PME but also training in cyber, from operators and Marines that are on the systems, to S-3s and our MAGTF training program," Lukeman said.

Lukeman cites the recent Large Scale Exercise-2015 at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, California.

Marines with the 2nd MEB conducting the exercise ​were suddenly confronted with a systemic cyber-attack seemingly unrelated to the scenario.

"No longer is it just air, land and sea," Lukeman said. "It's now air, land, sea, space and cyber, and Marines need to understand how to operate in the cyber environment, how to fight in the cyber domain."

Spearheading this push is retired Air Force Col. (ret.) ​Gary Brown, who was recently appointed the Corps' first cybersecurity chair at Marine Corps University.

According to Brown, awareness of all things cyber is crucial, since all Marines are connected to the i​Internet in one form of another, and adversaries are becoming increasingly adept in the cyber worldcomplex​.

"Awareness of that is the biggest thing we can do because — let's be honest — every Marine is a rifleman, but not every Marine will be an offensive cyber warrior," Brown said.

"But everybody needs to practice good cyber hygiene … that is more training and less education."