Information Paper Tng and Sim CoN 20260513.pdf

CUI

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY

COMBINED ARMS CENTER – TRAINING

FUTURE TRAINING DIRECTORATE

12809 SCIENCE DRIVE

ORLANDO, FL 32826-3276

FCOP-CTH 06 April 2026

INFORMATION PAPER

SUBJECT: Training and Simulation Characteristic of Need (CoN) Information Paper

1. Background. The US Army does not have a CoN to drive transformation in the collective training domain to achieve readiness in the Army 2040. A Training and Simulation CoN would provide an overarching structure, under which the Army could identify training gaps, and develop, resource, and field solutions to the broader Army to achieve the readiness required to achieve the Army’s Warfighting Concept.

2. Purpose. This paper defines the structure, content, authorities, and employment of a draft Training and Simulation CoN.

3. The CoN base document is a strategic document that defines what the collective training environment needs to achieve to facilitate the readiness of the Army to compete and win against peer adversaries in a complex, multi-domain operational environment.

To achieve this, the document will need to nest with the Army Warfighting Concept and account for the transformation and training path to achieve it. Additionally, the document will define the Global Training Environment, the holistic capability to merge virtual, live, and constructive training support requirements to enable training “anywhere, anytime, and at any echelon”. Finally, this document will inform how the Army will fundamentally change how it captures, archives, assesses, and employs training data, utilizing the Army Training Information System (ATIS), to improve training outcomes and to provide a clearer understanding of training readiness. The intended audiences for this strategic document are senior leaders across the Army's training enterprise and our industry partners. For Army leaders, it provides the strategic vision and top-level guidance required to justify and resource transformation efforts. For industry, it serves as a strategic signal, outlining the Army’s long-term operational challenges and desired end-state. It is not a list of technical requirements, but rather a "problem statement" that enables industry to align their internal research and development (IR&D) and begin formulating the innovative, holistic solutions the Army will need in the future. The approval authority for the publication of the CoN is the CSA/VCSA.

4. The CoN is executed through a series of annexes. The annexes (Live, Virtual, Constructive (LVC), and Common Services) identify and validate critical gaps within each domain and direct solutions for development. While LVC are traditional training fields, and well understood by the enterprise and industry, The Common Services annex will drive transformation in data capture, interoperability, and transport. It represents the foundational core services layer of the architecture, providing enterprise-level capabilities such as the common data layer, One World Terrain (OWT), FCOP-CTH standardized APIs, cybersecurity framework, and identity management, which are accessible to all LVC components.

To support these solutions, the annex stakeholders identify and prioritize collective training gaps and develop and coordinate resourcing paths (POM) to fund development. To facilitate progress, CAC provides functional proponents (Virtual Training Directorate, Live Training Directorate, Constructive Training Directorate, and Future Training Directorate) to manage each annex. The primary audiences for the annexes are the senior trainers and capability developers who must translate this strategy into action. The annexes provide the substantive "how-to" needed to prepare the force for incoming technology—allowing leaders to develop new doctrine, refine tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), and plan the facility, network, and personnel requirements required for implementation. The approval authority for annexes is the AAE and/or T2COM CDR.

5. The CoN appendices are directed by and, in turn, inform the CoN annexes. The appendices define the desired characteristics and capabilities required to close the collective training gaps within the Army’s Warfighting Systems (AWS). The stakeholders that develop appendices (TIDs, FCDs, CoEs, PAEs, CAC, etc.) represent the operational force representative and user communities that develop and coordinate requirements and will administer the programs after development. DOTMLPF-P and System Training Plan (STRAP) analysis occurs concurrently with the development of the appendices to ensure that requirements are synchronized with all components of DOTMLPF-P across all WFSs. The annexes synchronize the development, resourcing, and fielding of individual programs, while managing trade space and resourcing decisions for legacy programs that transition to new capabilities. Approval authorities for annexes are CAC and PAEs.

6. The Tabs are the most detailed documents in this framework, directly analogous to traditional requirements documents (e.g., Capability Development Documents). They translate the broader "characteristics" and "capabilities" described in the annexes and appendices into the formal language of acquisition. Each Tab codifies the specific, measurable, and testable performance attributes for a material solution that required to close a validated gap. The primary audience for the Tabs is industry. While the CoN provides the strategic "why" and the annexes provide the operational "how," the Tabs provide the technical "what." They are the blueprint that provide industry with the detailed engineering and performance specifications required to design, build, and test a solution. This level of detail ensures that proposed material solutions are not only innovative but also directly aligned with the Army's validated needs, and it forms the basis for formal testing, evaluation, and eventual fielding. The approval authority for Tabs would reside with PAE, with key stakeholders as CAC-T and CPEs and their subordinate Program/Product Managers, who will oversee the acquisition.

7. Conclusion. The Training and Simulation CoN framework provides the disciplined, top-down approach required to modernize our collective training environment for Multi-

FCOP-CTH

Domain Operations. It directly links the CSA’s strategic vision to the specific capabilities we will build and field, ensuring every effort is nested and synchronized. This structure allows us to move beyond funding disparate programs by providing a common framework to identify our most critical training gaps, prioritize resources against them, and hold organizations accountable for delivering solutions. It provides the clarity our training leaders need to prepare the Force and the specific guidance industry needs to build the right tools. By endorsing this framework, we enable the alignment of the training, acquisition, and resourcing communities toward a single purpose: delivering a Global Training Environment that builds the readiness and lethality the Army requires to win.

ENCL 1: Training and Simulation Characteristic of Need Taxonomy