Dear all,
We have come to that time. After a long time and some hard work, the Core Infantry Training Team, Force Manual Development Group, and TC Staff are proud to announce that Core Infantry is ready to be implemented into the Future Training System (FTS).
Start date and Grace period
Core Infantry skill cards, guides, and policy have been approved and will go live on Monday 21st October. From this point, there will be a grace period of 6 months to allow all players to demonstrate their capability in this practice area and attain the skills they require to keep their desired Core Infantry tier. At the end of the 6 months, LTS tiers will become inactive, and all players will be adjusted to their FTS tier as determined by observations on their skill card.
What is on the card
The skill card will be readily available in the Force Manual (FM), to allow all players to review any adjustments to Core Infantry doctrine. There are some minor changes, but for the most part, Core Infantry practices will remain as they always have and hopefully are a little more simplified.
The training team have done their utmost to ensure that there are as few changes needed as possible after go-live, though we recognise that players may have questions and that we may, as we always do, continue to learn as we enter the grace period. To that end, as always, it is intended that there will, except for the most minor cosmetic or grammatical purposes, be no changes to the skill card in the grace period, and any learnings, revisions, additions etc. are done once we are comfortably into FTS on it’s own.
Role changes
There have been some adjustments however, to the way Core Infantry roles are laid out and progress. You will be able to see these on go-live, but the general idea is that now there should be much more access to roles, earlier, and that roles are now tied to the skills required to conduct them. A good example is Automatic Rifleman which, at tier 2, is now open to anyone who has proven capability at UNITAFs basic Core Infantry requirements by passing probation.
Training Team
The training team has been selected and confirmed by J7 as:
If anyone would like to join the Core Infantry training team in any of the available vacancies, please message the Core Infantry Staff Instructor, Cpl Mooocow at the first instance.
What will happen now
The CI-TT are currently scheduling skill assessments and FTXs to allow demonstration of these new skills as well as preparing to start observing in-operation. Given the length of the grace period, the size of the team, and the opportunity for Core Infantry skills to be demonstrated in operation compared to other practice areas, we believe (but are prepared in case we are incorrect) that there should not be the need for the immediate rush for observations seen with Anti-vehicle and Medical, so please be patient as observations start to be provided over the first couple of weeks and months, and that it’s not a huge deal if any skill assessments are full early on.
Wrap up
We are pleased to be at the next stage with Core Infantry, especially after the time taken to get to this point. Completing this task will allow TC as a whole to structure support towards other areas that are still to move to FTS. The areas that will, based on current input, be coming next are: Combat Support (though maybe not as we currently know it), Combat Leadership, and Mission Support and we will keep you updated on progress. Don't forget you can contact TC/J6 if you'd like to help out with this process, and the more people helping out, the faster it happens!
Final thank you to the full team and those who have spent their time working on bringing Core Infantry to completion. It has been a fair bit of time and dedication, and we’re looking forward to the fruits of that labour being enjoyed by the unit as a whole.
Thanks,