Warrior Tasks and Battle Drills
What are they?
Warrior Tasks and Battle Drills (WTBD) are fundamental combat skills in which all Soldiers – regardless of rank, component, or military
occupational specialty -- must maintain proficiency to fight and win on the battlefield. They are the foundation upon which combat training
builds and are the primary focus of tactical training for both officers and enlisted Soldiers during initial military training (IMT).
Warrior Tasks are selected common individual Soldier skills deemed critical to a Soldier’s basic competency. Examples include weapons
training, tactical communications, urban operations, and combat lifesaving.
Battle Drills are group/collective skills designed to teach a unit to react and accomplish the mission in common combat situations. Examples
include react to ambush, react to chemical attack, and evacuate wounded personnel from a vehicle.
What has the Army done?
WTBD increase the relevance of training to current combat requirements and enhance the rigor in training. The driving force behind the
change was lessons learned from Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), and comments from OIF/OEF
veterans. The WTBD continue to evolve to meet the needs of the operational Army. For example all Soldiers graduating from BCT and OSUT
are certified in combat lifesaving.
BCT and OSUT train all WTBD.
In Advanced Individual Training (AIT), selected WTBD [urban operations, react to man-to-man contact, convoy operations (convoy live-fire for
OD, TC, QM, MI, SC), advanced rifle marksmanship, and rifle qualification if the AIT is longer than 23 weeks] are reinforced. Additionally, AIT
school commandants may retrain any of the WTBD they deem critical to specific specialties.
Currently there are 32 Warrior Tasks and 12 Battle Drills being taught.
What efforts does the Army plan to continue in the future?
The Army conducts an annual review of WTBD to maintain relevance to current operations. Army Warrior Training, the program that replaced
common task testing, focuses on WTBD training for all military personnel throughout the Army.
Why is this important to the Army?
As combat situations can occur anywhere on the battlefield, it is important that all Soldiers possess fundamental combat skills. WTBD
produce Soldiers who are better prepared to fight on today's battlefield and immediately upon arrival to their first unit of assignment.
Also refer to FM 7-0 and FM 7-1 for more training information
The following is a list of the current Warrior Tasks and Battle Drills:
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