A Training with Two Reviews! The 73rd Group Army's Certain Brigade Innovates Model to Enhance Combat Capability

A Training Session, Two Reviews

—— An Experience of a Certain Brigade of the 73rd Group Army in Enhancing Training Effectiveness

■ Li Jianliang, Special Correspondent of PLA Daily, Shi Zhipeng, Reporter, Wei Qiaoqiao

“During the last air-ground confrontation training, the No. 2 aircraft breached the specified altitude during a low-altitude penetration, resulting in being 'locked on' by the 'enemy' radar…” In the summer, on the eve of an air-ground confrontation training session, the participating officers and soldiers of a certain brigade of the 73rd Group Army held a pre-training review meeting.

“The training hasn’t even started, why are we reviewing it already?” a reporter curiously asked.

“Reviewing is a common method for the troops to summarize training effectiveness. In the past, we focused on post-training reviews, but now we have added a review before training, mainly to summarize the problems encountered in previous training,” said Wang Zhijie, the brigade's operations and training staff officer. To effectively enhance the crew's on-the-spot decision-making and battlefield adaptability, during this pre-training review, they organized the participating officers and soldiers to analyze video materials and flight parameters from similar past exercises, sorting out experiences and lessons, summarizing key links, anticipating possible special situations, and formulating contingency plans.

The practice of “one training session, two reviews” originated from two training failures. In a previous air drop training, pilot Zhang was flying a helicopter that had just landed at the designated drop point when unexpectedly, the opponent executed a “surround” maneuver, resulting in a failed mission. Surprisingly, a similar situation occurred again in a subsequent air drop training.

“Why did we fall into the same 'pit' twice in such a short time? What exactly went wrong?” Afterward, pilot Zhang and his comrades thoroughly investigated the root of the problem. Insufficient coordination, incomplete intelligence, improper choice of landing points… They compared the videos and flight parameters from these two training sessions and tried to list all possible reasons. However, everyone still felt uncertain: “Next time, if we change to an unfamiliar area and a new opponent, will we fall into another 'pit'?”

In response to this situation, the brigade's party committee dispatched relevant personnel to embed themselves in the frontline of the exercises, providing full-time supervision and guidance. They found that traditional reviews often focused on single training sessions and lacked systematic summaries of experiences and lessons from similar training, leading to the recurrence of some old problems.

“Only through constant learning can we remain innovative; reviews cannot just focus on one training session.” The brigade's party committee decided to implement the “one training session, two reviews” model: before training begins, they first review and discuss past similar training, deeply exploring weak links and summarizing points of attention, studying countermeasures for the problem list, shifting from passive responses to proactive prevention; after training, they focus on the shortcomings exposed during the training to organize another review, examining capability gaps against combat standards and updating the problem list and solutions. To enhance the quality of the reviews, they assigned dedicated personnel to record videos throughout the training period and compile flight parameter data, ensuring that post-training review data is accurate and comprehensive.

As the warbirds lined up and the engines roared, the training commenced as scheduled shortly after the pre-training review concluded. The reporter observed on-site that during the confrontation, faced with the opponent's tightly arranged air defense network, the crew did not rush in recklessly but strictly followed the plan formulated during the pre-training review to change flight postures, successfully evading 'enemy' radar tracking and completing simulated strikes on the designated targets.

As the smoke cleared, the participating pilots immediately entered the tactical assessment room to conduct a post-training review. They pulled up the confrontation videos, analyzing the combat scenarios from multiple angles, identifying shortcomings one by one, and further validating the effectiveness of tactical methods, optimizing and perfecting the experiences summarized in the pre-training review. “The pre-training review focuses on summarizing common patterns and frequent problems, while the post-training review concentrates on sorting out new situations and compiling new tactics,” said pilot Zhang. The new review model not only allowed them to enter a combat state in advance but also heightened the crew's awareness and vigilance regarding weak links, effectively improving their battlefield adaptability.

The innovative practice of “one training session, two reviews” has become an “accelerator” for the brigade to enhance its combat capabilities. Since the beginning of this year, based on the practice of “one training session, two reviews,” the brigade has optimized and improved the closed-loop process of “pre-research preparation—practical training verification—reviewing deficiencies—targeted strengthening,” successfully completing multiple training tasks with high quality, and a batch of new tactical training methods have undergone practical verification, significantly enhancing training effectiveness.