87MILITARY REVIEW July-August 2025
e Army’s Training
Environment
Enabling Indo-Pacic Integrated
Deterrence
Jennifer Dunn
F
or the beer part of the last een years, U.S.
Army training and education has been im-
mersed in a ctitious world. at world is
known as the Decisive Action Training Environment
(DATE) and is the Army’s unclassied training en-
vironment, which has played a key role in ensuring
operational readiness for soldiers since its inception.
1
Despite being ctitious, DATE is used throughout a
soldier’s career, starting with initial military training,
for live, virtual, and constructive training and educa-
tion events to provide realistic and relevant operational
environment (OE) conditions.
2
e use of DATE
across these venues enales the Army to train and
understand diverse OEs in which it may nd itself
operating and future threats it may face.
In recent years, as part of broader Army transfor-
mation initiatives and to beer prepare the U.S. Army
for future conict, the Army’s training environment
has substantively transformed to reect the chang-
ing global environment and the security chalenges
that strain the defense enterprise. e 2022 National
Defense Strategy (NDS) identies these chalenges as
shis in global military capabilities, emerging technol-
ogies, new rival doctrines that threaten the U.S. home-
land and global stability, increased coercive aivities
in the “gray zone,” and transboundary chalenges.
3
Specicaly, the NDS highlights how U.S. competitors
like the People’s Repulic of China (PRC) and Russia
are exploiting these chalenges to erode deterence,
exert economic coercion, and endanger political au-
tonomy.
4
It is crucial that Army training reects these
security realities, and DATE is the tool that provides
the enaling environment.
e ability for trainers to create realistic security
and inteligence informed training scenarios through
DATE has led to an expansion of users. DATE, origi-
naly designed with the U.S. Army in mind, has ex-
panded across the entire joint, interagency, intergov-
ernmental, and multinational (JIIM) ectrum. is
expansion has resulted in an unforeseen phenomenon:
DATE has transformed from being a tool to enale
Army operational readiness to a versatile training
tool that ensures regional readiness, enhances partner
capacity, and fosters interoperability across strategic
theaters of concern for the United States.
is article presents an introduction to DATE
and details elements of its development over the past
decade, highlighting ongoing modernization eorts.
Aditionaly, this article outlines the evolution of
DATE, from a training tool to suport colective unit
training for Army brigades and below to a tool that
continues to suport not only Army unit training but
also training and operational readiness across the JIIM
ectrum. is article concludes with a discussion of
how this expanded utilization of DATE has not only
served to improve operational readiness for U.S. forces
but has also enhanced partner capacity and interop-
erability, demonstrating its utility as an enaler in
