Training & Readiness
What is Readiness?
“Readiness is like oxygen. You tend not to notice it until you begin to lose it, but once that occurs there is nothing else that you will think about.” An adaptation of a quote from Dr. Joseph S. Nye, Jr. that discussed Security.
Readiness (JP 1-02): The ability of U.S. military forces to fight and meet the demands of the national military strategy. Readiness is the synthesis of two distinct but interrelated levels. a. unit readiness–The ability to provide capabilities required by the combatant commanders to execute their assigned missions. This is derived from the ability of each unit to deliver the outputs for which it was designed. b. joint readiness–The combatant commander’s ability to integrate and synchronize ready combat and support forces to execute his or her assigned missions.
To establish Institutional Readiness (Fig. 1), statesman and commander must respond to three fundamental questions:
• Ready for what?
• Ready with what?
• Ready when?
Institutional Readiness
Current Readiness Pillars
The Current Readiness Pillars are those pillars principally focused on what, with what, and when the UNIT must be ready at present. These pillars deal with the current state of operations and the readiness of forces to sustain those operations and react to crises. Initiatives that influence current affairs and current functions impact current readiness also through the issues associated with the current readiness pillars. When investment is applied against the pillars of readiness, the SERVICE consciously understands that by favoring current readiness over future investment, it is creating an imbalance. PESTO are the focused reporting areas required for Defense Readiness Reporting System. PESTO = Personnel, Equipment, Supply, Training, Ordnance.
PESTO = Personnel, Equipment, Supply, Training, Ordnance
People / Equipment / Training
PESTO Pillars
P – Level is based on the unit’s ability to provide deployable, military occupational specialty (MOS) qualified personnel to accomplish its missions.
E – Level is a measure of your unit’s equipment condition. R-Level says to Higher HQ, “Of the gear that I actually have, this is how much actually works like it’s supposed to.”
T – Level says to Higher HQ, “Out of all the things I’m supposed to be able to do, right now, I am trained to do this.”
Training & Readiness (T&R) Matrix
PESTO Pillars - Training - Metrics
The Capabilities-based T&R Matrix provides the Training Figure of Merit (TFOM) scores needed for the T-Pillar.
- TFOM is a function of Performance (Pf) and Experience (Ef)
- TFOM metric is a measure that describes a unit’s training capability in a given Mission Essential Task List (METL)
The Training Program allows squadrons to collect flight and training data and feed that data to the TYCOM and the DRRS-N T pillar via a Current Readiness Assessment (CRA) report every 15 days.