Military Review English Edition November December 2016 | Page 46
Transformative Staff
Training in Ukraine
Col. Nick Ducich, U.S. Army
Lt. Col. Nathan Minami, U.S. Army
Maj. Ryan Riggin, U.S. Army
Capt. Jacob Austin, U.S. Army
T
he events of March 2014 shocked the world:
Russian forces invaded Crimea, and Russia
annexed the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.
Subsequently, the Russians employed hybrid tactics that
included using conventional forces and Russia-sponsored
separatists to destabilize eastern Ukraine (which is
on the Russian border). In response, the Ukrainian
government authorized antiterrorism operations in
Donbass. To support Ukraine, the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) formed the NATO–Ukraine
Commission (NUC). The NUC includes the NATO–
Ukraine Joint Working Group on Defence Reform,
which conducts security force assistance. In addition,
the United States, Canada, Lithuania, United Kingdom,
Estonia, and Ukraine created the Joint Multinational
Training Group–Ukraine (JMTG–U) to conduct complementary efforts for robust defense reform.
Col. Nick Ducich,
U.S. Army, is the
commander of Joint
Multinational Training
Group–Ukraine. He
holds an MS in nuclear
engineering from the
University of Maryland
and an MSS from
the U.S. Army War
College. He is pursuing
an MS in space studies
from the University of
North Dakota.
44
Lt. Col. Nathan
Minami, U.S. Army,
served as the battalion
commander for 3rd
Battalion, 15th Infantry
Regiment. He holds
an MS from the systems design and management program at
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and a PhD
in business administration from Northcentral
University.
The JMTG–U, comprised of a brigade-level he adquarters that included U.S., Canadian, and Lithuanian
instructors, was tasked with training five Ukrainian
battalions, developing a combat training center capability,
supporting a doctrine-and-education advisory group, and
providing mission command for a task force from the U.S.
Army 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment. This article
is written from the perspective of officers from that task
force, which was the partner-and-advise training team
(PATT) battalion headquarters at the International
Peacekeeping and Security Center (IPSC) in Yavoriv,
Ukraine, from 15 February 2016 until 17 July 2016.
The 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment’s task force
trained two Ukrainian battalions; this article focuses on
the first. The PATT headquarters developed training that
transformed a Ukrainian airborne battalion staff from
an antiquated and centralized Soviet command style to
a contemporary mission-command focus. In contrast
to the Soviet command style, using mission command
would help optimize warfighting function integration and
staff functional capability. The PATT’s leaders understood
that a traditional training approach would not accomplish the desired transformation. Therefore, the PATT
used Army design methodology to develop problem-solving and instructional approaches that would incorporate
action learning and andragogy.
Framing the
Operational Environment
The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 resulted in Ukraine possessing the fourth largest army in the
world and a nuclear capability. Within twenty years,
November-December 2016 MILITARY REVIEW