{"id":34192,"date":"2018-03-27T20:38:25","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T20:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/03\/27\/the-army-is-taking-a-look-at-extending-initial-training-for-infantrymen\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T16:17:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T16:17:22","slug":"the-army-is-taking-a-look-at-extending-initial-training-for-infantrymen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2018\/03\/27\/the-army-is-taking-a-look-at-extending-initial-training-for-infantrymen\/","title":{"rendered":"The Army is taking a look at extending initial training for infantrymen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama \u2014 For the past two years, the Army has been mulling the idea of extending basic training<\/a>, to better prepare new soldiers for the range of warfare they\u2019ll likely face in the future, as well as the elements of fitness and discipline that make a soldier effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the discussion around extending general initial entry training<\/a> has re-emerged, the home of infantry one-station unit training<\/a> is moving out this summer on a pilot that would extend that program from 14 to 21 weeks, the Infantry School commandant said Tuesday at the AUSA Global Force Symposium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we want ultimately is, we want any soldier who graduates from OSUT, that they can immediately go and join any formation that they need to go to, no matter what phase of the sustained readiness model they\u2019re in,\u201d Brig. Gen. Christopher Donahue told Army Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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New soldiers are generally assigned to units that have just returned from a deployment or are gearing up for a deployment, so that they can integrate into the readiness cycle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This move could put freshly graduated infantrymen into units that are prepared to fight at a moment\u2019s notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first thing we want to do, we want to make sure we\u2019re training them on all the skills we assess they need to fight against a near-peer,\u201d Donahue said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the better part of the past two decades, Army training has focused on the irregular warfare environments inherent to the Global War on Terrorism, like Iraq and Afghanistan. But as the service, as a whole, prepares for possible future conflict with armor and aviation-proficient militaries like China or Russia, training will shift again.<\/p>\n\n\n\t