DATE World - Army’s Authoritative Training Environment
by U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command
February 10, 2021

In order to defeat America’s enemies, the U.S. Army must have a way to train against them. Since the Army cannot train against the real thing, enemies must be simulated. Enter the Decisive Action Training Environment World, otherwise known as DATE World, a simulated web-based environment created and just released by U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command’s Intelligence Directorate (G-2).

DATE World, which is the result of nearly a decade of work, was created to help anticipate and train the Army for the challenges of today and tomorrow; ensuring our forces remain as lethal and resilient as possible to prevail in all domains. The simulation ensures the Army is training in the most rigorous, adversary-informed conditions as possible.

“DATE World has been informed by user feedback to create an environment replete with competitors capable of challenging all U.S. Army tasks and conditions,” stated Jennifer Dunn, Branch Chief of the TRADOC Operational Environment Integration Directorate. “[The simulation] enables large scale ground combat operations and allows for users to train for competition, conflict, crisis, and change.”

DATE World is comprised of four geographically unique regions across the globe: the Pacific, Europe, Caucasus, and Africa. The operational environments are representative of real-world conditions present in that region, with a complete force structure, along with a list of weapons and equipment available.

In an effort to enhance integration and coordination with DATE World users, TRADOC’s G-2 also hosted its first annual DATE Users Conference, which was held Jan. 12-14. This virtual conference included eight separate working groups designed to give participants a chance to provide input and help build the foundation for future collaboration.

“We wanted to give our broad community of interest a voice in the DATE World development,” Dunn said. “This training environment is for them, so we wanted to create a platform where users could tell us what they need and want, and where they could talk to their colleagues and learn best practices.”

In the future, Dunn said the directorate is planning smaller, more frequent events with the community to continue to encourage DATE development priorities, as well as promote further networking connections outside of the conference.

To continue providing Army trainers a relevant training environment, TRADOC plans to keep developing and refining DATE World content in conjunction with our Australian, Canadian, United Kingdom and New Zealand allies. It will also continue to develop and refine digital tools and user aids for training across live, virtual, constructive, and gaming uses, such as incorporating a DATE Geographical Information System for mapping and visualization support.

More information on DATE World

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