... no. I can see a place for it in certain environments, but not general purpose. one does not simply arrive on the scene and train and deploy an army in a month or in a year. and one does not simply provide plans to manufacture the equipment and deploy the necessary equipment in a year or five. a primitive army maybe, but even the greeks and romans trained their men extensively before sending them out.
Funny, but many rebel armies have done just that in history.
The basics for training a soldier can be taught in 2-3 months. Basics. Just enough to be combat capable. (source: multiple papers by US Army TraDoc, including lists of initial entry training.)
The basics of training an NCO are a couple months. It's best if they are also experienced soldiers already, but that's not absolutely essential (See Russian Army training protocols.)
Senior NCO's are best drawn from experienced NCO's, but again, that's not a vital necessity - when building from scratch, take the best NCO trainees, appoint them and have cadre teach them the additional rules. Or, like the russians, train them separately from the NCO's. Praporshiki are technically comparable to US warrant officers, not US SNCO's, in terms of their privileges, training, and customs & courtesies, but comparable to US SNCO's & UK warrants in duties.
Officers are trainable in a year or less as well. The best officers are well educated and have enlisted service as well. (TraDoc, and the UK equivalent, both have said this repeatedly. So has the GRU and KGB...)
All the first and second world nations militaries have service academies and most have provisions for college officer training - either as part of college, or as an under 1 year post-baccalaureate training (especially for former enlisted). Likewise, most have provisions for officer conversion for serving enlisted.
There are 6 nearly universal roles in the military leadership. Only generals and specialists can't be readily trained in under a year.
There are...
- NCOs - the guys who directly lead the troops
- Senior NCOs - Guys who provide direct supervision of NCO's and administrative support to the officers.
- Company Grade Officers - Direct tactical supervision
- Specialist Officers - professional skills in specific fields.
- Field Grade Officers - Supertactical supervision, operational supervision
- General Grade Officers - strategic and operational supervision, and interface with civil government
Specialist officers usually have specialized training in an academic setting.
The first specialist officers treated as such and comissioned without prior service were...
- Surgeons
- Chaplains
- Naval Pilots
- Naval Navigators
- Paymasters
- Civil Engineers
When the US and UK created the legal officer roles, they were added. Now, there are more kinds of specialist officer. Commonly...
- Aircraft Pilots
- Legal Officers
- Nurses
- Veterinarians
- Environmental Sciences officers
- Intelligence Analysis officers
- Public Affairs Officers
- Supply Officers
There is one specialist officer type who needs special mention: Political Officers. They are a 7th role... their job is to prevent the company, field and general grade officers from doing things the state doesn't agree with. To maintain doctrinal purity to (usually) one party states. (In certain theocracies, the chaplains are the political officers, but that's none of the 1st/2nd world nations to my knowledge.)
The training of field grade officers need not include the same tactical knowledge of the company grade, provided it includes the needed operational knowledge and a training to actually let the trained tactical officers do the job.
It's been done frequently. It's been done by radical political groups, by 3rd world nations, and by US and UK special training programs troops repeatedly in nation building.
Further, no group of humans living above subsistence levels lacks a military tradition, and almost all (even third world) have those same 6 categories of leadership, so there is almost no "training from scratch"... you almost always find some experienced individuals in any cause raising an army.
The Russian Revolution is one such case. The Red Army retrained NCO's to officers in short order. Not great officers, but competent enough. And, by 1938, the Russian Red Army was functionally returning to the same system as the Russian Imperial Army.
Note that the titles don't always line up with the roles.
- US Warrant Officers are officers. They do specialist officer jobs.
- UK Warrant Officers are Senior NCOs. They do SNCO and some Specialist Officer jobs.
- Russian Praporshiki are Senior NCO's with Officer uniforms, but can be (and sometimes are) placed in company grade officer postings. Some are recruited in 1st (conscript) tour; others are recruited in 2nd or 3rd (volunteer) tours.
- Russian Efreytori (Corporals) are essentially not NCO's in role - they are, in practice, still NCO trainees, who wind up functioning as NCO's when promoted to Mladshii Sargenti; they are selected from top initial trainees, and top initial reenlistees. After a year or two as Efreytori, they are eligible for promotion to mladshii sargenti. Despite an name that translates as "Corporal", they are really equivalent to senior privates.
H page 51, O4 is a Major (Marine Force Commander), so hinting he commands a Force (probably Task Force), while this equivalent O4 in the Army (Major) uses to command a battalion.
