Introduction

Drowning is the third highest cause of death in the world with approximately 50% of all occurrences recorded in the Pacific region. [1] With Army’s pivot, current in-Service water-based training and evaluation is no longer fit for purpose as it does not meet the challenges for the conduct of operations within an environment where drowning is a forever conceivable threat. For Army to contribute proportionately to littoral warfare, there needs to be a greater emphasis on swimming, water-based survival, and cognitive skills. To meet these needs Army must adapt the way it trains, recruits, and develops water-based training for the force. A collective approach in each of the three following domains encapsulated within the sphere of Human Performance – physical, physiological, and psychological – is required. Each of these factors must be appropriately linked to identifying shortfalls at the beginning of soldiers’ careers to ensure the appropriate upskill or to stream soldiers for littoral warfare. 

Survivability and lethality are the cornerstones of all variants of military operations, especially the littoral environment. Changes in environmental conditions coupled with the stresses of combat – most notably the transitions between the shoreline during embarkation and potential exfil – present the greatest unknown. Whilst layered strategic lines of attack enable the supported approach, advancements, and withdrawals – within the water exists a grey area, an unknown state where risk exists (aiding potential advisories); navigation highly dependent on human performance metrics rather than technical or tactical prowess within capability.[2]

Drowning – A military or a national problem? 

The case can be built that drownings continue to occur in both the military and civilian population as the nation does not train or treat water with the respect and dedication as a hostile environment.[3] Drowning is not just predicated to water of great depth, with military examples over the last 110 years showing that through stress and combat factors soldiers can drown in water they otherwise would easily navigate. This is even more pronounced in the civilian population with the risks around waterways ever present. Numbers of drowning deaths associated with the influences of alcohol are also prevalent with tangible parallels drawn through combat inoculation and inebriation from alcohol. This is not limited to a loss of reaction time, attention, and vigilance.[4][5]

Adaptation is dependent on the cultural and lifestyle (existential) shift towards swimming and within the aquatic environment. With the key realisation that swimming abilities alone are not a sufficient determination of one’s ability to resist drowning, rather just a contributing factor.[6] Critical thinking and psychological reasoning are required to work through duress in the changing climatic environment, differentiated from the average recreational setting. When operating as a team, the ability to respond to members engaged through threats on multiple fronts requires enhanced lifesaving and combative skillsets to support and intervene within a life-or-death situation. Adaptation will come when training becomes based on cognitive decision-making under duress combined with real time survival competencies, to deal with the indiscriminate nature of the changing environmental conditions. 

Army’s, and indeed the nation’s, enduring success is dependent on a complete reform of training and mindset around interoperability and lifestyles associated within the aquatic environment. Proposed inference is focussed not simply just reform but coupling and transforming skillsets relevant to Australia as both a military and a diverse civilian population. Success must be enduring and long-lasting rather than short-sighted and focused on long-term strategy, rather than traditional quick fixes. This requires a commitment from Government through curriculum, beginning with childhood education, to enable critical thinking through amphibious skillsets to be nurtured over a lifetime starting at adolescents. 

Historic examples within Littoral Warfare

History has shown that the sea is unforgiving; both in warfare and domestic recreation, with viscosity and depth almost irrelevant in crisis.[7] Evidence shows that vigilance, logical reasoning, and memory become impaired even in the most elite trained soldiers.[8] Previous military campaigns, such as landings on the Gallipoli Peninsula, soldiers drowned under the weight of their gear, which could be attributed to numerous factors[9] including a lack of critical thinking and training to stay calm and work their way through the situation.[10] This occurred at a time when equipment soldiers carried was minimal and the weight undemanding in comparison to that of the combat ensemble required for the rigours of modern warfare. 

During D-Day, a majority of armoured vehicles failed to make it to land; (just two out of 29) whilst undoubtedly influenced by engagement from the enemy, much has been attributed to the influences of the surf, multiplying efforts of the enemy.[11] Earlier this year, the perils that combatants face around water were highlighted when two US Navy SEALs drowned whilst on operations; the first due to falling into the water and second due to attempts to save the first.[12] Other recent events have seen US troops drown in armoured vehicles during amphibious training activities,[13] which should act as reminder that this is a real threat and needs all soldiers to develop the skills to overcome, requiring understanding of oneself and accountability to the evolving environment. 

Current strategic environment

The DSR highlights that people are Army's capability,[14] and for them to be of effect they require the skillsets within lethality and survivability to provide most effect. Improved cognitive decision-making within the physical environment (whilst under duress) is imperative for soldiers to maintain the edge over adversaries, not just physically but also within the surrounding environment. 

Combat is never static and for success to be achieved training must induce high levels of integration across the entire suite of combat behaviours to respond to the adaptive environment, appropriately and proportionately. Wave velocity, height, longshore drift, water visibility and viscosity are just some of the factors that must be considered when developing and traversing the problem that currently resides as a deficiency. Whilst this issue would not be unique to any nation’s military, Australia is surrounded by ocean and the current strategic outlook focusses on the South Pacific. As such, a forthright solution is needed for an evolving domestic problem. 

Solution 

Within Army, existing survivability skillsets and assessment metrics are not aimed towards the risks of littoral warfare. However, this is not to suggest that there aren’t appropriate experts within the services, rather we have failed to appropriately leverage from SMEs for training development and risk mitigations. In this instance, Surf Life Saving Australia should be engaged for collaboration, with many of the training and needed skillsets being held within, utilising the accredited national body, supporting ADF leaders in Human Performance psychologists and Physical Training Instructors. Focusing on prevention rather than compliance or intervention will allow collaborative training to bring together civilian expertise matched with an integration of critical thinking to illicit from our people the proportionate responses of both measurable and intangible inputs found within warfare.

Ensuring all soldiers that may have any foreseeable interactions within the littoral space become exponents and regular practitioners of basic aquatic lifesaving capabilities must be the first step. Successive steps would ensure all such personnel undergo training as exponents of both basic free diving and surf apnoea skillsets with a commitment to regular retraining and skills maintenance. Whilst undoubtedly there will be arguments against this, including the burden that would be placed on current recruitment and retention, this is why a layered strategic approach is needed, and a national policy towards aquatic education and skillset developments. There is a balance between unnecessary training and risk and the necessities of controlled exposure for combat prevention as part of a greater risk mitigation strategy.[15] This is not an advocacy of activities such as hypoxia. There is a need for the controlled physiological practices from modern methodologies of breath control and regulation, rather than the traditional hypoxia that has previously been associated within the field. This is different from the current methods of Helicopter Underwater Escape Training, which is predictable and controlled. However, that does not preclude the positive influences and opportunities such training provides for cognitive and psychological development. 

TCCC training teaches soldiers to win the fight first, however within the water, the fight is on two fronts. The conditions and real-time threat from both enemy and environment, both pose significant threats to life if not navigated (and trained to counter) accordingly. For this threat to be mitigated, it requires chronological thinking and well-trained and exercised immediate actions to proportionately respond. Otherwise, it becomes cognitively unattainable, which is why even some of the best and most experienced surf lifesavers have lost their lives. 

The water is the enemy’s force multiplier and requires proportionate response and greater consideration. As exemplified, it has the potential to take more than the individual from the fight. This requires the same pressure in training and planning considerations in COA development as the adversary itself, given the catastrophic worst-case scenarios that have recently ensued. 

Conclusion

Whilst the implementations outlined are intended to invoke thought and discussion about individual capacities in the water, as both an individual (combatant) and first responder, the intention is to support littoral warfare moving forward. This will enable trained soldiers to prepare and execute decisions under less duress and improve critical thinking better preparing soldiers for both the human and the environmental adversities of the battlefield. With greater physical and physiological performance, enhanced through performance psychology, the Army can generate greater self-regulation through a performance mindset. Increased water-based cognitive skills will inevitably cause a transference of survivability into lethality generated through cognitive inference.

End Notes