S3 Department - Standard Operating Procedures

This is the Document Release Information
Article Number:	7CAV-DR-03
Scope:	S3 Department - Regulations and Procedures
Version:	Version 1.0
Effective Date:	25MAR20
Last Modified Date:	DDMMMYYYY
Approving Authority:	MAJ.Tharen.R
Point of Contact:	CPT.Waldie.A

S3 Operations - Standard Operating Procedures

Each S3 Operations sub-department is responsible for the following SOP's:

Operations Staff Minimum Requirements

• Each game's Operations sub-department is responsible for conducting at least 2 operations per month as the minimum department requirement
• Operations Staff members must at minimum hold the rank of Private First Class (E-3) or above and must have no negative action pending or active. It is strongly advised to require members to have attended 5 official S3 operations within their area of operation before being accepted into the department.
• Operations Staff members are required to run at least one operation per two months (60 days) unless otherwise instructed by their Operations Lead. Operations Staff who fail to meet the minimum requirement will receive a VCS. Subsequent failures to meet the minimum requirement will result in removal from the department.

Operation Creation & Life Cycle

• The person responsible for creating and running any operation is considered the Mission Controller
• Each game/S3 Operation sub-department is responsible for their own mission creation and submission SOP's as established by the game's Operations Lead, S3 Battlestaff Lead, and S3 Command Staff
• ALL operations must be reviewed and approved by the game's Operations Lead before posting to ensure proper quality and all S3 SOP's have been followed
• All public and internal operations need to be hosted on an official 7Cav server to be official. Operations with other groups/units need to follow additional S5 Department SOP.

Operation Life Cycle

1. Create the operation or operation concept
2. Create the initial info required for an OPORD or some other format for use in planning by OIC's to conduct the operation
3. Name the operation
4. Per S1 and S3 Command Staff, ALL campaign and operation names must be unique and may not be repeated due to tracking purposes
   1. For weekly/repeatable operations, they should be titled: Campaign Month Op Name Year, Operation Name #
   2. Example: Campaign March Warfare Wednesday 2020, Operation Warfare Wednesday #36
5. Submit it to your Operations Lead for approval
6. Once approved, work with your Operations Lead to schedule the op
7. Post it using the S3 Events tool
8. Run the mission as the Mission Controller on the day of the op
9. Before the op, assist the mission's OIC to provide a briefing in the appropriate briefing channel to element leads and be able to answer any mission specific questions
10. At the op's conclusion call "Endex", and alert everyone to conduct an AAR (After Action Report) in-game at the squad level or lower
11. Directly after, assist the designated operation OIC to conduct an out-of-game Leader's Debrief in TeamSpeak with all element leads in the appropriate debriefing channel
12. Any major issues should be passed up the S3 CoC as necessary
13. The op's designated OIC needs to post the official AAR immediately, and update the AAR within 48 hours
14. The OIC will post medal recommendations no later than a week after the operation has concluded
15. After the op is run, the Mission Controller is responsible to un-stick the operation posting in the operation posting forum

Operation Scheduling

1. Operations must be posted at least 1 week (7 days) prior to the run date to allow troopers reasonable time to sign up
2. ALL operations must be added as events to the S3 Ops & Training Calendar as operations are scheduled
3. Further guidance on operation scheduling can be determined by S3 Command Staff and Battalion Staff as required

Operation OIC's

• An operation's Officer-In-Charge (OIC) for an official operation is the person acting in overall command of 7Cav in-game forces, regardless of rank or billet. While actual officers or senior NCO billets would be preferred and receive priority for those roles in operations, rank or primary leadership billet are not a requirement to be an OIC. The highest ranked individual on scene is not the OIC of the operation by default.
• OIC's and Mission Controller's are intended and encouraged to be different roles fulfilled by different people, however, they can sometimes overlap to be the same person. While this is not encouraged, it is allowed, because it is sometimes unavoidable in games such as Squad, PS, and HLL. For Arma 3, the OIC and *Mission Controller should almost never be the same person.
• Guidance for attendance at operations can be found here. This is the OIC's responsibility to enforce, but a Mission Controller should be knowledgeable about our attendance policy and guide the OIC as required.

Operation AAR's

It is the operation's designated OIC's responsibility to post an AAR immediately after the mission, so while it is not the Mission Controller's responsibility, the Mission Controller should still be knowledgeable of the process and guide the OIC as required All AAR guidance can be found at After Action Report (AAR) SOP or as determined by S3 Command Staff

Exceptions

Exceptions to all of the above may be made at the discretion of the S3 Command Staff.

S3 Training - Standard Operating Procedures

Each Training School is responsible for the following SOP's:

Course Scheduling

• Unless otherwise approved by the S3 Training Lead and/or S3 Command Staff, each course is run at least once monthly at a time that works for both NA and EU timezones. If this isn't possible, a second running of the course should be done to ensure that at least once per month each course is run for each continent. *More advanced courses can be run less frequently on an approved basis as demand requires.
• Courses must be posted at least 1 week (7 days) prior to the run date to allow troopers reasonable time to sign up
• ALL courses must be added as events to the S3 Ops & Training Calendar as courses are scheduled
• Use the https://7cav.us/s3events tool to schedule a class and follow these instructions
• After a class is run, the Lead Instructor is responsible to un-stick the class announcement post

Course Development & Updates

• New Courses:
  • New courses require a proposal form to be sent to the School Lead and then must be sent up the S3 CoC for approval
    • S3 New Course Proposal Form
  • After approval is granted by S3 Command Staff, the proposal should then be distributed to the company staff of the affected company of the proposed class for review and approval
  • After approval is granted by Company Staff, the lesson plan and field manual drafts must be developed and once ready, sent up the S3 CoC for review and approval
  • After approval is granted by S3 Command Staff, a demo course must be run and observed by the School Lead plus the S3 Training Lead or a member of S3 Command Staff in order to receive final approval for the school to consistently run the class
    • Demo classes can be run as the first class that includes a normal class posting and regular student participation that counts for class credit
    • The intention is that the course developers/instructors, School Lead, plus the S3 Training Lead or a member of S3 Command Staff can do a final audit together of the demo course and make any final LP or map adjustments as necessary
• Updates to existing courses:
  • If existing courses require an update, updates need to be handled on a case by case basis. The intention is that minor lesson plan or map updates can be approved by School Leads. Larger lesson plan content changes/overhauls should go all the way up the S3 CoC for review and approval.
• School Leads must ensure Lesson Plans, Manuals, and maps (if applicable) are kept up-to-date and the most current versions are available in each School's respective Google Drive folders.

Tracking

• All classes and instructor accountability data should be tracked and the information provided on all S3 Graduation posts recorded on the S3 Master Tracker and each school's own individual tracker, which is maintained by the appropriate School Lead, Training Lead, S3 Command Staff, or its designates
• Ensure the Lead Instructor forum post on each School's respective forum is kept updated as instructors become lead qualified for each class so each School can track who is qualified to lead instruct/teach which class

Instructor Minimum Requirements

• Instructors in any course should have the course qualification prior to attending as an assistant instructor. For new courses, the course developers will run the course for the first few runs.
• Instructors must hold the rank of Private First Class (E-3) or above and must have no negative action pending or active
• Instructors are required to assist or lead instruct a course at least once monthly. Instructors who fail to meet this minimum requirement will receive a VCS. Subsequent failures to meet the minimum requirement will result in removal from the department.
• Previous Instructors that were out of the S3 Department longer then 6 months have to do a refresher on all courses the school offers in the form of one assist before they can teach courses on their own

Lead Instructor Requirements

Lead Instructors must go through the following process:

1. Attended the course first as a student
2. Attend 1 run-through of the course as an assistant
3. Lead instruct the course at least once under the supervision of a qualified lead instructor for that specific course

Staff taking ELOA

When an instructor goes on ELOA, they are automatically removed from the department. When they return, if you want them back in your school, you must make a new position announcement post.

Surveys

For all courses that are run, a survey will be sent to the participants at the end of the class. Use the appropriate game AO survey located here: S3 Training Survey.

Exceptions

Exceptions to all of the above may be made at the discretion of S3 Command Staff