Publisher's Synopsis
FM 6-99.2, "US Army Report and Message Formats," is the Army's keystone manual for standardized report and message formats. It provides a standard, readily available reference from which soldiers as well as automation designers can extract report and message templates. FM 6-99.2 is a compendium of formats commonly used by tactical units from small unit to corps and forms the baseline for reporting and communicating as command, control, and communications technology evolves. It allows a common, authoritative understanding of reporting and communicating to exist among all US Army elements. It also relates to, supports, and drives command, control, and communications doctrine and US Army interaction with the joint and multinational communications communities. FM 6-99.2 facilitates the tailoring and task organization of US Army elements through standardization of the command, control, and communications formats units use to communicate internally. The voice-message templates contained in FM 6-99.2 provide the bridge between technologically advanced units and those not yet modernized. This is significant because, while our modernized units are among the most capable, nonmodernized units currently comprise the majority of the US Army's active component, all of the reserve components, and the majority of our potential allies. The US Army will continue to modernize all units, but the requirement to communicate expeditiously and succinctly via voice will remain. Potential attacks on our command, control, and communications networks, equipment damage, incompatible communications systems, and equipment failures are other consequences that may require the use of voice message formats, even for modernized units. As the US Army's doctrinal library for report and message voice templates, FM 6-99.2 is intended to prevent units from wasting time and resources designing command and control formats. Units at different locations and echelons can develop similar SOPs for report and message formats (voice and digital) that facilitate command, control, communications, computer, and intelligence (C4I) exchanges. The FM 6-99.2 formats are derived from existing Army Battle Command System (ABCS), United States Message Text Formats (USMTF), Allied Procedures Publication- 9 (APP-9) formats, as well as numerous unit SOPs. These sources, especially the formats from existing unit SOPs, have been collected, discussed, and chosen as the most user friendly, functional, and adaptable. As a user's manual, FM 6-99.2 will drive the formatting of future ABCS report and messages, US Army input to the development of APP-9, and the USMTF message formats. Formats contained in FM 6-99.2 are the mechanism through which the US Army seeks to adapt these joint and multinational formats into a user-friendly and standardized land component message format library. Parallel formats for ABCS, APP-9 and USMTF will enable US Army units to operate in joint and multinational command structures without reconfiguring their normal mode of operation. All future digitization formats for the US Army will be based on these voice message templates.
