Evaluating joint operations in staff exercises: A novel method for assessing training objective fulfilment in Swedish-Finnish command-post-exercises

Sweden and Finland have a long history of cooperation in military training, pooling resources to educate officers for NATO crisis response and United Nations (UN) peace operations. Key exercises like the Combat Joint Staff Exercise (CJSE) and VIKING (VK) are essential for training officers to handle complex conflict environments. Despite their success, the current evaluation framework for these exercises lacks specificity and reliability, leading to general and insufficiently detailed assessments. This article reviews the existing evaluation methods used in CJSE and VIKING, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. It identifies issues, such as unclear objectives and insufficient criteria, which result in gaps and overlaps in evaluator reports. To address these problems, this article proposes a new evaluation framework based on Kirkpatrick’s criteria, incorporating specific, measurable, assignable, realistic and time-related (SMART) training objectives (TOs) subdivided into specific training objectives (STOs) and microlearning objectives (MLOs). This new approach aims to provide a more detailed and aggregable evaluation, supporting timely decision-making by exercise directors and control centres.