Factors Enhancing the Performance of Future Infantry Men

Experiences gained from the recent wars and their impacts on the political, military and economic independence of states and structure and organization of future wars in terms of technology necessitate making tactical measures and exercise appropriate policies, strategies and approaches. In order to succeed in such wars, among effective measures one may refer to planning for human force, particularly for the ground forces engaged in the battlefield. In line with this necessity, this study was an attempt to cast a light on those factors enhancing the performance of future infantry men and to explore their moral and physical characteristics as well as their weapons, equipment and training issues for a full-fledged defense. As an applied research in terms of purpose and run as a field and correlation study, this study was conducted following a related literature review, interview with authorities and encouraging a sample of commanders, experts and staff members from the general staff for the Iranian Armed Forces, General Staff for the Army and that of the Ground Force to fill out a likert scale-based questionnaire. The data were exposed to exploratory factor analysis and Friedman ranking test in a bid to test the respective hypothesis. The findings revealed that, in addition to the moral and physical characteristics, weaponry, equipment and training, and other parameters like equipment, internally empowering factors and basic trainings were identified as the performance enhancing factors, respectively.