Based upon guidance from the Chief of Staff of the Army (CSA) and feedback from all Combat Training Center (CTC) Commanders, the TRADOC G-2 was tasked in September 2010 to develop a document to support full spectrum operations (FSO) training environments across all CTCs. The purpose of the FSTE is to provide one document from which to develop exercises and training events. The FSTE is not a scenario. It presents a detailed discussion of all the conditions and characteristics necessary for trainers to build an FSO training environment to include all supporting scenarios.

The FSTE is an unclassified document that defines the conditions of the operational environment (OE) used to build training scenarios and exercises. In this case, the OE consists of four fictional countries (Ariana, Atropia, Gorgas, and Minaria). The FSTE provides a detailed description of the OE across all four countries, and presents an Events list linked to Blue METL. The document also provides and a presentation of TC 7-100compliant orders of battle for the region