RSLC, MFRCs, and Modernizing Recon

By CPT Patrick Fullam

June 30, 2026 | Infantry, Summer 2026 Edition

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Students in the Reconnaissance and Surveillance Leaders Course conduct special patrol insertion/extraction system training on 18 September 2025 at Fort Benning, GA. (Photo by CPT Stephanie Snyder)

Since 1986, the Reconnaissance and Surveillance Leaders Course (RSLC), previously named the Long Range Surveillance Leaders Course (LRSLC), has trained and developed leaders from dismounted infantry elements, armored and Stryker cavalry formations, and special operations forces to face the complexities of recon missions. Over time, RSLC has remained ready to teach the next generation of leaders to strike deep and answer priority intelligence requirements (PIRs) as all kinds of recon formations have changed alongside the dynamic face of conflict. The Army recently established multi-functional reconnaissance companies (MFRCs) in mobile brigade combat teams (MBCTs) as the latest evolution in the recon world. In recent months, RSLC has worked diligently to develop MFRC doctrine and to modernize the course to best instruct these new formations.

In Fiscal Year 2026, the U.S. Army Infantry School provided MBCTs a unique opportunity by inviting them to unit-focused RSLC classes. This experiment saw great success for both the MFRCs and RSLC cadre during two recent iterations.

The participating units benefited by training with organic teams, enablers, and equipment, testing and training their own tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). While the recon team learns to integrate these enablers into their own planning and operations, the unit’s enabling assets, that wouldn’t typically attend the course, learn the critical fundamentals of reconnaissance and security to better support — and patrol with — infantry and cavalry. The more robust composition of the recon team with enablers better reflects the MFRC’s capabilities and challenges, and it allows RSLC cadre to teach MFRC leaders more advanced topics like mission support site operations, the complexities of reconnaissance sustainment, and best methods of integration into supported echelons like brigade or battalion staffs, as an expansion to the standard program of instruction (POI).

Enabled by the rapid acquisition of updated and new equipment, RSLC expanded its POI, adding integration of electronic warfare (EW) and unmanned aerial systems (UAS), updated communications architecture, and refining situational training exercises (STX)/field training exercises (FTX) scenario updates. RSLC cadre also coordinated with the operational force and combat training centers (CTCs) to help redesign relevant course content, significantly expanding POI, and to inform TTP development.

Additionally, the Aviation Center of Excellence is working closely with RSLC cadre to incorporate UAS into the reconnaissance infrastructure. This includes incorporating and teaching new subjects like tactical considerations of launch, recovery, displacement, handover, and strike, as well as detection, concealment from, and reaction to UAS threats. RSLC cadre also integrated directly with cadre from the new 15X military occupational specialty (MOS) Advanced Individual Training (AIT) to further link drone assets with maneuver forces operating far forward of the forward line of own troops (FLOT). All the while, RSLC is gradually acquiring equipment on the MFRC modified table of organization and equipment (MTOE) and new experimental technologies to better enable training and testing, and to inform future MTOE, utilization, and doctrinal recommendations.

A Soldier assigned to the Multi-Functional Reconnaissance Company, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), conducts reconnaissance during Operation Lethal Eagle 24.1 at Fort Campbell, KY, on 26 April 2024. (Photo by SGT Caleb Pautz)

Both during and in between courses, the cadre of RSLC continue turning observations from classes and conversations with the force into recommended TTPs. Over time, these TTPs develop further into recommended doctrine. RSLC coordinates directly with the Directorate of Training and Doctrine to capture and provide key input on the right lessons learned from RSLC’s training environments. In the short term, RSLC continues to provide perfect conditions for experimenting with recon formations, and RSLC leadership is working to compile data, recommendations, and lessons learned from all reconnaissance formations to better inform recommendations to the force. As we learn more, RSLC cadre are better able to experiment with equipment, technology, and techniques to advise the reconnaissance community from across the Department of War that relies on RSLC’s instruction. We encourage any and all reconnaissance units to reach out with recommendations and questions.

As the face of warfare changes, both RSLC and the MFRCs face a challenge to keep pace and answer a common question: In enabling maneuver elements of battalions, brigades, and divisions, what is the right balance for recon to conduct strikes versus answering PIR? With tight partnerships between multidomain assets, operational units, and U.S. Army Transformation and Training Command (T2COM) elements, the future of reconnaissance remains bright, and the right balance of survivability, strike, and information collection will be struck. As always, units must ensure to focus heavily on the fundamentals of reconnaissance and think of innovative ways they relate to new situations. Through all this, RSLC will always remain the standard bearer for recon, brutally enforcing the basics learned through decades of conflict and applying those timeless lessons to new formations, assets, threats, and the battlefields of the future.