View source for Outreach Mercenary Training Command

{{InfoBoxAcademicInstitute
| name = Outreach Mercenary Training Command
| image = 
| imagewidth = 200px
| caption = 
| type = Academy
| Previous Names =
| Location = [[Outreach]]
| Founded = [[3056]]<ref name=FMM-131>''Field Manual: Mercenaries'', pp. 131–133: "Rules Training"</ref>
| MilCourse01 = [[BattleMech]]
| MilCourse01Dates = 3056<ref name=FMM-131/>
| MilCourse02 = [[aerospace fighter|Aerospace]]
| MilCourse02Dates = 3056<ref name=FMM-131/>
| MilCourse03 = [[Combat Vehicle|Armor]]
| MilCourse03Dates = 3056<ref name=FMM-131/>
| MilCourse04 = [[Battle armor]]
| MilCourse04Dates = 3056<ref name=FMM-131/>
| MilCourse05 = [[Infantry]]
| MilCourse05Dates = 3056<ref name=FMM-131/>
| MilCourse06 = Spacecraft
| MilCourse06Dates = 3056<ref name=FMM-131/>
| MilCourse07 = Technician
| MilCourse07Dates = 3056<ref name=FMM-131/>
| MilCourse09 = Specialist
| MilCourse09Dates = 3056<ref name=FMM-131/>
}}

One of the few opportunities for high-quality non–[[Successor State]] military training in the [[Inner Sphere]], the [[Wolf's Dragoons]]-run '''Outreach Mercenary Training Command''' (OMTC) produces some of the most respected and feared graduates outside of the [[Clans]].<ref name=FMM-131/><ref name=FMM-15>''Field Manual: Mercenaries'', p. 15: "Outreach - Training - OMTC Classes"</ref><ref name=FMMR-13>''Field Manual: Mercenaries, Revised'', p. 13: "The Mercenary's Atlas - Outreach: The Mercenary System - Mercenary Training on Outreach"</ref><ref name=CBTC-77>''Classic BattleTech Companion'', pp. 77–78: "Character Creation - Stage 3: Higher Education - Outreach Mercenary Training Command"</ref>

==History==
While most mercenaries are veterans of state-run military programs, a large body of warriors throughout the [[Inner Sphere]] and [[Periphery]] lack the type of training received from these prestigious and often very exclusive academies. Though non-state academies such as the [[Hero Training Institute]] and the [[Warner MechWarrior Academy]] exist, they are distinctly second rate at best. Recognizing the demand for quality formalized military training for these warriors, as well as providing advanced courses for those who graduated from state-run academies who wanted to enhance their training after becoming mercenaries, Wolf's Dragoons set up the Outreach Mercenary Training Command in coordination with the [[University of Outreach]] on their landhold.<ref name=FMM-15/><ref name=FMMR-13/>

The Outreach Mercenary Training Command main offices were located in the mammoth Hiring Hall in Harlech, making extensive use of its simulators, where Dragoon instructors taught [[BattleMech]], [[aerospace fighter]], [[combat vehicle]], and even [[battle armor]] classes. Additional classrooms are located at the University of Outreach campus on the shoreline of Lake Kearny, with the open proving grounds south and east of Harlech used for field and live-fire exercises. Basic Outreach Mercenary Training Command course fees start at 500 [[C-bill]]s per course level, increasing drastically depending on volume of simulator time or live-fire exercises needed for the class. All students must pay their course fees in advance, and unlike state based academies students are under no obligation to Wolf's Dragoons - though the Dragoons have extended job offers to particularly promising OMTC graduates.<ref name=FMM-15/><ref name=FMMR-13/>

==Training==
The Outreach Mercenary Training Command classes are open to anybody who can pay its fees, though some classes also have prerequisite courses that must be passed first, though these can be waived if applicants demonstrate the required skills in OMTC-offered tests. OMTC registered students receive preference for access to its courses, followed by OMTC graduates seeking refresher or advanced training, non-OMTC mercenaries and finally soldiers from regular Inner Sphere militaries.<ref name=FMM-15/><ref name=FMMR-13/>

OMTC offers basic "100-grade" classes in more standard academic fields as math, reading and writing at all times, while its "200-grade" offerings replicate the Inner Sphere standard basic training courses in MedTech, Small Arms Use, Survival Training and Unarmed Combat. The OMTC's "300-grade" courses are the equivalent of most Inner Sphere academy Advanced Individual Training programs which support any Military Occupational Specialty. The Outreach Mercenary Training Command's "400-grade" advance military training courses provide some of the most advanced military training courses in the Inner Sphere, specializing in interstellar strategy and advanced battlefield tactics with full simulator and battlefield training ranging from [[company]]-sized units to a full [[regiment]]. One of the OMTC's most notable "400-grade" courses was Tactics & Grand Strategy 404 which was taught by [[Jaime Wolf]] himself, the prerequisites for the course extremely demanding with no mercenary with less than ten years in the field being accepted and regularly includes [[major]]s, [[colonel]]s and [[general]]s from the Successor State militaries.<ref name=FMM-15/><ref name=FMMR-13/>

===MechWarrior Program===
Reflecting the heavy-BattleMech bias of most Inner Sphere mercenary units, the Outreach Mercenary Training Command's largest and most developed training program is its [[MechWarrior (pilot)|MechWarrior]] course, offering both general and officer training.<ref name=FMM-131/>

===Aerospace Program===
The OMTC featured training facilities to support aerospace fighter, [[DropShip]], and JumpShip training. While not a full training course, especially talented DropShip and JumpShip pilots could receive training against and aboard the Dragoons' own small fleet of [[WarShip]]s.<ref name=FMM-131/>

===Battle Armor Program===
The OTMC was one of the first Inner Sphere military academies to offer a battle armor program, which thanks to the Dragoons' Clan origins has among the most developed training.<ref name=FMM-131/>

===Infantry Program===
The OMTC non–battle armor infantry program is more specialist than those of Great House academies, the OTMC is simply not set up to handle hundreds and thousands of students, so it focused instead on recon, demolition and artillery specialists - the kind of soldier who either works alone or in small groups.<ref name=FMM-131/>

===Technician===
Arguably OMTC's most-selective and sought-after training program however was also one of its noncombat courses, the academy's Technical Program. Many mercenary units, and not to mention every Successor State military, want Dragoon-trained techs for their in-depth knowledge of Clan equipment.<ref name=FMM-131/>

==References==
<references />

==Bibliography==
* ''[[Classic BattleTech Companion]]''
* ''[[Field Manual: Mercenaries]]''
* ''[[Field Manual: Mercenaries, Revised]]''


[[Category:Military Academies]]