Air Force, Army improve joint training

  • Published
  • By Casey Bain
  • JFIIT, USJFCOM
NATIONAL TRAINING CENTER, FT. IRWIN, Calif. (AFPN) --  Officials at the Army's National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, Calif., and the Air Force's Green Flag West at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., have been working hard to integrate service-level exercises to help improve joint training for units preparing to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan.

"We are the National Training Center, not the Army training center," said Army Brig. Gen. Dana J. H. Pittard, commanding general of the NTC. "We train here just as we fight in theater -- joint, multinational, interagency. We integrate all components of the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines."

Helping to support this joint integrated training environment is U.S. Joint Forces Command's Joint Fires Integration and Interoperability Team. "NTC and Green Flag West are integral parts of the western range complex and are great examples of how we can link traditional service-level exercises into one interdependent training event that benefits all participants and services," said Marine Corps Col. L. Ross Roberts, commander, JFIIT.

"By leveraging the tremendous capabilities of the Air Force's Green Flag Exercise, the Navy's Joint Task Force Exercise and the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twenty-nine Palms, Calif., we can provide unprecedented aviation assets, that when combined with the maneuver forces at NTC, demonstrate our ability to create an air power and ground-dominant battlespace that truly facilitates world-class joint training," Colonel Roberts said.
 
NTC has been looking for innovative ways to link other service training exercises with Army brigade combat team training rotations. 

"We understand when we come together as a team and focus on multiple training requirements, we can help each other accomplish most service-level training objectives," said Army Lt. Col. Charles Evans, deputy commander, Operations Group, NTC.

"There's no better way to learn how to work together than to work together, and NTC provides the services with a realistic and rigorous venue to train and hone our skills to fight as a joint team. We're all in this together, and we couldn't do it without the support of the services, joint, interagency and our multinational partners,"  he said.

Much like NTC, Green Flag West realizes the importance of integrating training exercises to benefit all warfighters. 

"Green Flag is an Air Force exercise, and NTC trains Army brigade combat teams, but we both use the same battlespace," said Lt. Col. Michael Finney, commander, 12th Combat Training Squadron at NTC. "Both services realize the real value of integrating these training events to better accomplish service and joint training objectives. By carefully integrating these training exercises we create a joint interdependent training experience - we enable our Air Force tactical air control party members and air liaison officers to be trained and ultimately serve as the air power champions for our maneuver forces."

Organizations like JFIIT and others help enhance joint synchronization by helping to educate and integrate joint assets in support of the maneuver forces, said NTC leadership. "We gladly welcome all those organizations that can help us integrate and accomplish both service and joint training...we couldn't do it without them," Colonel Evans said. "We want to ensure that we train warfighters for the full spectrum of conflict -- from the irregular warfare, counterinsurgency environment to major combat operations; we're about preparing our Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors and Marines for combat."

The 12th CTS commander echoed the same sentiment. 

"Green Flag West and NTC are the final conditions check before our warfighting team deploys downrange," Colonel Finney said. "We need to ensure each leader and unit understands the capabilities and limitations that the joint team brings to the fight before they showup in theater. These well integrated and synchronized training exercises demonstrate to the entire team our remarkable joint fires capabilities and the dominant use of air power and maneuver forces when we prepare for combat in an interdependent training environment."

"We want to continue to integrate joint assets at the western range combat training centers and expand our ability to export these same capabilities at other CTCs," Colonel Roberts said. "The tactical use of airpower and maneuver forces training together at all the CTCs is crucial to our long-term success, especially as we continue to engage the irregular warfare threat that we see today in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Part of the integration process involves bringing in a variety of joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets to benefit the training of all services. 

"NTC and other venues see it as a mutually beneficial training partnership where all services gain from the opportunity to work together just like they will when we deploy in combat," Colonel Evans said.

This fusing of joint, interagency and multinational assets to enhance both service and joint training at NTC will continue for the foreseeable future, said the NTC commanding general. 

"We want to create an operational environment so we can leverage and integrate service-level training objectives to help accomplish joint training -- it complements most Army training requirements and ensures the entire team is prepared for what lies ahead," General Pittard said. 

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