Expanding jointness at the Joint Readiness Training Center

Military Review, Jan-Feb, 2005 by Mick Bednarek, Thomas P. Odom, Stephen Florich

THE 2004 JOINT Readiness Training Center's (JRTC's) Operations Group vision statement reads: "Create an organization that shapes the future battlespace within realistic, demanding scenarios that capture the 'fog and friction' of the [contemporary operational environment (COE) and the joint operational environment (JOE)]. Our team will act as the engine of change to drive our future leaders-joint leaders--to think from the 'tactical fight' through the operational level of warfare. Our observer controllers [OCs] will possess a joint and expeditionary 'mindset' that reflects a greater level of flexibility, joint doctrinal understanding, and versatility with a vision that a joint solution to a tactical problem or mission will be better than a single service solution. Collectively, we will continue to coach, teach, and mentor future leaders to achieve an effects-based approach to synchronizing and integrating combat capabilities that includes systems visualization and connectivity with our joint partners as well as current and future coalition and multinational partners. We will achieve this by developing future joint training scenarios built around an adaptive, credible, and complex opposing force [OPFOR] that creates the chaotic, ambiguous, and demanding environments associated with today's battlefield. Our cornerstone assessment tool--our after-action review [AAR] process--remains our bedrock." (1)

The JRTC promulgated this vision statement to guide combat training centers (CTCs) as they train U.S. soldiers for current and future conflicts. In addressing the Operations Group, we key on the joint leaders needed to protect the Nation.

As the U.S. Army's premier training center for infantry and special operations forces (SOF), the JRTC reinforces joint and sister-service training opportunities in a COE-like setting. Indeed, ground combat commanders in Afghanistan and Iraq repeatedly emphasize that CTCs offer the most accurate portrayal of today's battlefield, an accuracy not always appreciated by those struggling with a demanding, arduous rotation at one of the CTCs. Even as U.S. forces contend with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) abroad, they do so, at least in part, with knowledge gained on recent rotations at a CTC where IEDs, terrorism, insurgency, convoy ambushes, and urban combat are the norm.

In looking to the furore and seeking to expand joint tactical and operational capabilities, the JRTC Operations Group will continue to build on that historically embedded experience. By incorporating service and joint lessons learned from the ever-evolving training environment at maneuver CTCs, joint forces and joint leaders will become more proficient. The most effective tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) gleaned from combat operations will continue to be included in the training of U.S. military formations.

Where We are Today

The statement, "The United States is a Nation at War," is a primer for U.S. Armed Forces, a directive to all, and a challenge for future forces. People remain the centerpiece of successful joint operations, and leaders are the focus of successful training for those operations. Although capabilities associated with the tools of warfare will change, the dynamics of human interactions instilled through innovative leadership will remain the driving force in all the U.S. military does.

Fundamental to the full exploitation of improved capabilities is the capacity of soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, and Department of Defense (DOD) civilians to learn and adapt to new missions and requirements. Tactical- through operational-level planners and ground force commanders must meet these demands, bear the hardships of combat, and work diligently to synchronize service and coalition efforts. Conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan underscore this reality. The fog and friction of war randomly affect military operations and decisionmaking at all levels. Our Army's combat training centers are first and foremost leader-development centers; how operations groups shape the future battlespace within realistic, demanding scenarios to capture this fog and friction will be its legacy.

The strategic setting as expressed in the current U.S. National Military Strategy uses several tenets to provide a general azimuth in thinking differently toward broad-based scenario development in the context of future warfare and stability operations and support operations (SOSO) for joint forces. (2) The tenets are--

* Manage risks.

* Use a capabilities-based approach.

* Defend the United States and project U.S. military power.

* Strengthen alliances and partnerships.

* Maintain favorable regional balances.

* Develop a broad portfolio of military capabilities.

In short, military strategy applies a set of overarching principles--agility, decisiveness, and integration--to guide future commanders in achieving their supporting objectives. For the majority of battalion task force and brigade and regimental combat team commanders who rotate through Army CTCs, adhering to these principles is often an afterthought. As strategic parameters, they are certainly distant from tactical commanders' collective consciousness. In the operational linkages between strategy and tactics, joint training promises--and must deliver--enhanced U.S. military power.