Expanding jointness at the Joint Readiness Training Center

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

A single facility is not conducive to diversity. To train all services at one center requires a land area large enough for maneuver; sufficient air space for joint close air support (CAS), attack aviation, and unmanned aerial vehicles; a littoral environment permitting live fire; and a blue-water area for naval resources. But even such a superb single range would not replicate the extremely dispersed global environment in which U.S. forces currently fight. That lack of fidelity would negatively affect training.

The road to JNTC's full operating capability begins with deconflicting service capabilities, stitching together (vetting) those capabilities, allowing the services to integrate those capabilities, and producing full-spectrum, capabilities-based joint forces. We have already tested the road in Afghanistan where more integration increased capabilities exponentially rather than linearly. There, a fully integrated joint force enjoyed a tenfold increase in capabilities. As interagency integration proceeded, the force saw another significant increase in capabilities, and as combined elements were integrated, the increase was again measurable.

With such benefits already proven, does it make sense to wait another 5 years to fully implement and optimize joint capacities? Is it logical to continue service-centric training over a timeframe that does not now meet joint combatant commanders' needs? The answer to both questions is a resounding "No." Therein lies the impetus for the JNTC; it will bridge that gap in the interim. The JNTC, having already achieved its initial operating capability, will be at full operating capability by FY 2009.

Multiple ground and air "training centers of excellence" have already been linked and used in the emerging initiative of "joint context." The JNTC's western test range; the Army's National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California; the U.S. Marine Corps' (USMC's) training facility at Twenty-nine Palms, California; and the U.S. Air Force's (USAF's) training facility at Nellis Air Force Base (AFB), Nevada, held a horizontal training exercise (HTX) in January 2004. A combined JTF exercise recently completed the first JNTC integration event, enhancing an existing joint exercise to address joint interoperability training in a joint context.

In an August 2004 HTX, the JRTC JNTC tested and validated prototype architectures (command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence and modeling and simulation). In October 2004, a joint exercise control group refined selected accreditation and certification processes and set conditions for the JNTC's initial operating capability. The JRTC JNTC HTX integrated a JRTC rotation at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and a USAF Air Warrior II integration at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana. USMC and SOF participation occurred in virtual and live scenarios. JFCOM objectives for the exercise included joint tactical task training and analysis to improve the following collective joint capabilities:

* Integration of joint tactical fire support (including CAS), with emphasis on fires within an urban environment.