GRAFENWOEHR, Germany (Dec. 19, 2013) -- U.S. and partner-nation Soldiers now have the ability to train on convoy live-fire scenarios on U.S. Army Garrison Grafenwoehr without shutting down large sections of the training area.
The 7th Army Joint Multinational Training Command's Training Support Activity Europe officially opened its new Convoy Live-Fire Course here with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and demonstration, Dec. 18, 2013.
The new course will provide Soldiers the opportunity to train on the skills necessary to detect, identify, engage and defeat stationary and moving targets while in convoy.
"I've driven nearly 1,000 kilometers of combat convoy missions, both mounted and dismounted," said Command Sgt. Maj. Jeffrey Huggins, 7th Army JMTC senior enlisted adviser. "I've only ever trained on bits and pieces of convoy operations. Now we have a resource here that will give Soldiers comprehensive and realistic training on how to conduct convoys."
The course consists of six objectives along an eight-kilometer road. It is designed to test Soldiers with a variety of challenges, including an enemy rocket-propelled grenade, or RPG team, snipers, and several different types of ambush.
The new course will also alleviate one of the major issues with previous live-fire convoy training on Grafenwoehr.
"There was only one official convoy live-fire course [in Grafenwoehr], and when used, it shut down most of the other ranges in the Grafenwoehr Training Area -- and that made the course unusable," said Keith Dunson, manager of the U.S. Army Europe Range and Training Land Program.
The new convoy live-fire course will only close ten adjacent ranges while in use, allowing units to continue live-fire training on the other 34 ranges within the Grafenwoehr Training Area.
Existing targetry infrastructure on nearby Range 206, 211 and 213 can also be incorporated into the convoy life-fire training, enhancing the capabilities of the course and providing training units with flexibility in developing training scenarios, said Dunson.
"Even though we move a lot of men and equipment by air and by sea, we're always going to have the need to move in convoy on the ground," said Huggins. "The training benefits of this new convoy live-fire course are only restricted by a training unit's imagination."
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The 7th Army Joint Multinational Training Command is the only training command outside the continental United States, providing realistic and relevant training to U.S. Army, Joint Service, NATO, allied and multinational units, and is a regular venue for some of the largest training exercises for U.S. and European Forces. For more information, go to www.eur.army.mil/jmtc.
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7th Army Joint Multinational Training Command
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