CTC conference focuses on changes in Army training

By Mr. Mike Casey, Combined Arms Center-TrainingSeptember 10, 2012

CTCD director addresses CTC Conference
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CAC leadership at CTC conference
2 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Lt. Gen. David Perkins, commanding general of the Combined Arms Center, talks about the Army training strategy at the Combat Training Center Commanders Conference at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Col. (P) Mike Lundy, deputy commander of the Combined Arms Ce... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (Sept. 10, 2012) -- The Combat Training Center Commanders Conference discussed how the Army will adjust live training events and exercises to respond to the post-Iraq and soon to be post-Afghanistan operational environments.

Representatives from the Army, sister services and international partners met Sept. 5-6 to discuss a wide range of issues as the Army adapts its training strategy to meet future requirements.

Lt. Gen. David Perkins, commanding general of the Combined Arms Center, opened the conference, saying the roles of the CTCs, home station training, the Army Force Generation cycle and other issues are interconnected.

"We're talking about all these topics within the larger training strategy," Perkins said. He added that the training strategy also is connected to the Army's leader development strategy.

One issue facing the Army is how to prepare Soldiers for future operations now that the war in Iraq is over and combat operations in Afghanistan are winding down.

Col. Michael Barbee, director of the Combat Training Center Directorate, noted that Army warfighting doctrine requires forces to conduct Decisive Action -- simultaneous offensive, defensive, and stability operations--in Unified Land Operations.

"The Army is determining the home station capabilities necessary for units to train to standard before they deploy to the CTCs for intense live training exercises," he said. "Live training at the CTCs uses the Decisive Action Training Environment to build challenging high-resolution exercises to develop adaptive leaders and versatile units."

In future operations, units will face a dynamic hybrid threat consisting of conventional and irregular forces, terrorists, and criminal elements, which may or may not be unified.

"That type of threat is the most complex and cannot be fully replicated in training at home station," Barbee said. "And because we expect funding to diminish as the troops redeploy from Afghanistan, we are also growing our ability to integrate both simulations and virtual training at the CTCs. This improves the overall quality and complexity of the training we provide at the CTCs, but at less cost than with live-only training."