On behalf of the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), the Combined Arms Support Command (CASCOM) has initiated an aggressive Total Force integration effort to enable the training readiness of sustainment units. The Army Total Force Policy, signed in September 2012, directs the Army to organize, man, train, sustain, and equip the Total Force in support of combatant commander requirements.
In a recent address to a group of senior Army National Guard (ARNG) leaders, Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Mark A. Milley further emphasized the importance of the Total Force Policy. Milley said, "There is only one Army. We are not 10 divisions; we are 18 divisions. We are not 32 brigades; we are 60 brigades. And we are not 490,000 Soldiers; we are 980,000 Soldiers."
The past 15 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan have proved the value and effectiveness of integrated active component (AC) and reserve component (RC) sustainment formations. In many instances, most of the forces assigned to echelons-above-brigade sustainment organizations in Iraq and Afghanistan were RC units.
Future sustainment commanders will need to continue to leverage the capabilities of the Total Force to support ongoing combat operations, contingencies, ever-changing global commitments, domestic missions, and disaster response operations. The Army must rely on both AC and RC sustainment capabilities to meet future worldwide combatant commander mission requirements.
SUSTAINMENT INTEGRATION
More than 73 percent of the Army's echelons-above-brigade sustainment capability resides in the ARNG and Army Reserve (AR). Although the 27 percent of the sustainment force that resides in the AC can provide much of the required early-entry contingency support, the RC capability is critical to sustaining operations over time.
The following percentages of units that are in the RC highlight how much the AC relies on the RC for sustainment:
• Support maintenance companies: 98 percent (72 percent in the ARNG and 26 percent in the AR).
• Petroleum support companies: 89 percent (in the AR).
• Truck companies: 88 percent (55 percent in the ARNG and 33 percent in the AR).
• Combat sustainment support battalions: 81 percent (46 percent in the ARNG and 35 percent in the AR).
• Expeditionary sustainment commands: 71 percent (14 percent in the ARNG and 57 percent in the AR).
• Human resources companies: 65 percent (17 percent in the ARNG and 48 percent in the AR).
• Sustainment brigades: 61 percent (32 percent in the ARNG and 29 percent in the AR).
• Financial management companies: 57 percent (38 percent in the ARNG and 19 percent in the AR).
• Theater sustainment commands: 50 percent (17 percent in the ARNG and 33 percent in the AR).
Future successful unified land operations will depend directly on the Army's ability to leverage readiness potential from all components. To maximize these collective capabilities, training integration must significantly improve.
RECENT TOTAL FORCE OPERATIONS
To further illustrate the importance of AC and RC sustainment interdependency, CASCOM recently hosted a reverse collection and analysis team (R-CAAT) event for the AC's 1st Theater Sustainment Command (TSC) and the AR's 4th Expeditionary Sustainment Command (ESC). The units' historic U.S. Central Command deployment was the first time in 15 years of conducting operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in which the ESC and both sustainment brigades under the 1st TSC were exclusively RC organizations.
The Army is rapidly moving toward sourcing sustainment units for specified operations without regard to component. This is a testimony to the operational capability and effectiveness of Total Force integration. However, training integration presently lags behind this coming reality.
THE GREATEST CHALLENGE
Although the sustainment community provides excellent support across the full range of military operations, AC and RC training integration leaves much to be desired. The recent 1st TSC and 4th ESC R-CAAT identified training as the greatest Total Force integration sustainment challenge.
Top sustainment training challenges include a lack of a standardized and synchronized training event time line, a need for a suitable culminating training event for a deploying sustainment headquarters, unresourced 1st TSC training exercise support requirements, and a rigid AR 12-month traditional, noncontiguous, inactive duty training model.
Sustainment forces also lack a standardized and resourced Total Force sustainment multi-echelon culminating training event. Such an event is needed to build and evaluate the future readiness of TSCs, ESCs, sustainment brigades, combat sustainment support battalions, and other theater-level functional battalions and companies for future deployments. Overcoming this challenge would significantly improve Total Force training and readiness.
EFFORTS TO IMPROVE TRAINING
In coordination with Forces Command, TRADOC, the Army Materiel Command, the Army G-4, the Combined Arms Center, First Army, the Army Reserve Command, and the ARNG, CASCOM spearheaded several Total Force initiatives to improve AC and RC sustainment training.
In December 2015, CASCOM held its first TRADOC Total Force Sustainment Forum. This was followed by another forum in June 2016, and a future forum is planned for the third quarter of fiscal year 2017.
The first forum produced 27 recommendations for enhancing future training and readiness. Currently, more than 14 of the original recommendations either have been fulfilled or are in some phase of development.
In addition, CASCOM representatives have visited the ARNG's Sustainment Training Center at Camp Dodge, Iowa, and the AR Training Installation at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin. These RC resources are available to support AC sustainment units. Army leaders must expand their understanding of the training resources and sites that are available.
FUTURE TRAINING ACTIONS
CASCOM is revising the Sustainment Training Strategy and Guide, completing the Sustainment Leader Development Implementation Plan, and developing the Operational Contract Support Training Strategy. Sustainment senior leaders are currently considering the top five training actions for the next TRADOC Total Force Sustainment Forum.
After the recent AR combat support training exercise site visit at Fort McCoy, CASCOM leaders began to determine the feasibility of conducting a pilot Total Force sustainment collective training exercise. This future pilot exercise would focus on measuring "objective T" proficiency for TSCs, ESCs, sustainment brigades, combat sustainment support battalions, and other theater-level functional battalions and companies. Significant collaboration, coordination, and planning would be required from all key sustainment stakeholders in order to accomplish this pilot.
Existing budget constraints, force structure changes, limited availability of training resources, and reduced predeployment preparation times are forcing Soldiers to look for ways to become better, stronger, and more effective. The best way to mitigate the sustainment impacts of all these challenges is to fully leverage the power and capability that resides within both the AC and RC.
Sustainers must embrace future support solutions that depend on Total Force integration and resolve existing training challenges by maximizing the use of all available training resources. Sustainment leaders need to double their efforts to fully realize the potential power of Total Force integration and to ensure the Total Force has what it needs to build future readiness.
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Maj. Gen. Darrell K. Williams is the commanding general of CASCOM and the Sustainment Center of Excellence at Fort Lee, Virginia.
Brig. Gen. Sylvester Cannon is the commanding general of the 135th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), Alabama National Guard, in Birmingham, Alabama, and the CASCOM deputy commanding general, Army National Guard, at Fort Lee, Virginia.
Brig. Gen. Hector Lopez is the commanding general of the Army Reserve's 94th Training Division and the CASCOM deputy commanding general, Army Reserve, at Fort Lee, Virginia. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________
This article was published in the November-December 2016 issue of Army Sustainment magazine.
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