Editor's note: The joint force is preparing for large scale combat across land, sea, air, space and cyberspace. Under the Multi-Domain Operations concept, Army Materiel Command has reorganized and reshaped to ensure readiness of the Strategic Support Area, where military might is generated, projected and sustained during the fight. This article is the sixth in a series highlighting seven focus areas to achieve that goal: Supply Availability and Equipment Readiness; Industrial Base Readiness; Installation Readiness; Strategic Power Projection; Munitions Readiness; Soldier and Family Readiness; and Logistics Information Readiness.
REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. -- In the mission of sustaining Army readiness for the multi-domain operations concept, Installation Readiness is an essential element for projecting combat power.
From the on-post housing where Soldiers and their families live to the airfields, railheads and motor pools used to move equipment and troops, Installation Readiness is focused on the facilities and infrastructure that keep the Army deployable.
"First and foremost, installations are the homes of our Soldiers and their families. But they are also the platforms for building and sustaining readiness," said Gen. Gus Perna, commander of the Army Materiel Command. "Readiness of our installations directly correlates with our ability to create combat power and project combat power."
Army installations provide secure and sustainable facilities and infrastructure that support combatant commanders' top priorities, enable Army missions, and maintain Soldier and unit readiness. The importance of Installation Readiness is driving the Army Materiel Command to ensure the Army's 156 installations and more than 1,100 community-based Army National Guard and Army Reserve Centers have the infrastructure, facilities and equipment to meet future challenges and ensure the security of the nation.
"We must modernize our infrastructure for high volume rapid mobilizations and deployments. We must provide world-class training venues for current and future forces, and the weapons that are being developed for the future," Perna said. "And we must provide facilities that sustain operations readiness today and in the future. This is an enormous task, but we can do this across all our installations if we focus priorities and funding accordingly."
Toward that end, AMC's G-3 (Operations) is working with AMC major subordinate commands -- including the Installation Management Command, Army Sustainment Command and Army Contracting Command -- as well as installation senior commanders to build and sustain Installation Readiness.
"We are synchronizing resources, planning and visibility," said Brig. Gen. Christopher Mohan, who leads AMC's G-3. "We have a common operational picture for Installation Readiness. But, we can't do any of this without our Army command partners -- specifically the Forces Command, and the Training and Doctrine Command represented by the senior commanders of those installations. We have to hold ourselves accountable to those senior commanders."
Army installations provide the critical infrastructure to organize, train, equip, deploy and conduct combat operations by land forces. Everything at installations that build and project readiness are targets for improvement, modernization and sustainment through AMC's network of major subordinate commands.
"We are looking at infrastructure and making sure it fits the demands of Army readiness," Mohan said. "In the case of our railheads, we are asking if they are big enough and have the capacity to rapidly move equipment from installations to our seaports.
"In a globally responsive, U.S.-based Army, it is imperative that we have the ability to look at installations not only as places where our Army lives and works, but also in a much bigger way as platforms where we ensure readiness and where we deploy from to anywhere in the world."
Beyond its focus on those platforms, AMC is also committed to ensuring the right equipment -- tanks, weapons, gear, helicopters, ammunition, missile systems and everything Soldiers need to deploy -- is located at the right locations to support rapid movement to an overseas battlefield.
"Our installations are power projection platforms from a facility standpoint and in every aspect," Mohan said.
"If your families and single Soldiers have a secure, safe place to live and confidence in us that we are able to meet their needs through installation services, then that makes it easier to deploy. If we are able to provide services to families so a Soldier who is deployed knows their family is taken care of, then you have a more resilient Soldier, and a more resilient Soldier is a better Soldier."
With the recent realignment of IMCOM as an AMC major subordinate command, coordination and synchronization of efforts between AMC and IMCOM became a top priority. So, too, is AMC's ability to understand the challenges and issues facing installations in providing quality facilities.
"AMC has the ability to grow and bundle services provided in support of installations," Mohan said. "Our Logistic Readiness Centers and depots provide us access to capabilities that can be synchronized in support of installations. We can leverage the capabilities of other MSCs -- the Army Sustainment Command and the Army Contracting Command, among others -- to address issues at installations. The synergy and partnership that we can build in support of Installation Readiness is powerful."
The AMC network will provide not only support, but also a one-stop shop for everything installations need to support readiness. In addition, it has the capability to provide quality assurance of installation facilities.
AMC has established a battle rhythm for a monthly Strategic Support Area Forum, where installation commanders can discuss issues and determine solutions related to Installation Readiness.
"We have to hold ourselves accountable to ensure Installation Readiness. We can do that by aligning resources to address issues and by looking broadly at requirements and determining how to support them," Mohan said. "ASC, ACC and all the life cycle management commands are intertwined in some way with our installations, and we all have to work together to provide support at those installations."
Installation Readiness, he said, must be assured at every installation in support of any type of large-scale operation to come.
"In the case of a future deployment, we believe we will not have the time to prepare for war like we did in previous wars. Our enemies know the installations where we generate and deploy combat power. They know our vulnerabilities for attack and they know potential impacts if they attack by cyber or they attack our electrical grids, or a host of other elements," Mohan said.
"But, with AMC working to synchronize and resource Installation Readiness, we make this a team effort in building and strengthening our installations as platforms from which we go to war."
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