HOHENFELS, Germany — The U.S. Army is modernizing the Joint Multinational Readiness Center, its premiere training center in Europe, continuing to operate an international training environment optimized for establishing global deterrence amid emerging challenges and uncertainties.
Military and Army civilian leaders with 7th Army Training Command, U.S. Army Europe and Africa, U.S. European Command, and NATO met at JMRC in Hohenfels, Germany, March 24-27, 2025, for a Modernization and Optimization Forum.
Faced with a multitude of competing demands for resources and focus, the Army’s priorities to build readiness, lethality and warfighting capabilities continue to dominate planning and training efforts toward providing the most realistic training for U.S., NATO and partner forces.
Brig. Gen. Steve Carpenter, commanding general, 7th Army Training Command, opened the forum, urging the participants to think differently, boldly and creatively.
“We need to transform the way we train, by aligning resources to stimulate the training environment at low cost. It’s essential we implement lessons learned from the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. As we navigate this time of enormous changes, we need to optimize training toward establishing global deterrence.”
Participants in the forum discussed concepts and conditions affecting military training and readiness for USAREUR-AF's brigade-sized units, both assigned and rotational, to provide informed resourcing recommendations to commanders.
The Soldiers and civilian leaders discussed ideas about modernizing and optimizing JMRC across the full spectrum of its functions. As the conference began, the group laid out priorities and requirements, and reviewed opportunities and limitations presented by changes in national policy and budget. They also discussed observations from recent training rotations that suggest how new tactics and technologies seen in current conflicts can be quickly integrated.
Much of the discussion at the opening session focused on improving the way the Army trains with drones and communications networks. For years, the Army has been working on ways to communicate in an operational environment characterized by intense competition in the electromagnetic spectrum. The entrance of huge numbers of small, one-way attack drones has made solving this problem both more complicated and urgent.
The Russo-Ukrainian war revealed the efficiency and devastating lethality of these drones against a wide range of targets, including armored vehicles. Maintaining awareness of the latest battlefield innovations and getting ahead of the next major shift in tactics will be essential for the Army’s role in global deterrence. Finding ways to build and field cheaper, more capable drones faster, and develop the pilots and tactics to effectively deliver ordnance onto targets is one side of the issue. Developing and implementing the technologies and the tactics to defend against these same kinds of drones is the other.
One way the forum participants proposed attacking this problem is by organizing and equipping the training center’s opposing force with capabilities to more closely replicate the conditions seen in current conflicts. The changes would give the unit more drones, electronic warfare equipment and personnel to create multiple dilemmas for the rotational training unit. To make such changes, the Army will have to work through many considerations involving safety, budget, instrumentation, and the authorities needed to operate this equipment under the regulations that govern spectrum management in Germany.
The evolution of the operational environment continues as policy changes in both in the U.S. and Europe affect budget planning and international relations. The Army must manage modernization and optimization while simultaneously navigating these changes and training the force for global deterrence.
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