The Global War on Terror will continue for the foreseeable future. Training is an integral element in preparing for current and future internal operational requirements as well as for external threats to our Nation’s security.

This training produces a flexible Combat Ready Force able to survive and operate on a complex and ever changing battlefield.

The Army Force Generation (ARFORGEN) model requires additional funding to adequately train and support our Soldiers during this transition. We must continue to support our Combat Training Centers (CTC), provide for modernization of training facilities, maintain a professional education system and fund the procurement of adequate training ammunition to support our current and future training requirements.

The Army must continue to leverage the experiences and lessons learned from previous deployments. We must encourage the use of Army Centers of Excellence and continue to update our training to reflect the most current sources, and provide the most relevant and current training support packages.

The CTC Program includes the maneuver training centers, National Training Center (NTC), Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC), Joint Multi-National Readiness Center (JMRC) and the Battle Command Training Program (BCTP).

The Army Combat Training Center Program is essential to Army training and force readiness. Lessons learned in the theater of operations by deployed forces are quickly integrated into training scenarios for follow-on forces. Continued full support of the CTC Program is a direct investment in force readiness.

To field fully trained and capable units and prevent diversion of other appropriations will require full funding of Operational Tempo (OPTEMPO) hours for ground and air systems, and full funding of Operations and Maintenance requirements. Currently other critical Army program funding is being diverted to meet operational demands.

Past supplemental funding has enabled the replenishment of older munitions with newer, more lethal versions. While there has been an overall improvement in training ammunition availability, select shortages of critical munitions remain. Certain types of critical munitions require close management because of limited production capabilities, insufficient stocks, and competing demands. While the Army does not currently have a shortfall in funding for ammunition, unplanned operational expenditures will continue to require supplemental funding to replenish. Operational experiences are continuously causing changes to tactics and training that result in new ammunition requirements for both training and operations. The Army has been able to make some essential repairs and improvements to the ammunition defense industrial base, however this is just a beginning and much work remains to be done. Congress has been very helpful in providing funding for Ammunition Industrial Base Modernization, and further increases in funding would expedite critical upgrade’s and modernization projects providing much needed improvements to aging equipment and facilities.

Many Reserve Component (RC) units returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have left equipment behind for follow-on units. These units have no equipment with which to train for follow-on missions which negatively impacts the units’ ability to perform homeland security missions.

WE THEREFORE RESOLVE to urge the Administration and Congress to:

• Support expansion of the maneuver footprint at the JRTC
  
  
• Fund the Combat Training Centers’ objective instrumentation system and force-on-force tactical engagement simulations to maintain relevance with the modular force structure, new equipment capabilities, and full spectrum training, to include an exportable instrumentation system and observer/controllers in support of the ARFORGEN readiness requirements
  
  
• Fund the continued modernization of training areas, ranges and facilities and provide realistic threat environments that maximize the capabilities of modern, digital-capable weapons and systems
  
  
• Support funding for modernizing, fielding and sustaining live, virtual, and constructive training aids, devices, simulators and simulations to include instrumentation that fully supports training requirements of the Army, now and in the future
  
  
• Fund continued participation in Joint and Combined exercises that are essential to the readiness of Joint forces
  
  
• Fund Operations and Maintenance (O&M) to sustain readiness for the Army without decrementing other appropriations and fund OPTEMPO to sustain proficiency
  
  
• Fund Base Operations Support (BOS) and Sustainment Revitalization and Modernization (SRM) on Army installations
  
  
• Fund Army ammunition procurement requirements, renovation of the munitions production base and the planned improvements in stockpile management
  
  
• Fund the remainder of the equipment pay back levels for equipment replacement and new purchases in order to provide meaningful training and support for homeland security missions