{"id":45440,"date":"2023-10-09T16:15:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-09T16:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2023\/10\/09\/combat-training-centers-undergo-a-generational-makeover\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:16:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:16:34","slug":"combat-training-centers-undergo-a-generational-makeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/training-sim\/2023\/10\/09\/combat-training-centers-undergo-a-generational-makeover\/","title":{"rendered":"Combat training centers undergo a generational makeover"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Army is overhauling nearly every aspect of its combat training centers<\/a> with new technology and tools that seek to make the demands of a rotation there as close to actual combat as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1980s, the Army rolled out its AirLand Battle doctrine<\/a> and fielded major weapons systems<\/a> still in use today such as the Apache and Black Hawk helicopters, M1 Abrams tank, Bradley fighting vehicle, and Patriot missile system, all of which featured into the new training centers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Units first arrived at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, in 1981. The Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Johnson, Louisiana, opened in 1987, according to a 1996 report<\/a> from the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences. That combination allowed soldiers to train at scale, as well as gather data from those unit rotations and feed it back into the learning cycle to improve how future units would train together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With drone swarms, robotic battle buddies, longer-range fires and more realistic simulation technology both in the formations and in the battlespace, a better-equipped training center isn\u2019t a luxury \u2014 it\u2019s vital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the many lessons learned at the centers, one in particular has become abundantly clear in recent years, according to Lt. Gen. Milford Beagle Jr.<\/a>, who commands the Combined Arms Center and oversees training center <\/a>modernization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re learning one imperative, again from our doctrine: We\u2019re constantly under observation,\u201d Beagle told Army Times ahead of the Association of the U.S. Army\u2019s<\/a> annual conference<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That understanding has, for at least the past few years, been drummed into rotating units to the training centers. Translated to one soldier task, it means: Look up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor a couple of decades, if not longer, we hadn\u2019t really had to concern ourselves with looking up,\u201d Beagle explained, because the Army and joint force controlled the skies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But trainers at the centers can promise units they will face airborne threats in various forms. The addition of vehicles, aircraft, contained internet, cell networks, radar, space-simulated assets and more aims to give soldiers the chance to practice their craft in a wartime environment unavailable at their home station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even as these capabilities come to the centers, newer and better Army gear is likely on the horizon for the rotating forces. But that doesn\u2019t mean the opposition forces will be twiddling their thumbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf there is a new capability that we bring in on the blue [friendly forces[ side that gives an advantage, [the opposition forces will] adapt,\u201d Beagle said. \u201cIt keeps us agile and changing at pace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The centers serve as the \u201cultimate learning environment\u201d and a crucible of sorts for leader development, Beagle said. According to the Combined Arms Center, combat training center modernization efforts include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n