Podcasts From USJFCOM: USJFCOM continues to improve Joint National Training Capability

USJFCOM continues to improve Joint National Training Capability

The director of U.S. Joint Forces Command's Joint National Training Capability details the capability's status and how it's improving by conducting analysis of service and combatant command training environments as well as adding new training site connectivity. MCC(SW/AW) Chris Hoffpauir has the story.

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Narrated by MCC(SW/AW) Chris Hoffpauir, USJFCOM Public Affairs
Featuring: Navy Capt. David J. Frost, director of the Joint Warfighting Center's Joint National Training Capability Joint Management Office

Hoffpauir: U.S. Joint Forces Command continues to improve the Joint National Training Capability four years after the Department of Defense established it.

One of three capabilities in DoD's training transformation plan, JNTC provides joint warfighters with an enhanced way to train through a spectrum of live, virtual and constructive training environments.

Navy Capt. David J. Frost, director of the Joint Warfighting Center's JNTC Joint Management Office (JMO) works with the services and COCOMs to analyze and enhance their training environments. He said the developing capability is making a difference in helping to create a culture of jointness in the military.

Frost: We are moving forward with a number of efforts to improve the training environment out in the field. One of the major efforts that we're involved in is accrediting training programs to be joint and certifying sites and systems.

Hoffpauir: Frost said 22 service and COCOM training programs have completed the self-assessment process, including the Army's three "dirt" combat training centers - the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., the Joint Multinational Readiness Center at U.S. Army Garrison Hohenfels, Germany, and the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La.

These training centers replicate battle conditions as closely as possible to prepare units for deployment.

A big part of the self-assessment process is identifying areas for improvement and where changes can be made to better facilitate interdependent operations. Frost said the systematic, highly collaborative effort with the services and COCOMs is yielding a number of these areas for improvement. He said a chief concern is a need for the services to take part in each other's training exercises in order to build interoperability.

Frost: All the services are saying 'hey, we want more other service play.' And we're actually getting at that as well.

Hoffpauir: Frost said one way the JMO is working to find those solutions is by fielding support elements that provide on-the-spot expertise and facilitate the feedback necessary for refining joint training. He said they establish a network to feed information to the training programs to help them, and to help the JNTC JMO improve its support for service and COCOM joint training programs.

Hoffpauir: He said that in the coming year the command will expand the Joint Training and Experimentation Network, the communications network for JNTC. The rapidly re-configurable network supports joint training exercises, experimentation, and the evaluation of new warfighting concepts.

The network currently has 32 permanent nodes. Frost said the command will add several more this year, including nodes at U.S Southern Command and U.S. Transportation Command.

Frost: Our strategy is to add only a few permanent sites, because we're also linking with other networks of like classification. Right now JTEN and the Navy's Continuous Training Environment are linked seamlessly.

Hoffpauir: Frost said this summer the command will also link JTEN to Australia's Defence Training and Experimentation Network, allowing USJFCOM, U.S. Pacific Command and the Australian Defence Force to continue work on Australia's Joint Combined Training Capability.

For more on this and other ways USJFCOM is working to improve joint training, visit us on the Web at www.jfcom.mil.

For U.S. Joint Forces Command, I'm Chief Petty Officer Chris Hoffpauir.