Training is Key

Written by Michael Coderre

“While network attack and device defeat initiatives enable warfighters to execute their counter-IED missions, proper training allows every soldier, sailor, airman and Marine to maximize the capabilities we provide,” said Gary Carlberg, JIEDDO’s training chief. “That’s the core of our Train the Force line of operation.”

Investing over $500 million in counter-IED training support in home station training lanes, JIEDDO is accelerating its efforts to support the services and get as many units—at major training environments and home stations—equipped with the latest tactics, techniques, procedures and lessons learned to neutralize the IED as a strategic threat.

JIEDDO’s main training execution arm, the Joint Center of Excellence (JCOE) at Fort Irwin, identifies and fills counter-IED training gaps created by JIEDDO’s rapid fielding of capabilities to Iraq and Afghanistan.

When an IED interrogation arm—a hulking claw outfitted with detection equipment—is delivered to theater, it’s JCOE’s mission to make sure that deploying warfighters know how to use it.

“Let’s say your interrogation arm-equipped vehicle encounters a suspected IED. You intend for the interrogation arm to raise, but you make a mistake and push the controller in the wrong direction and the crane lowers instead,” Carlberg explained. “You begin to understand the importance of filling these training gaps and enable the warfighter to train on the equipment prior to deployment.”

In 2008, the JCOE invested over $180 million to build and refine a comprehensive set of counter-IED programs and equipment across 18 major training venues, ensuring that all deploying servicemembers are confident in counter-IED procedures and capabilities.

“We work in concert with JIEDDO headquarters to ensure that the tactics, techniques and procedures used for counter-IED training are correct, effective and emulated as best as possible,” said David G. Saffold, JCOE’s deputy director. “We share JIEDDO’s acquisition agility, and we can respond quickly to keep the training current.”

Two initiatives include Counter-IED Interactive Set Design and Counter-IED Search Props, complementary programs that add theater-like texture to existing buildings and surroundings, replicating an authentic Iraqi look and feel at premier service training environments like the National Training Center, the Joint Readiness Training Center, Twentynine Palms and the Joint Multinational Readiness Center. These venues also provide JCOE-funded tactical site exploitation training, honing the skills of finding and exploiting items used to plan and execute IED attacks.

To train deploying warfighters on critical IED network attack operations, JIEDDO and the JCOE created the Insurgents on the Battlefield initiative—a realistic insurgent network to track and neutralize. This initiative enables trainees to plan and conduct realistic intelligence scenarios.

The JCOE has supported robust counter-IED training for over 50 Army brigade combat teams and 48 Marine Corps battalions— accounting for over 100,000 individual servicemembers.

Paralleling JCOE’s increased support of the live training environment, JIEDDO extended its counter-IED training capabilities to the virtual world with its recent collaboration with the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC).

Combining the operational focus of JIEDDO with the training resources and expertise of the Army’s premier training command, the Joint Training Counter-IED Operations Integration Center (JTCOIC) simulation branch was created to provide rapid visualizations of current threats to the training environment. In a mere four days, IED event reports are pulled from theater, replicated virtually and delivered as a dynamic, interactive visualization to combat training centers, joint training venues and home stations worldwide.

“We were created to serve as an integrator between the Army’s generating and operating forces,” said Jim Slavin, director of JTCOIC and a 30-year Army veteran. “We’re here to enable training leaders, staff and servicemembers to utilize JIEDDO’s downrange capabilities. Our partnership allows for access to a wealth of operational information as it pertains to IEDs.”

Explaining the JTCOIC’s four-day visualization development process, Slavin was quick to note that the center watches for IED event information, which points to new enemy tactics, techniques and procedures.

“We don’t want to focus on what our soldiers already know,” said Slavin. “We want to model and teach the new stuff, and that’s what we look for specifically when we pick an IED event to model. That’s the first day.”

“We pull everything that’s out there,” said retired Army senior non-commissioned Officer Mark Covey, JTCOIC’s director of Modeling & Simulation. “Sometimes that’s a first-person account. Sometimes that’s forensic data. We work with all the good information we can get, since more sources result in more detail for our simulations.”

The second day is spent on the development of specific terrain and asset models from the IED event reports and supporting information. By the end of the third day, the data is distilled into a dynamic, scripted visualization.

“We use a variety of terrain, modeling and gaming software,” Covey explained. “TerraSim for terrain and GIS assets created by our Canadian coalition partners, constructive simulations used in the Department of Defense and the Virtual Battlefield System 2 gaming software used by the Army and Marine Corps.”

On the fourth day, the finalized product is shipped and integrated into training environments.

“The new [visualization] file is out, pull it down on your NIPR machine,” Covey said, emulating just how simple it was for servicemembers to access the JTCOIC’s product.

“That visualization can be customized. If installations we support, like Fort Hood, want to swap out weapon systems or change vehicle positioning specific to the needs and characteristics of their training units, we can do that to help with their blue teaming,” continued Slavin. “The same goes for Fort Lewis, Fort Bragg and other installations we support.”

Since the final product is not classified, the Army’s sister services and coalition partners can easily leverage the JTCOIC’s capabilities. The program is particularly popular with the Air Force’s convoy-specific training.

JIEDDO’s priority of delivering full-featured counter-IED training to home stations is critical to both the JCOE and JTCOIC’s efforts. To further coordinate these efforts and enable training, JIEDDO is expanding its Home Station Training Lane (HSTL) initiative.

“We support the planning and construction of infrastructure, training lanes and information to support realistic and effective squad-level training at our home stations,” explained Bron Dianich, a home station training specialist for JIEDDO.

“That means equipment, subject-matter experts, observercontrollers and more. HSLT emphasizes interoperability and interaction at all levels, giving our junior military leaders the best methods to defeat the device and attack the IED network.”

The goal for HSLT is to optimize the training value for troops preparing for their capstone combat training center exercises, at venues like the National Training Center (NTC). Currently, HSLT supports all military services and 57 locations across the United States, Korea and Europe. HSLT has placed a heavy emphasis on National Guard installations, fully supporting counter-IED training at Guard home stations like Camp Shelby.

As JIEDDO continues to refine its counter-IED training efforts, it is collaborating with key training stakeholders with next-generation efforts.

The Future Immersive Training Environment (FITE), led by the U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM), pulls from a myriad of simulation entities to improve the combat readiness of U.S. forces operating in irregular warfare environments.

Organizations included in the FITE Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) include Special Operations Command, the Office of Naval Research, PEO-STRI, as well as the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps. JIEDDO is there to ensure that the best counter-IED training is integrated into this environment. “JIEDDO’s goal in support of FITE is to create a training environment where decision-making skills are honed and a ‘left of boom’ mentality is reinforced—where warfighters can train to neutralize IED threats before they are emplaced, by attacking enemy networks,” said Jeff Reider, a JIEDDO training specialist. Integrated across the Department of Defense, FITE JCTD enhances and integrates existing, planned and emergent programs and technologies in order to demonstrate an immersive training environment, which sets conditions for home station training, mission planning and rehearsals that replicate the effects and conditions of the operational environment. ♦

Michael Coderre is a strategic communications writer with the Joint IED Defeat Organization.

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