Trained, Prepared, Forward

FORUM Staff

A helicopter hovers within arm’s reach of a Soldier astride a howitzer. Dust and rain lash New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) and United States Army personnel under storm-darkened skies and thundering aircraft at Helemano Military Reservation, Hawaii. Sling load training, one facet of the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center (JPMRC) drills occurring across the archipelago’s eight main islands, demonstrates the combined forces’ ability to move weaponry in an arduous jungle environment and swiftly position artillery for fast and accurate fires. 

The exercise was part of a series of complex drills that the JPMRC stages three times a year, strengthening readiness and fortifying the joint force capacity to integrate in demanding multinational operations. “The fog of war and chaos are an expectation on the battlefield; what is important is to train hard in peacetime to work through friction points, forging interoperability, trust and respect,” Maj. Damien Jaques, commander of the NZDF’s 163rd Battery, said during the November 2023 training. 

The U.S. Army established the JPMRC in 2022 as the first new combat training center (CTC) outside the continental U.S. in 50 years. Its training lets the U.S. and its Allies and Partners demonstrate combat-credible forces in the Indo-Pacific and beyond. The JPMRC draws thousands of multinational troops annually to hone their skills in the tropical and jungle terrain of the Hawaiian Islands and in Alaska’s mountainous, arctic environment. A third yearly rotation deploys the JPMRC to an allied or partner nation. The U.S. has exported the training capability to nations including Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. 

“This allows us to keep trained and ready forces available and forward in the region,” Gen. Charles Flynn, U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC) commander, said in 2022. “It allows us to generate readiness in environments and in conditions that we’re most likely to operate in. … It allows us to rehearse with a number of joint and multinational partners.”  

With contributors from every U.S. military branch, the JPMRC has involved participants and observers from nations including Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and the United Kingdom. The U.S. Army’s 196th Infantry Brigade, responsible for training support in the Indo-Pacific, leads the annual rotations with the 25th Infantry and 11th Airborne Divisions. 

Exercises build on complex, live and virtual simulations to immerse participants in training and incorporate real-time feedback. Mock battles play out simultaneously across the Hawaiian Island chain. The Alaska campus replicates unforgiving, high-altitude terrain where forces would expect to operate in extreme cold. In an unprecedented integration with the Australian CTC during Talisman Sabre 2023, the merged centers, led by Australia, challenged nearly 10,000 multinational troops with a 10-day field training exercise to protect a chain of islands from a large invading force. 

The mobile training capability means the U.S. can stage exercises anywhere in the Indo-Pacific. “We are not fixed to a particular piece of terrain, which from a training perspective gives you tons of options,” U.S. Army Col. Bryan Martin, the JPMRC commander, said during the Land Forces Pacific (LANPAC) Symposium and Exposition in Honolulu in 2023. An exportable training system also streamlines staging the JPMRC in Ally and Partner nations. “USARPAC works out an agreement with a multinational partner and they want us in a country a year from now. We start the planning 270 days out. We pack this thing up, we move it, and we go ahead and execute training,” Martin said. In the JPMRC’s short history, its leadership also has worked with CTC teams in Canada, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore and South Korea. Such multinational training strengthens coalitions and builds on combined capabilities. The interoperability and close relationships that result give partner forces a “key advantage in competition and, if necessary, in conflict,” Flynn said. Major exercises such as those conducted by the JPMRC “induce the fog and friction of stress,” Martin said, and are “the closest we can get to actual real combat with our respective forces so that when that day comes, they’re trained and they’re ready.” 

Emerging Concepts For Diverse Forces 

Multinational partners play an integral role in the JPMRC, Martin said at LANPAC. Australian personnel have been at the heart of operations in the exercise control center, in addition to acting on opposing forces (OPFOR) teams. Canadian and Indonesian personnel have served as observer controllers. 

The JPMRC is “truly a joint operations group,” he said, citing exercises such as a sensor-to-shooter drill in Hawaii in which Air Force, Army, Marine and Navy personnel worked together to identify a simulated enemy vessel, share location data and destroy the target. “These are all … emerging concepts in how we’re going to do joint, all-domain operations,” Martin said. 

The training has included High Mobility Artillery Rocket System rapid infiltration, GPS denial and radio frequency jamming, as well as unmanned aircraft systems, and extended and advanced sensing for situational awareness, he added.  

“And this works both ways,” Martin said. “Because we are replicating a near-peer adversary, the OPFOR gets that as well. So that’s something new our forces have to contend with.” The JPMRC creates a training environment where the adversary has an equivalent or larger force, long-range fires and advanced technology that could exceed U.S. capabilities.  

The JPMRC is among numerous such initiatives gaining momentum in the region. “I’m seeing an increase in multilateral and multinational exercises tenfold,” Flynn said during the 2023 Hawaii rotation, according to the Stars and Stripes news organization. He cited Talisman Sabre, originally an Australia-U.S. exercise that has grown to
15 nations and more than 30,000 personnel; Indonesia’s Garuda Shield, formerly a bilateral engagement with the U.S. that included 14 nations and 6,000 participants in 2023; and Yama Sakura drills in Japan that have involved Soldiers from four nations. 

‘Ability To Deploy, Fight And Win’ 

The New Zealand Army credits the JPMRC with helping ensure a combat-capable force equipped for success across operations. During the Hawaii rotation in late 2023, Soldiers sharpened their skills using 105 mm and 155 mm artillery guns and conducted an air mobile gun raid. Logistics, communications and health personnel also took part. “We specialize in the provision of offensive support in the battlespace,” said Jaques, the NZDF battery commander. “This exercise enabled us to test our procedures and benchmark them against our partners and allies. We were able to validate our ability to deploy, fight and win in large-scale conflict operations.” 

Maj. Gen. John Boswell, then chief of the New Zealand Army, emphasized the opportunity to operate alongside Allies and Partners. “High quality training exercises like this ensure we can easily integrate with our military partners at short notice and in response to a range of contingencies, ranging from humanitarian assistance through to armed conflict,” he said. “It also ensures our personnel are combat ready and improves our ability to work within a coalition environment as a valued and trusted partner, and contribute to a secure, stable and resilient Pacific region.” 

JPMRC rotations have also included Philippine Army Soldiers facing challenges that simulate crisis and conflict, according to Col. Xerxes Trinidad, the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ public affairs chief. In addition to strengthening partnerships and bolstering interoperability with regional counterparts, the Philippine Army deployed doctrine writers and researchers to document best practices during a JPMRC exercise. 

“The lessons learned and insights gained during the course of the training exercise will serve as the basis for the crafting of doctrines related to the establishment of the Combat Readiness Training Center in Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija,” Trinidad said in 2022. 

Talisman Sabre 23 marked the first time the U.S. combined CTCs with a partner nation, as Australian and U.S. exercise planners — working alongside counterparts from Canada, France, New Zealand and the U.K. — integrated people, processes and platforms. Australian, Indonesian, German and U.S. forces then formed a task force to expel a simulated enemy force. Virtual drills also simulated battles, electronic warfare and cyberattacks. 

Australian Army Col. Ben McLennan, the Australian Defence Force Combat Training Centre commander, called the efforts “the richest, most immersive and most realistic, no-consequence training environment that we can possibly create.” 

“It’s energizing to be involved in an enterprise enabling the best of our teams to reach their highest performing potential,” McLennan said. 

Annual JPMRC rotations in Alaska routinely involve the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), which credits the exercise with strengthening lines of communication between CAF and U.S. units. The U.S. and international partners use the exercise to evaluate their capacity to thrive in extreme conditions. 

Cooperation among Canadian, Italian and U.S. forces in a 2023 Alaskan rotation not only built trust and relationships but also improved troop effectiveness in partner force coordination, enemy territory infiltration and airborne operations. Canadian and U.S. special forces partnered to conduct military free-fall training inside the Arctic Circle from an altitude of more than 2 kilometers. “Working with U.S. Special Forces is a great way for the team to learn, improve and become more efficient in different tactical aspects,” a Canadian Soldier said. 

Allies and Partners have their own objectives during JPMRC training. The U.S. Army deploys advisors to help partner forces prepare for the training and align objectives. “But we all walk out of this with a higher proficiency than when they went in,” Martin said, “and we all get to learn from each other on how we operate — and [we’re] developing relationships … that are going to last careers.”