Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Daniel Allyn Thursday vowed to protect the service’s combat training centers (CTC) if lawmakers can’t stave off another round of sequestration-related budget cuts.
Allyn said combat training centers are where the Army’s brigade combat teams verify their readiness for global deployment. The Army has three CTCs. The Joint Multinational Readiness Center (JMRC) in Hohenfels, Germany, provides fixed and mobile training. The National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, Calif., provides a realistic environment for training similar to the tough, rugged environments warfighters face in places like Afghanistan.
The Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) at Fort Polk, La., Allyn said, verifies the readiness of brigade combat by testing their ability to demonstrate dominance in land combat as a joint and combined arms team. Allyn said all three of the Army’s CTCs are the service’s premier readiness and leader development laboratories.
“We are better off today because we entered this era of uncertainty with a globally-engaged Army and the deepest bench of combat-experienced leaders we ever had,” Allyn told an audience at an Association of the United States Army (AUSA) event in Arlington, Va. “So I remain confident in our path forward.”
Pentagon leaders are preparing to mount another assault on the possible full return of sequestration as they prepare to unveil the defense budget request for fiscal year 2016 on Monday, outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Jan. 23. Hagel said Pentagon brass would emphasize to lawmakers that a full return of sequestration would devastate the military.
Sequestration is set to kick in Oct. 1, the first day of FY ’16, if lawmakers cannot agree on a plan to avoid it. Sequestration stems from the 2011 Budget Control Act designed to reduce federal spending over a decade. As currently written, sequestration would indiscriminately cut most budget accounts across the government, not allowing agencies to shift money around to meet priorities.
Hagel is slated to be replaced by former deputy defense secretary Ash Carter, whose nomination hearing for the position is set for Wednesday in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) (Defense Daily, Jan. 22).