Army National Guard's Brigade Combat Teams Face Tougher Training

The Army National Guard’s armored and Stryker brigade combat teams (BCT) will soon receive more high-level, complex training as the component works to better prepare those high-demand units to respond to contingencies.

The effort is being called the Army National Guard enhanced readiness posture, and it could reduce by at least 30 percent the amount of time one of these units spends at a mobilization site after it’s called up for duty, said Lt. Gen. Timothy Kadavy, the director of the Army Guard.

"We have a very limited number of armored and Stryker brigade combat teams in the Army," he said. "We need to ensure that they are at higher levels of readiness today, tomorrow and further into the future."

This includes "increased gunnery and increased maneuver training and increased training center rotations," Kadavy said. "What this will do is it will increase the readiness to the point that we can reduce post-mobilization time, initially, up to 30 percent for those formations as they run through our new model."

On average, Guard BCTs spend about 100 days at the post-mobilization site, Kadavy said.

After the initial 30 percent reduction in time, Kadavy hopes to further improve on that number.

"The more sets and repetitions you do, the better you get," he said. "The more reps we have, the better the units will be, and the fewer lessons they will be learning. They will be improving, and we will be able to build on those training center rotations."

The effort, which the Guard is developing with Army Forces Command, comes as the Army’s armored BCTs are in high demand, with rotational deployment missions in Kuwait, South Korea and, soon, Europe.

The move also will mean more training days for the armored and Stryker BCTs, he said.

"I think the maximum in any given year would be 60 days, but we have to work with the soldiers, families and employers," he said. "We owe it to them to explain why this is important to the Army and to the nation’s defense, which it is."

This includes keeping soldiers, families and employers informed and building in predictability, Kadavy said.

"When they understand the training requirements, they can plug that in and plan that as part of their lives and their work schedules with their employers," he said.

The Guard currently has five armored BCTs and in fiscal 2017 will have two Stryker BCTs.

While officials are still working out the details of the enhanced readiness posture, the effort is already in motion. Plans call for units to move through a roughly four-year cycle or strategy, Kadavy said.

"We are going to start this year," he said. "We will start to align them. We will need to send the right units to training, and in 2018 we could reach full operational capability."

This move ties in with the Army’s plans to double to four the number of combat training center rotations for Guard brigades beginning in 2018.

For now, the enhanced readiness posture is only designed for the armored and Stryker BCTs, based on funding and resources, Kadavy said.

"But we are going to grow this," he said. "Right now, we are focused, step one, on armored brigade combat teams and Stryker brigade combat teams."

This effort also helps the Guard support Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley’s top priority of readiness, Kadavy said.

"For us in the Guard, it is about our dual mission," he said. "We are focused on war-fighting capability … and the capacity and capability to respond when there are domestic incidents, whether it is an earthquake, a hurricane, or a tornado or flooding."

In addition to building readiness for its armored and Stryker BCTs, the Guard has remained busy at home and overseas. Kadavy outlined some of the Guard’s work to Army Times.

Here’s are some highlights.

Q. Describe this past year.

A. This last year, we have been more engaged and more intertwined, more used in various ways than we ever had before.

We sent two brigades to the National Training Center and the Joint Readiness Center, and that’s always a tremendous effort. We supported a number of overseas deployment training. We sent one of our battalions to Arctic Anvil to support U.S. Army Pacific. We were key contributors to the Total Army force at Operation Anakonda in Poland last year, and we were one of the lead elements supporting Saber Guardian in Romania.

It has been very busy, and we continue to mobilize and deploy about 10,000 to 12,000 soldiers a year in support of the named operations.



Q. How about your missions at home?

A. We continue to do a lot of missions and nearly 900,000 man-days in support of domestic operations here in the United States.

This was also a very good year for the Army Guard in Army competitions. We won the Best Ranger Competition this year for the first time ever. We won the Sullivan Cup for the best tank crew in the Army for the first time ever. We have won a number of other championships related to marksmanship, culinary, etc.

I think it speaks to the tactical and technical capabilities that the Army has helped us grow within the Army National Guard. I think it shows the warrior mentality and culture that resides in the Army National Guard after 15 years of war-fighting and investment by the United States Army.

Q. Can you talk about how you’re integrating with the Army?

A. We are one Army. We are focused on trying to find things that will increase readiness. This year, General Milley announced the Associated Units pilot program, and we have a number of units that are now associated with active-duty units.

The 48th Brigade out of Georgia is now wearing the 3rd Infantry Division patch. The 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division put on the 36th Infantry Division patch for Texas. We have a battalion that is associated with the 173rd Airborne Brigade out of Italy.

We think it’s a good thing for the Army and a good thing for the Army National Guard.

Q. What are you hearing from soldiers as you travel across the force?

A. They’re optimistic. They said ‘this is exactly why we signed up. We want to do more of this.’

This year, for instance, we deployed 16,000 soldiers in theater security cooperation-type activities. That’s a pretty sizable commitment from the Army National Guard to supporting overseas and deployment training.

We anticipate in the future years, fiscal year 2018 and beyond, we will become more engaged in supporting U.S. Army Pacific with Pacific Pathways. We anticipate still being engaged in some of U.S. Army Europe’s exercises.