JCTC to link Australian, US warfighters

The Joint Combined Training Centre program is expected to make a significant difference to the quality and intensity of ADF training, both by itself and in combination with the US.
Expect the next version of the Defence Capability Plan (DCP) to contain a new project: JP2098 - Joint Combat Training Centre. This is the program which will fund and deliver the upgrade to Australia's single and joint service training areas and provide the connectivity to link them into the Pentagon's Joint National Training Center (JNTC).

The Joint Combined Training Centre (JCTC) will be in place for EX Talisman Sabre '07 in June 2007 and will provide a unique training environment for Australian and US forces both then and subsequently. The initial focus of the program is to prepare the Shoalwater Bay Training Area (SWBTA) for EX Talisman Sabre '07, says the Director General, JCTC, BRIG Bob Brown. He told industry attendees at this year's SimtecT 2005 conference in Sydney that the 2005/06 defence budget allocates some $29 million to the project, with the US contributing a further US$11 million.

Longer term, the JCTC will see instrumentation and infrastructure upgrades across many ADF and single field training areas and virtual and constructive simulation centres.

The vision for the JCTC is a shared one, says Brown: it is to provide the two countries' armed forces with a high-end training environment which enhances Australian and US combat capabilities, preparedness and interoperability, facilitates capability development and also provides a mechanism for measuring the two countries' individual and combined operational capabilities at the joint level.

The JCTC was supported by the Australia-US Interoperability Review; the initial scoping study was completed in June last year, and defence minister Robert Hill and US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld jointly announced the JCTC at the Australia-US Ministerial (AUSMIN) talks in July last year.

Nobody associated with the project has spoken about how the JCTC will develop beyond 2007 - its long-term direction will be informed by the outcomes from Talisman Sabre '07, Brown told ADM; he has briefed industry that ongoing Australian funding will be "determined in the context of the DCP." As this is due to be published late this year (or possibly during Pacific 2006 in early-February next year) we shouldn't have too long to wait.

The defence capability committee and then the Ministers for Defence and Finance must give it their blessing by the end of this year so that the project office can start fielding and testing upgraded systems and range infrastructure prior to Talisman Sabre '07. In parallel, however, a series of enabling studies will take place during the second half of 2006 which will also support the post-Talisman Sabre '07 decision-making process.

However, the decision-making chain isn't solely Australian. The JCTC is a unique construct - it is the only foreign-owned training facility in the world which will be linked directly into the US Joint National Training Capability (JNTC), says Brown, and is a testimony to the strength of the Australia-US defence relationship, which has never been stronger.

The portal by which the JCTC links into the JNTC is US Pacific Command (PACOM) in Hawaii - specifically the US Pacific Warfighting Center.

Of course, it also represents a bit of enlightened self-interest on the part of the Pentagon - Australia's wide open spaces provide unique training opportunities that are increasingly unavailable elsewhere. The Pentagon has been funding studies that look at fundamental long-term issues relating to the JCTC so the potential, and indeed the expectation, is that this will be a long-term relationship.

But, like Senator Hill, BRIG Brown emphasised to ADM that the JCTC will not see US forces permanently stationed in Australia. There may be some pre-positioning of equipment for use by visiting US units, but the JCTC will not see the testing of new or enhanced weapons systems and the focus is firmly on training, not on using Australia as a staging base for combat operations.

The creation of the JCTC will have important implications elsewhere in Defence's training and simulation community. The JCTC architecture will need to enable what Brown termed a "modified reality", fusing together dispersed elements and training infrastructure ranging from MOUT facilities to fast jet flight simulators. His vision has four pillars, he told ADM: realistic combat training; common ground truth; an adaptive and credible Opposing Force (OPFOR); and high-quality feedback.

To achieve all this will require enhanced live fire ranges, the linkage of virtual simulations into the overall JCTC construct, the development of enhanced constructive simulation capabilities for the ADF, and the fusing at a joint level of single service training instrumentation, such as small arms and battlefield effects simulators.

There will also need to be a major information exchange program with the US - the JCTC will need access to US simulation systems and databases and these will need regular upgrades to ensure ongoing interoperability and training velue to visiting US forces. Australia needs a stand-alone Joint Semi-Automatic Force (JSAF), a constructive simulation system which at the same time needs to be interoperable with the US equivalent, while Australian infrastructure such as the Air Combat Manoeuvring Instrumentation (ACMI) facilities at Delamere range and the Army's Land 134 Combat Training Centre will need enhancements. So too will Navy's Maritime Warfare Training System MWTS)

Furthermore, the ADF Warfare Centre's facilities, personnel and processes and procedures will need upgrading to cope with the extra planning, analysis and feedback demands of the JCTC. The ADFWC's role of evaluating its training and capabilities could be enhanced by making it the JCTC management centre post-Talisman Sabre '07.

The beauty of the JCTC once it's up and running, however, will be the ability to physically place forces and units where they get maximum individual training value while linking them using the JCTC connectivity infrastructure to provide the collective and command-level training which is so valuable. So a future exercise could bring together simultaneously an Army Battlegroup operating at Bradshaw range in the NT, parachutists being dropped into SWBTA, a submarine operating in the WA Exercise Area (WAXA), Hornets operating at Tindal and Delamere in the NT, an RAN frigate or landing ship alongside at Fleet Base East in Sydney and a USN battle group operating in Hawaii.

Or the JCTC could bring lots of constructive simulations together - the Hornet HACTS at Williamtown, or DSTO's Virtual Frigate, for example - in credible and coherent scenarios to train and exercise commanders and their HQ staffs.

In terms of installing hardware and infrastructure the 2004 scoping study determined that a mature JCTC would need:

* A new Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) facility

* Joint fires range

* Land force-on-force manoeuvre area

* A range for Littoral operations/Entry by air and sea

* Air combat training area

* Open ocean range

* Shallow water range

* EW range

* Reception, staging, onward movement and integration facilities

Many of these already exist, at least in basic form - SWBTA will need a MOUT facility, for example, initially at Company group level but scaleable to accommodate a battle group in future. The full list of training facilities already in place looks impressive: Yampi Sound, Bradwshaw Field, Mt Bundy and Delamere in the NT; SWBTA and Townsville Field Training Areas in Queensland; the ADF Warfare Centre in NSW; and Woomera in SA. It's not certain at this stage whether SA's expanded Cultana range area could also form part of the JCTC network. All of these ranges would be connected to their peers in the US using the Pentagon's Global Information Grid.

The Delamere and Woomera ranges would be used for air combat and EW training; some of the necessary infrastructure is already there but US users - marines, Navy and Air Force - may also bring their own ACMI and EW training equipment.

The basic building blocks of the JCTC are the individual and unit tracking systems which share real-time speed and positional data between units and range and exercise controllers. For JCTC to work as intended at the joint level this means fitting trackers (such as ACMI pods, for example) on fast jets, land vehicles, individual soldiers, amphibious ships, helicopters and transport aircraft.

Where will the JCTC program lead in the future? That's not certain, according to BRIG Brown; much depends on the outcomes of Talisman Sabre '07. The SWBTA is already used by the ADF and Singapore Armed Forces on a regular basis and Defence is concerned to ensure that regular US and Combined use of JCTC doesn't impinge on Australia's own use of the facility. However, as the other northern ranges are being upgraded in any case the potential exists for a more regular bilateral exercise program which doesn't over-use the SWBTA facilities, and in particular create environmental damage.

At present, says BRIG Brown, there are no plans for third party use of the JCTC facilities; that doesn't mean it couldn't happen at a later date, but it's not on the radar screen as yet - that would appear to be sufficiently cluttered without the added complication of third country involvement.

What about Australian industry opportunities? BRIG Brown told industry representatives at this year's SimTecT 05 conference in Sydney that there are genuine short-term opportunities - to meet the project timelines defence will be seeking low-risk COTS solutions to many of its simulation and systems requirements. And of course the SWBTA upgrade offers prospects for the construction and project management sector.

By Gregor Ferguson, Adelaide