Army seeks to expand National Training Center facilities

摘要

The Army plans to upgrade and expand facilities at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, CA, to reflect the greater distances that brigade combat teams have to manage due to force structure and strategy changes in recent years, according to a draft environmental impact statement released May 21. The Army plans to use the final version of the EIS to ask Congress for an extension to a law that gives the service exclusive control over land that makes up about one-seventh of the NTC. That law currently expires in 2026. Roughly 110,000 acres of public land on the eastern and western sides of the NTC were reserved for the Army and withdrawn from other uses for a 25-year period starting in 2001. The Army plans to ask Congress to extend the withdrawal of the land by another 25 years or indefinitely. More space is needed for maneuver and sustainment training at the NTC, according to the draft EIS. Brigade size has increased from two to three maneuver battalions since 2013, and new developments have made it likely that brigade sustainment will need to cover longer distances.