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Tank training, warfare can’t rely on Army

The Marine Corps’ tank community will rely less on the Army and more on simulation-based training in the future, a trend driven by ongoing reorganization in both services.

Marines have long depended on the Army for assistance with hands-on training for the M1A1 Abrams tank. But the M1A1 will become less of a priority for the Army as it moves to fully upgrade its fleet to the M1A2 Abrams.

“That leaves us with the question mark as to whether we’ll have to take on the additional burden of M1A1-specific training if the Army is not going to do it anymore,” said Lt. Col. Michael Muller, commander of the 70-man Marine Corps Detachment at Fort Benning, Ga. His cadre oversees the training of Marines going through the Army’s armor schools, and those taking other courses such as the Airborne or Ranger schools.

“What the Army does impacts us,” Muller said. “We try to leverage as much as we can with them to keep our joint courses, but they’re reducing their armor force and they’re going to reduce some more.”

These tanker issues and others were discussed by about 40 armor leaders at a Marine Corps conference Muller hosted at Benning in January.

In looking ahead to future tank warfare, Muller said the “huge takeaway” at the conference was the Army’s reorganization into combined arms battalions and its reduced number of tanks, which has effectively eliminated the heavy armor brigades of the past. During Operation Desert Storm in 1991, he noted, the Marine Corps borrowed tanks from the 2nd Armored Division’s Tiger Brigade.

With fewer Army tanks, he said, the reality is “the only tanks we’re going to have to fight with in the foreseeable future are Marine tanks.”

On the training front, looming budget cuts and two fewer tank companies will likely result in an uptick in simulation training, Muller said.

Last fiscal year, Echo Company, 2nd Tank Battalion, deactivated as part of the Corps’ personnel drawdown and force reorganization. By the end of fiscal 2012, 1st Tank Battalion will also deactivate its Echo Company.

Budget cuts to training are also likely, Muller said. He’s preparing to make tough choices at Benning, where about 250 officers and enlisted Marines train in armor courses each year.

He predicted he could save money on fuel and maintenance by using more of the simulated training now used by Army tankers.

In the short term, simulation is doubly necessary at Benning because of its limited off-road training areas, Muller said. That issue stemmed from the consolidation of the Army’s armor and infantry centers under the 2005 Base Closure and Realignment Commission directive.

To remedy this, the Army is in the process of completing an off-road area called the Good Hope Maneuver Training Area, which will become available in July.

New simulation training will soon be available at Camp Lejeune, N.C., when 2nd Tank Battalion gets a Close Combat Tactical Trainer, a networked system of simulators. The CCTT’s 14 Abrams modules are surplus Army equipment and will be refitted to match the Corps’ M1A1 tank. The goal is to have it in operation by Sept. 30.

Marines with 1st Tank Battalion at Twentynine Palms, Calif., will not get the CCTT. They will continue to train on the Advanced Gunnery Training System, which is limited to simulating gunnery training, said 1st Marine Division spokesman Capt. Alfred Reynolds.