Got word from the CO today...losing a Coy worth of LAV‘s

[Marauder]

So who‘s gonna be OPFOR? Part of the reason NTC & JRTC are so succesful at what they do is because the OPFOR is fulltime at their job and location. NTC‘s OPFOR know commie doctrine better than anyone in Warsaw Pact ever could have. Unless the Army has a an ***load of Class B local reservists to field a consistent OPFOR, then I don‘t see where the troops are gonna come from. Most likely it will be that a few sub-units will be detached to play a nice easy foe to roll over. Utterly useless if that‘s the case.
Another critical component of the NTC system is that the AARs and briefbacks are totally, brutally honest and pull no punches. Given the highly senstive nature of the command elements in the CF (at all levels) to critiscm of any sort (even constructive criticism) or severity, I don‘t see that happening. The AARs will be watered down and thus lose effectiveness.
Why not just ask the Americans to be added into the NTC rotation schedule?

 

[Doug VT]

All of the tanks are there now. Since I was on the first BTE, I have a good idea of what‘s going on. It‘s supposed to be a different Brigade every year. So you would find yourself back every three years (if you remain within the same Brigade) It‘s supposed to be a large satellite system, all GPS‘d and such. Not far from the JRTC in Ft Polk. A company would be tasked with being the OPFOR for the month and a half of training that would take place(probably adding up to over 2 months of your life)
With the way that the army is now for money, it‘s all just a pipe dream. Once all the equipment is there, we won‘t have the money to run such a large exercise. All the continuing commitments will corrupt the schedule rather quickly as well. Besides, BTE 03‘, in my opinion, was a colossal waste of time and money. Nothing of real training value was accomplished, except that the support personal didn‘t want to do anything for us, especially if it was after working hours. They didn‘t seem to grasp the concept that if we‘re working - they‘re working.

 

[George Wallace]

Sorry...all the tanks are not all there now. 5 Bde still has all their stuff. They won‘t be going out to Wainwright to do a BTE, and leave all their heavy kit. They had a mini BTE in Ft Drum and took all their toys home with them. No they‘ve replace you in Afghan and will soon do a small Roto to Bosnia. Looks like we are the only ones so far to be "dekitted" :crybaby:

GW

 

[Doug VT]

Well, I figured that. I‘m sure that there are still some tanks in Gagetown as well. The Government always thinks that it‘s doing a good thing by starting up this training centre in Wainwright. We don‘t have the resources, as an army to do this training. Once every three years is also pointless. They‘re taking so much of our already short supplied equipment/gear that the meager training that we used to do at our own units will be even less. We are so short handed that we can‘t run enough courses, so many people are fed up that they‘re leaving in droves. The exercises we have no are busts because so many people are tasks away or on career courses. I believe that the Forces are in self destruct mode. Too many soldiers have become spoiled and shut down when the going gets tough. In Afghanistan it was mind boggling how many clubs and welfare crap that was spun up because the "others" had gotten used to that kind of stuff in Bosnia, and thought that it was supposed to be like that. They even had a rock climbing club, but there were no outings, no equipment, and no wall. And still there was complaining about the terrible hardship that they had to endure...