Service military training has historically focused on individual service competencies, with less emphasis on joint operations involving joint commands, other services, and emerging operations with other governmental and nongovernmental agencies and international partners. While this has allowed the services to meet their core training responsibilities, it has also contributed to forces entering combat without having had previous experience or training in joint operations. For example, in Operation Iraqi Freedom, many forces had to be given some level of basic joint operations training after they had already entered the Iraqi theater of war, because they were experiencing joint operations for the first time. In a changing security environment, joint operations are becoming more important given the complex nature of military operations. Specifically, this importance is being driven by the combatant commands’ need to combine the capabilities of multiple services to address the global threat as well as the growing interdependence of capabilities among the services. Under Title 10, both combatant commanders and the military services are given the authority to determine training requirements, plan training exercises, and execute training activities. Specifically, combatant commanders oversee all aspects of military operations, joint training, and logistics using the forces assigned to them, while the military service secretaries are generally responsible for recruiting, organizing, supplying, equipping, and training their service personnel. Furthermore, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Joint Staff are responsible for formulating joint training policy and doctrine. The Joint Forces Command is DOD’s lead in providing joint warfighting capability through joint training. The idea to transform training in the department initially surfaced in 2001, when the department, in its 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review, recognized that training was a key to dealing with a continuously changing environment, and emphasized a need to enhance jointness and capitalize on technology advances. Defense guidance issued shortly thereafter directed the Under Secretary of Defense, Personnel and Readiness, to work with the services, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the combatant commander of the U.S. Joint Forces Command to develop a plan for transforming military training that would better enable joint force operations. The department’s vision for the Training Transformation Program is to provide “dynamic, capabilities-based training for DOD in support of national security requirements across the full spectrum of service, joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational operations,” and is built upon a foundation of three capabilities. According to the 2004 Training Transformation Implementation Plan, these three capabilities, or initiatives, are designed to prepare individuals, units, and staffs for the new strategic environment, and to provide enabling tools and processes to carry out missions. Through these three capabilities, combatant commanders are expected to receive better­ prepared forces that align with their joint operational needs. The Joint National Training Capability (JNTC) is expected to prepare forces by providing units and command staffs with an integrated live, virtual, and constructive training environment. This capability would add enhanced service and combatant command training that emphasizes jointness and enables global training and mission rehearsal in support of combatant command operations. The Joint Knowledge Development and Distribution Capability (JKDDC) is intended to prepare future decision makers and leaders to better understand joint operations and the common operational picture, as well as respond innovatively to adversaries. Program officials believe this capability will enhance existing joint individual education with newly developed courses and make these courses readily accessible through an expanded knowledge distribution network. The Joint Assessment and Enabling Capability (JAEC) is expected to assist leaders in assessing the value of transformational training initiatives on individuals, organizations, and processes, and link the impact of the Training Transformation Program to combatant commanders’ readiness requirements. This capability is also supposed to provide the processes and tools to continuously improve joint training. Currently in its early implementation stages, DOD expects its Training Transformation Program to be fully operational by 2009, when it has established a robust network of training capabilities that are integrated throughout the department to provide enhanced joint individual and collective training focused on the combatant commanders’ needs and linked to readiness assessments. Through its 2003 Training Transformation Implementation Plan, the department established program accountability and authority by assigning senior leadership management and oversight roles and responsibilities. While each program initiative has focused on developing a management structure, defining joint training requirements, and developing mechanisms and networks to deliver enhanced joint training, all three still have a great deal remaining to be accomplished to meet program goals. In early 2003, DOD issued its first Training Transformation Implementation Plan, which established the basic management approach for implementing the Training Transformation Program. As part of this approach, the department has taken action to establish program accountability and authority. The department designated the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness with overall responsibility for implementing the Training Transformation Program. Furthermore, the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Readiness has been given executive agent responsibility for training transformation planning, programming, budgeting, and execution progress. To carry out their responsibilities, these offices use three standing working groups, as follows: The Executive Steering Group is made up of senior executive-level officials—including four star general officers/flag officers and equivalent senior executive service civilians —and is headed by the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. In addition to high-level program execution oversight, this group, according to program officials, makes department-level policy decisions and deals with unresolved issues as it pertains to training transformation. Subordinate to this executive group, the Senior Advisory Group is led by the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Readiness and consists of senior-level officials, including three star general officers/flag officers and equivalent senior executive service civilians. This group, according to program officials, has directive authority and is responsible for overseeing the execution and updates to the Training Transformation Implementation Plan, and the timely allocation, transfer, and execution of the program’s resources. The Joint Integrated Process Team, being subordinate to the above two groups, serves as the primary collaborative working forum that provides input to the oversight groups and responds to their guidance. Led by the Director of Readiness and Training Plans and Policy, this team consists of senior analysts, planners, and action officers from staffs, agencies, and commands contributing to the department’s Training Transformation Program. Each of these groups has representatives from the services, the Joint Forces Command, the Special Operations Command, the Joint Staff, and a wide cross-section of department-level offices, such as the Offices of Program Analysis and Evaluation, and Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics. DOD is employing an incremental approach to developing and implementing the Training Transformation Program, designed to reduce development cycle time and increase the speed at which advanced capabilities are delivered. According to a DOD official, DOD’s approach to developing and implementing the training transformation initiatives follows a “build a little, test a little” philosophy that is unlike a more traditional development approach, where initiatives within a program are developed sequentially with planning, development, implementation, and assessment phases. Under this development approach, some elements of the three training transformation initiatives—the JNTC, the JKDDC, and the JAEC—are developed concurrently, while other elements are sequentially developed. The department’s expectation is that the three initiatives will work together to successively build a training environment that meets combatant command needs in three phases. Phase 1 (2005) focuses on providing combatant commanders with a steady flow of joint­ trained individuals, units, and staff. Phase 2 (2007) places an emphasis on supporting an innovative training environment for new joint operational capabilities based on combatant commanders’ demands. Phase 3 (2009) will transition joint training into a real-time mission planning and rehearsal environment. Reflective of the iterative implementation approach described above, DOD’s framework for assessing Training Transformation Program performance will likewise follow the three phases of the program’s development. Performance metrics are being continuously developed during each of these phases to mirror the actual development and evolution of each initiative’s capabilities. Similarly, formal program assessments using these metrics to measure training transformation’s impact on joint force readiness and guide subsequent investments in training transformation capabilities will begin in 2005, at the end of Phase 1, and occur every 2 years thereafter. The management of each of the three training transformation initiatives is carried out largely by joint management offices within each initiative’s sponsoring organization. For example, the JNTC joint management office is in the Joint Training Directorate of the Joint Forces Command. These offices serve as the primary focal points for planning, program preparation, and execution of all resources and events associated with their respective training transformation capability. The joint management office directors, having the responsibility to implement their respective initiative, report directly to the organization sponsoring their initiative. Each of the joint management offices also reports to the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Readiness through the Joint Integrated Process Team. The offices are organized functionally to align with their primary goals and objectives. The implementation status of each of DOD’s three initiatives—the JNTC, the JKDDC, and the JAEC—varies, as program managers are intentionally staggering the rollout of the initiatives in accordance with the incremental development approach aimed at reducing development cycle time and increasing the speed at which advanced capabilities are delivered. The current and planned funding of these initiatives also reflects this development plan. Overall, the three initiatives are designed to prepare individuals, units, and staffs for a new strategic environment that requires services and combatant commands to work together, and to provide enabling tools and processes to carry out missions. These initiatives to transform military training are expected to result in a robust network of training capabilities integrated throughout DOD that provides enhanced joint individual and collective training focused on the combatant commanders’ needs and is linked to readiness assessments. Program managers designated the JNTC initiative as the leading effort to transform military training, and thus its progress is further advanced than the other two initiatives. However, officials responsible for both the JKDDC and JAEC have established a management structure and initiated a number of efforts to meet program goals.