During initial entry training, recruits are trained on service tasks and skills, including basic military tactics, weapons training, and marksmanship. In addition, the services have annual training requirements that are focused on tasks such as crew-served weapons training, reacting to chemical and biological attacks, and offensive and defensive tactics. Prior to deploying overseas, units must also complete a set of service-directed predeployment training requirements, including a mission-rehearsal exercise. The Army’s Force Generation model (ARFORGEN) is a cyclical unit- readiness model that affects the types of training that units conduct during each phase. Through ARFORGEN, the Army builds the readiness of units as they move through three phases: Reset, Train/Ready, and Available. The Army uses these phases, which are described in figure 1, to prioritize resources and coordinate training, personnel, and equipment. As shown in figure 1, units entering the Available phase may or may not be deployed to conduct operational missions; units that are deployed in support of operations are known as deployed forces. Units in the Available phase that are not deployed are known as contingency forces. These units may conduct training or exercises with other services, governmental agencies, or military security forces from other nations. If units are deployed, they will return to the Reset phase upon redeployment—regardless of the length of deployment. If they are not deployed, units will return to the Reset phase after 12 months. There are no prescribed time lengths for one complete ARFORGEN cycle because the length of the cycle is driven by the length of active-component deployments, and reserve-component mobilizations. While current deployments are typically 12 months long, the Army has also used deployments of varying lengths, including 6 and 15 months, to support its ongoing operations. For the Army’s active-component forces the ARFORGEN cycle is three times as long as its deployments, and for its reserve-component forces the cycle is five times as long as its mobilizations. The Army maintains four CTCs: the Battle Command Training Program, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California; the Joint Readiness Training Center, Fort Polk, Louisiana; and the Joint Multinational Readiness Center, Hohenfels, Germany. The Battle Command Training Program trains the command element of a unit. The National Training Center, Joint Readiness Training Center, and the Joint Multinational Readiness Center, collectively referred to as the maneuver CTCs, train brigade combat teams—approximately 5,000 servicemembers—during rotations that last for 18 to 25 days. Since 2003, the Army’s maneuver CTCs have been conducting mission- rehearsal exercises for units prior to their deployments. Each training rotation is designed to challenge units and their leaders with the opportunity to face a well-trained opposing force, provide in-depth analyses of performance to units and their leaders, and create a realistic training environment, intended to closely parallel actual warfare, including live-fire training. Training rotations at the maneuver CTCs also include force-on-force training in a live, virtual, and constructive environment. As noted in appendix II, the Army’s maneuver CTCs can conduct 28 training rotations annually for brigade combat teams. In addition to a brigade combat team, a CTC training rotation may also include Army support units and personnel or capabilities from other services and agencies. In addition to the maneuver CTCs, the Army has seven mobilization training centers for the Reserve and National Guard that are operated by First Army—which is responsible for training mobilized reservists—that conduct predeployment training. This training ranges from 15 to 60 days for reserve-component units varying in size from small detachments—1 or 2 people—to brigade combat teams. Prior to deployment, units conduct mobilization and collective training at the Army’s mobilization training centers for the Reserve and National Guard: Fort Dix, New Jersey; Camp Atterbury, Indiana; Fort Knox, Kentucky; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Stewart, Georgia; Camp Shelby, Mississippi; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Bliss, Texas; Fort McCoy, Wisconsin; Fort Sill, Oklahoma; and Fort Lewis, Washington. Before 2008, all deploying brigade combat teams conducted training at an Army maneuver CTC prior to deployment. However, in 2008, due to the high operational tempos from the force increase in Iraq, and finite training capacities, the Army determined that reserve-component brigade combat teams that would be split into smaller units and assigned other missions, such as security forces, would conduct training at the Army’s mobilization training centers. The brigade combat teams that would control battle space in theater, both active and reserve component, would conduct training at the maneuver CTCs. We reported in July 2009 that capacity constraints had limited reserve- component access to facilities at certain Army mobilization training centers because they also were being used by active-component forces. Around that time, First Army began to consolidate the Army’s mobilization training centers for the Reserve and National Guard from 11 to 7. Specifically, First Army is retaining the locations that are owned by the reserve component or which have a dedicated training area for mobilizing reservists. These mobilization training centers will concentrate their efforts on training specific mission sets required for current operations while maintaining flexibility to support other missions in the future. As shown in appendix II, in fiscal year 2009, approximately 89,000 servicemembers were trained at the Army’s mobilization training centers for the Reserve and National Guard. The Marine Corps is organized into Marine Air-Ground Task Forces— which include headquarters, ground combat, logistics combat, and aviation combat elements—that train, exercise, and deploy as fully integrated combined-arms teams. At the Marine Corps’ CTC, the Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, California, battalion-sized units participate in a 28-day exercise that immerses units in an environment that is continuously updated and is designed to replicate the current operational conditions using mock urban villages, cultural role players, and equipment that will be employed in Afghanistan. The exercise includes two infantry battalions, a combat logistics battalion, and an aviation combat element in a single rotation that prepares Marines for the tactics and procedures they are expected to employ in Afghanistan. In addition, the Marine Corps will occasionally incorporate units from other services, such as the Air Force and Navy, and other nations to enhance the training experience. The Marine Corps can conduct 6 training rotations per year at Twentynine Palms; in fiscal year 2009 it trained approximately 23,000 servicemembers. As of April 2010, the Marine Corps has trained approximately 9,800 servicemembers in support of missions in Afghanistan. We have previously reported on the Army’s approach to training and mobilizing its reserve component. In July 2009, we reported that although the Army was exploring and had several initiatives underway to address training constraints, it had not identified the total requirements with its reserve-component training strategy. We recommended that the Army determine the range of resources and support that are necessary to fully implement its reserve-component training strategy. DOD partially agreed with our recommendation, however, as of May 2010, the Army had not identified the total requirements to fully implement its reserve-component training strategy. The Army and Marine Corps have shifted their operational priority from Iraq to Afghanistan; however, few adjustments were required at the Army’s major training facilities for a number of reasons, including the similarities in the Army’s training requirements for both operations. In addition, since summer 2009, the Marine Corps has been preparing most of its forces for missions in Afghanistan at its CTC at Twentynine Palms. Initially, the Army published separate predeployment training guidance for forces deploying in support of operations in Iraq and operations in Afghanistan. However, in September 2007, the guidance was combined into one document because there were only small differences in the required training tasks for the two operations. Because of the similarities in requirements, the Army has had to make few adjustments at its major training facilities to support the increase in forces deploying to Afghanistan. For example, maneuver CTCs have continued to train the same types of units—brigade combat teams—as the Army has increased its forces in Afghanistan and reduced its forces in Iraq. The Army’s maneuver CTC and mobilization training centers for the Reserve and National Guard, which have dedicated opposing forces and trainers, use these same groups to train and prepare forces for missions in either Iraq or Afghanistan. These major training facilities also use the same training ranges, mock towns and villages, and instrumentation to train for both operations. Officials noted that they do not change much of the physical appearance of the training area except for village names and signs within the mock towns and villages to ensure that the proper language is displayed. While the equipment used in training varies somewhat for forces deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to officials, these differences have required only minimal adjustments and have not affected the mission- rehearsal exercises or number of training rotations being conducted. For example, the types of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles that troops train on may vary due to the differing terrain between the two operations. In Afghanistan units use a lighter-weight all-terrain-capable version of the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles better suited for the uneven terrain and subpar road conditions, whereas in Iraq units use a heavier version of the vehicles. According to Army officials, the maneuver CTCs currently do not have the number of all-terrain-capable Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles that they prefer for enhancing collective training; the majority of these vehicles currently are being deployed to Afghanistan. Therefore, the available vehicles are primarily being used at the maneuver CTCs to support individual training tasks required prior to deploying for operations in Afghanistan. As we previously reported, in instances when units lack the equipment to train on a task prior to deployment, they are supposed to receive the required training after they deploy.