Armed forces must be trained and ready in peacetime to deter wars, to fight and control wars that do start, and to terminate wars on terms favorable to the U.S. and allied interest. Historical experiences indicate that there is a correlation between realistic training and success in combat. Hence, training should be as realistic as possible to prepare troops for combat. Service training guidance emphasizes the importance of live fire training to create a realistic combat scenario and to prepare individuals and units for operating their weapons systems. U.S. forces are required to train for a variety of missions and skills. This training includes basic qualification skills such as gunnery and higher-level unit operational combat skills. Service training requirements typically require the use of air ranges for air-to-air and air-to-ground combat, drop zones, and electronic warfare; live-fire ranges for artillery, armor, small arms, and munitions training; ground maneuver ranges to conduct realistic force-on-force training at various unit echelons; and sea ranges to conduct ship maneuvers for training. To achieve required training, non-CONUS forces use a variety of training areas and ranges that are generally owned by host governments. Ideally, forces conduct the majority of their required training at home station using local training areas or operating areas. However, non-CONUS forces have historically relied on a combination of instrumented training ranges away from home station, major training centers, CONUS training exercises, and multilateral training exercises with countries within their theater to obtain their required training. This includes the Navy and the Marine Corps, which have no permanently stationed combat forces in Europe and no fixed access to training ranges in the European theater. We have previously reported that the size of home station training areas available to units varies greatly, particularly between units stationed overseas and those in the United States. For example, we reported that local training areas for units stationed in Germany have historically varied in size from 3 acres to 8,000 acres, with divisional units not always housed at the same location. In the United States, we reported that individual installations vary, but far more land is available and typical installations may vary in size from just under 100,000 acres up to more than one million acres. While this report’s focus is exclusively on training constraints outside CONUS, both we and the Department of Defense (DOD) are examining constraints on CONUS training. At the request of the House Committee on Government Reform, we are reviewing the effects of environmental and commercial development restrictions on key training areas within the 48 contiguous states and whether DOD is effectively working to address these issues. In addition, DOD is in the process of determining the extent of the training problems at CONUS facilities. DOD’s Senior Readiness Oversight Council initiated a sustainable range initiative spearheaded by the Defense Test and Training Steering Group. The initiative’s purpose is to develop and recommend a comprehensive plan of action to ensure that the department maintains range and airspace capabilities that support DOD’s future training needs. In November 2000, the steering group submitted a sustainable range report to the Oversight Council followed by the publication of nine action plans that addressed eight training-related issues confronting CONUS training and an outreach plan. Currently, DOD’s efforts have focused almost exclusively on CONUS training. There is no consolidated DOD-wide listing of non-CONUS training ranges and their associated limitations. Some services have started collecting this information, but a complete inventory is not yet available. Unlike CONUS-based forces, which conduct their company level and below training at home-station, none of the permanently stationed non- CONUS combat units are able to meet all their company-level and below training requirements at home station. According to service doctrine, home-station training should support company-level and below training requirements. Non-CONUS combat units have the most difficulty meeting their training requirements for (1) maneuver operations, (2) live ordnance practice, and (3) night and low altitude flying. These difficulties arise because both the European and Pacific units’ home-station training locations are not large enough to conduct specific ground maneuvers on a regular basis; are limited in the types of munitions or use of live fire or both; and are restricted in terms of flight hours, altitudes, and electronic frequencies allowed. Some restrictions are long-standing, while others are more recent. In many cases, the increase in restrictions facing U.S. forces is the result of the growing commercial and residential development on or near previously established training areas and ranges. The construction itself, including residential and agricultural development within training ranges, has forced some ranges to close, reduced the training capability at others, and often delayed training on those that remain. Continued growth and host nation concerns may result in further restrictions in the future. In many instances non-CONUS-based units’ home-station local training areas are not large enough or are inappropriate for certain operations. To make training as realistic as possible, many exercises require specific terrain or large maneuver areas. However, in both Europe and the Pacific U.S. ground forces lack enough space and/or the appropriate terrain to train at their home stations. Following are several examples of such limitations. The Army in Germany has historically had limited local training areas available for units to engage in home-station training. The Army recognizes only 7 of the 61 identified local training areas as having all the characteristics of a local training area. Over the past decade, as part of the Army’s practice of being a good neighbor, there has been a shift toward using designated areas as opposed to large open areas on private land, which has further lessened the amount of land available for training. Although, the Army has limited local training areas, it has been able to conduct all its required training using a combination of training areas within Germany. Figure 7 in appendix II is a map showing the locations of major units and training facilities in Germany. Army units in Italy also have a limited number of local training areas to conduct home-station training, and for some types of mission training the terrain there is inappropriate for the desired training. Army officials based in Italy said that there were only a few instances where training was constrained at some local training areas. One local training area does not allow the soldiers to train on their High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles. A second local training area is coming under pressure from increased recreational use by the local population. Specifically, during summer 2001, a portion of this training area was completely closed because the area abutting it is becoming increasingly popular for hikers. Army officials expressed concern that they may lose more of the training area in the future. Regarding having the right terrain, while Army units in Italy are expected to operate in wooded areas, soldiers told us that during some exercises they pretended to be moving through a wooded area hiding behind trees when in actuality they were moving through an open field at their local training areas. Figure 8 in appendix II is a map showing the locations of major units and training facilities in Italy. In Korea, the Army’s local maneuver areas are inadequate in size to support platoon and company training events, which has been a long- standing problem. While the local training areas have always been inadequate to support training events to Army standards, the areas available for training are shrinking as the population in or around the training areas increases. Figure 10 in appendix II is a map showing the locations of major units and training facilities in Korea. In Japan, local training areas on Okinawa are too small to support the Marine Corps’ maneuver-training requirements. Only small-unit elements can maneuver together. Large force elements that would normally be in close proximity to each other and maneuver together must break into small groups, disperse among the island’s training areas, and maneuver independently. Further, maneuver training that ideally would be conducted in a continuous, uninterrupted manner must be started and stopped as units move from one non-contiguous training area to another. Training constraints have further increased as a result of the 1996 Special Action Committee on Okinawa agreement, which returned the Yomitan Auxiliary Airfield—the site previously used to conduct parachute drop training—to Japan and terminated nearly all artillery training on the island. Most battalion exercises and parachute drops, which require troops to conduct maneuver exercises after being dropped, have been relocated off Okinawa. Marine Corps officials told us that it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain maneuver training on Okinawa. Figure 11 in appendix II is a map showing the locations of major units and training facilities in Japan. Many local training areas in both Europe and the Pacific prohibit the use of live munitions or specific weapon systems. DOD officials have repeatedly expressed the need for live-fire to make training realistic preparation for combat. Many live-fire restrictions were implemented because development and population growth near the training ranges reduced the areas available for safety zones and led to noise complaints from nearby residents. Following are examples of such restrictions. In Germany, for decades Army unit-level personnel have had difficulty in conducting live fire training at home station except for small arms because of the prohibitions on live fire in those areas. Army units have historically gone to the Grafenwoehr Training Area—the Army in Europe’s principal live-fire training area—to conduct live fire training on their major weapons such as tanks and artillery. Regarding Grafenwoehr’s sufficiency for future advance munitions, Army officials told us that they plan to upgrade the training area to accommodate all munitions that will be used by Army in Europe units. Both the Army and the Air Force in Italy have restrictions on live fire training. There are such restrictions at nine of the Army’s ten local training areas and firing ranges. The Air Force’s fighter wing in Italy does not have a local air-to-ground range for bombing training although bombing is one of its primary missions.