Military Review English Edition July-August 2016 | Page 123

SUSTAINABLE READINESS

(Photo by Staff Sgt. Gregory Brook, U.S. Air Force)

Scout sniper team marksmen from the Reconnaissance Platoon, Company B, 2nd Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment, 53rd Brigade
Combat Team, Florida Army National Guard, work with their spotters to zero their rifles prior to beginning a live-fire long-range
marksmanship training and qualification course at the Arta training range in Arta, Djibouti, 14 October 2015.

can likely attest, there is a wide range of contingencies
that can arise as each region contains many countries
with different languages, cultures, and environmental
conditions within which U.S. forces must be prepared
to operate. Only through effective leader development can units ensure that they are postured for
success regardless of where they land and what they
are ordered to do.

Maximizing Opportunities:
Partnered Training for RAF and
Sustainable Readiness

Where the U.S. Army has striven to build partnership
capacity among partner armies in complex operating environments, the need to promote professional NCO development has been one of many key lessons.10

—Joseph Rank and Bill Saba
The immediate mission requirements of RAF and
the long-term demands of sustainable readiness are
MILITARY REVIEW  July-August 2016

often in conflict, and commanders and subordinate
leaders are faced with the challenge of finding an
effective balance between the two. Prior to a deployment, units prepare for the most difficult mission
that they could be asked to do while still training for
any theater-specific requirements associated with
the projected mission. Especially at the battalion
level and below, units work hard to gain the highest
level of collective proficiency in live-fire and combined-arms maneuver, both as a prudent preparatory
measure and as a hedge against the natural decline in
individual and collective proficiency that could occur
during deployments.
While overseas, many factors such as unavailability of combat vehicles and other resource limitations
can constrain training plans. Live-fire qualifications
can grow out of tolerance, and significant time can
pass between opportunities for a unit to practice critical collective tasks. This natural atrophy in training
readiness is a problem that commanders engaged in a
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