AWTC opens to enhance AWG’s capabilities

Photo By Lt. Col. Sonise Lumbaca | During the Asymmetric Warfare Training Center ribbon cutting ceremony held Jan. 24, members of the U.S. Army Asymmetric Warfare Group, who hosted the event, provide an overview of the unit's unique mission and capabilities to an audience of attendees. Attendees also had the opportunity to participate in a bus tour of the facility. The AWTC, a $96 million dollar state-of-the-art facility, enhances the AWG's capabilities by providing a location for the unit to replicate complex operational environments and develop solutions to close Army and Joint forces capability gaps.  

FORT A.P. HILL, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES

01.24.2014

Story by Lt. Col. Sonise Lumbaca 

U.S. Army Asymmetric Warfare Group

FORT A.P. HILL, Va.—The U.S. Army Asymmetric Warfare Group hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of its Asymmetric Warfare Training Center Jan. 24 here. Participants included State and local officials from Virginia, representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Training and Doctrine Command, and various others who attended to witness the historic event.

“The objective of the Asymmetric Warfare Training Center is to create a place where change can happen,” said Col. John P. Petkosek, the AWG commander. “This is a place where ideas can manifest themselves and be assessed in an environment where the technical science of the application of Strategic Land Power can be directed under the art of Mission Command to cultivate those valuable lessons which allow our military to continue to innovate and adapt.”

The AWG has been chartered with rapidly developing and disseminating both material and non-material solutions to close Army and Joint forces capability gaps. The $96 million dollar state-of-the-art facility provides a location for the AWG to replicate complex operational environments and develop solutions—which includes exploring adaptive tactics, techniques and procedures.

“The missions of our armed forces include the ability to deter and defeat aggression, project power and counter weapons of mass destruction. In order to accomplish these tasks, our nation must do what has been described by the Strategic Land Power Task Force as ‘ready, robust, responsive and regionally engaged forces operating on the land.’ It is the solution development work and training that we will conduct here that will allow us to provide those ready and responsive ground forces that our nation requires,” he said.

As a key component of TRADOC, the AWG is also able to take those solutions and rapidly infuse them back into the institutional Army where doctrine could potentially be rewritten or the Army changes the way that it trains and how it organizes its personnel, Petkosek said.

“So the things that we do here at this facility will have a direct and lasting impact on our entire Army,” he said.

The AWTC is located on 300 acres and consists of a unique urban complex—outfitted with a five-story embassy, bank, school, underground subway and train station, helicopter landing zone, bridge, and other structures that can be transformed into a variety of scenario driven facilities. Complete with an indoor firing range, a known distance range, an outdoor mobility range, a headquarters complex, a small barracks, maintenance and administrative facilities, the AWTC is uniquely suited to support AWG solution development efforts. Construction began on the complex about two years ago, but its inception was in the making over six years ago.

“This facility represents the future of our Army. An agile and adaptive force capable of meeting the future challenges our nation faces,” Petkosek said.

Headquartered at Fort Meade, Md., the AWG's mission is to provide Operational Advisory and Solution Development support globally to the Army and Joint Force Commanders to enhance Soldier survivability and combat effectiveness, and enable the defeat of current and emerging asymmetric threats in support of Unified Land Operations. Because of the unit’s global presences and firsthand observations of the battlefield through its hand-selected Operational Advisers and rapid solution development process, the AWG operates as the "operational arm and global scout" to TRADOC.

• Date Taken: 01.24.2014
• Date Posted: 01.25.2014 10:31
• Story ID: 119653
• Location: FORT A.P. HILL, VIRGINIA, US
• Hometown: BOWLING GREEN, VIRGINIA, US
• Hometown: DAHLGREN, VIRGINIA, US
• Hometown: FORT A.P. HILL, VIRGINIA, US
• Hometown: FORT MEADE, MARYLAND, US
• Hometown: PORT ROYAL, VIRGINIA, US
• Hometown: PRINCE GEORGE, VIRGINIA, US