Joint Training Directorate and
Joint Warfighting Center (J7/JWFC)

USJFCOM's Joint Warfighting Center (JWFC) leads joint warfighter capability improvement through joint training. With emphasis on the Global War on Terrorism and military transformation, the JWFC works to ensure that America's military is the most advanced and powerful force in the world. The military will maintain this level of superiority through strengthening and developing new capabilities and changing the way forces are trained - all supporting a new warfighting strategy.

Whether for an immediate mission rehearsal such as in Operation Iraqi Freedom or for strengthening a combatant command's overall readiness, joint training provides for a solid footing in real-world operations.

Transforming Training
The JWFC commander serves as the joint force trainer to ensure the fidelity and coordination of the military's overall joint training efforts. From the JWFC facility located in Suffolk, Va., the joint force trainer team and its partners revise the content and execution of training, developing advanced technologies and reshaping the overall training environment to better prepare combatant command staffs, joint task forces and the individual services (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard) to fight as a collaborative team, or a “joint force.” This transformation of training is a critical success factor for not only U.S. forces, but also our multi-national partners in NATO and Partnership for Peace programs.

The Joint National Training Capability (JNTC), an initiative being developed and implemented through USJFCOM's JWFC, serves as the heart of training transformation. This enhanced training capability is one of three focal points in the secretary of defense's Training Transformation Plan. It covers the full spectrum of warfighter decision-making - from the strategic and operational to tactical levels of war - and helps the Department of Defense identify and correct potential gaps and seams before real military operations commence.

This enhanced training environment creates joint warfighting conditions through a collection of networked training sites linked to real-world command and control systems. It involves a mix of live, virtual and constructive tools to provide the most realistic joint mission experience possible in a training situation.

Through involvement in enhanced exercises, participants will gain a global, network-centric capability that strengthens military transformation efforts to promote warfighter effectiveness.

Transforming the Force
The 2002 Unified Command Plan directed USJFCOM to “…focus on its exceedingly important mission to help transform our military, including experimentation; innovation; improving interoperability; reviewing, validating and writing joint doctrine; preparing battle-ready joint forces and coordinating joint training simulations and modeling.”

Joint force training and joint force capability improvement are core elements of the force transformation mission that directly impacts the warfighters' preparedness. The joint force trainer ensures men and women deployed for today's diverse operations are well prepared for the task.

JWFC's joint training efforts fall in three main categories: mission rehearsals, general preparedness and capability development.

Primarily, the JWFC, enabled by the JNTC initiative, conducts and supports training for:

• Combatant commanders - each region of the globe has an associated commander called a “combatant commander.”

• Joint task forces - teams of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines that are organized to accomplish a specific joint warfighting task.

• Functional component battle staffs - the services support the combatant commanders in executing land, maritime and air operations under the command of a joint task force commander.

Doctrine Enables Force Transformation
Joint doctrine provides a leading element in shaping a transformed military. Fundamentally, doctrine helps commanders define and sharpen their decisions and synchronizes the execution of current and future operations by providing principles, terms, tactics, techniques and procedures important for joint operations.

Each of the USJFCOM four transformation centers (Joint Force Trainer, Joint Force Provider, Concept Developer & Experimenter, and Joint Force Integrator) contributes expertise in reshaping and preparing the joint force. Doctrinal development serves as a critical link in assessing these transformation efforts in terms of how they benefit the warfighter. The outcomes represent important aspects to creating new doctrine.

Input received from the various USJFCOM transformation centers help guide the command's experimentation program led by the Joint Futures Lab. Additionally, the outcome of successful experimentation and the information gleaned through lessons learned from real-life operations ultimately influence joint doctrine development and joint force training.