Impact of the Army's National Training Center on Improving Individual Soldier and Unit Abilities

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO surveyed National Training Center (NTC) and selected Army units before and after their participation in exercises at NTC.

The Army's NTC was established to provide soldiers with a training environment that closely parallels actual warfare. The training realism, intensiveness, and evaluation offered at NTC supplement the training accomplished by Army units at their home installations. GAO found that, in the long term, training at NTC should benefit Army units as more officers, trainers, and soldiers repeat NTC training. However, potential benefits could be diminished of some problems are not corrected. GAO believes that Army management needs to address the following issues: (1) NTC equipment differs from what is used at home stations, thereby precluding performance evaluations on equipment that the units would use in warfare; (2) training time and facilities are not sufficient to correct deficiencies identified at NTC once the units return home; (3) systemic training problems have been identified during NTC exercises; and (4) NTC costs are exceeding Army estimates while the number of units using NTC has decreased.