Maintaining at Pace

An NTC Update Series of Articles

In February 2020, the NTC Operations Group published an article entitled “Winning the Maintenance Fight At Pace.”  The article highlighted some common shortcomings with regards to creating a culture of maintenance in our formations as well as tips for building a solid maintenance program capable of performing in any environment. In March, the Officers and NCOs of Operations Group at the National Training Center built upon that article in an effort to help us all understand specific tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) that can allow the Army to maintain combat power while simultaneously conducting large scale combat operations against a near peer threat.

Spc. Michelle Metzger, a motor transport operator with 1487th Transportation Company, Ohio Army National Guard, applies grease to her vehicle at Multinational Base – Tarin Kot, Afghanistan, Aug. 12, 2013. U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Jessi Ann McCormick

This is part of our Lessons from Atropia Series. The Company Leader is partnering with the Combined Training Centers to share lessons learned and improve the readiness of the force. Check out more posts like this one HERE. To subscribe to The Company Leader click HERE.

Our ability to maintain our equipment directly contributes to our ability to accomplish our wartime mission. Regardless of your branch or MOS, even our best Soldiers become nothing more than bystanders without properly maintained equipment. It doesn’t matter if you are a Scout operating further forward on the battlefield than anyone else in the BCT or an infantryman in the back of a Bradley. If your equipment isn’t operational, you can’t do your job. At the National Training Center, we see these challenges every month.

Often, we spend inordinate amounts of time debating the best tactics, techniques, and procedures for every branch, MOS and warfighting function. We wrestle continuously with the best methods for combining arms to accomplish our missions. We work tirelessly to train our formations to combat our Nation’s threats. However, as an Army, if we don’t get maintaining our equipment in the operational environment envisioned against a near peer threat, none of that matters. We can’t do our jobs without well trained Soldiers. Well trained Soldiers can’t do their jobs without well maintained equipment.

From operator level mistakes to mechanics lacking proper diagnostic equipment to leaders failing to include maintenance within priorities of work, each small cut into our maintenance program, at echelon, results in a loss of combat power available for the fight. Moreover, each combat power loss places a heavier burden on those Soldiers moving forward into battle. What might have been a well-resourced plan can easily become a “mission impossible” task – all because of a unit’s inability to execute a consistent, well thought out maintenance program that maintains combat power at the pace required in a decisive action training environment.

As always, we appreciate all that you do for our Army, and we stand ready to assist units in any way possible.

Below are links to the individual observations and best practices. You can also find the entire PDF HERE.

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