MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. -- About 150 leaders from units across Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune attended the Warfighter Training Symposium at Marston Pavilion, Nov. 4, 2020. The symposium provided them with information on all the available training facilities and gave them an opportunity to inquire about specific range complex capabilities.
According to Dale Kruse, director for Range and Training Area Management, MCB Camp Lejeune, the symposium not only informs unit leaders about the different training opportunities offered to service members and their units, but promotes communication between tenant commands and MCB Camp Lejeune regarding design and construction of the more than 120,000 acres of range training areas.
“The Marines, contractors and government employees on the base have worked exceptionally hard to create and redesign the training facilities in a way that will improve the lethality of the Marine Corps,” said Lt. Col. Clinton Keppel, infantry officer, 2nd Marine Division. “The engagement from the senior leaders shows the importance and focus that goes into our training and the symposium gave a wealth of information for us to take back to our units. They have done a tremendous job on the support of operating forces here on Camp Lejeune.”
The symposium addressed major efforts made to improve existing and new ranges such as the G-36 Company Battle Course Range, which is representative of coordinated efforts to meet requirements for optimal training for Marines.
According to Kruse, the new range was inspired by Range 400 on Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, California. G-36 has three platoon-sized objectives that range from the trench line to the support teams and is geared toward giving Marines an opportunity to conduct operations as they would in combat with their company.
Along with the new ranges, there are additional training tools available, such as robotic targets. The robotic target is a four-wheeled automatic target system that has the ability to move in all directions, varying speeds and has artificial intelligence to respond to any environment, making it more challenging and realistic.
“The Marine Corps has gone through a substantial investment in modernizing the ranges that are available for the warfighter,” Kruse said. “In the last decade, the Marine Corps spent over a billion dollars updating ranges, making them more interactive and realistic in the training environment. The goal is to provide the most realistic and best available training for the service member. These ranges are fairly high tech and very in depth as to the capabilities they have and the capabilities that are available for training. It is important to get this information out to the units so they can take advantage of them and utilize the range to its fullest extent.”