Success in battle is built on the skills and relationships established during training, whether that be for the smallest units or multinational partnerships, a US Army general has told British troops.
General Andrew Poppas, commander of United States Army Forces Command, is in the UK to deliver the Kermit Roosevelt Lecture, which began in 1947 as a tribute to the son of former US President Theodore Roosevelt.
Kermit served in both the UK and US armies during the First and Second World Wars and each year a British General travels to the US to address US Army Forces about our special relationship, and an American General visits the UK to speak to British troops.
Talking to an audience drawn from 3rd (United Kingdom) Division in Tidworth today, Gen Poppas said that “training wins the fight” and that armies should “prepare for war as if it were coming”.
“Training is the single most important thing an Army can do with the time it can control,” he said. “Teams and armies are built in the field, in the air, and on live-fire ranges, where people have no choice but to depend on one another to complete the mission, with no lifelines or notional buttons to make their problems go away.
“Training drives everything an Army does and everything a formation may - or may not - become. You can see this play out in real-time, from the closest football pitch to sixteen hundred miles east on the front lines in Ukraine, training begets results.”
Gen Poppas emphasised the importance of the smallest teams refining their basic skills together, with training building in complexity as units train together as battlegroups, brigades and divisions, and ultimately as multinational alliances.
He highlighted the value of combined training, such as the recent Exercise Warfighter that 3 (UK) Div took part in, in making the US and British Armies “technically and culturally interoperable” while sending a strong message to potential adversaries.
Gen Poppas said: “Combined exercises like Joint Viking in Norway and Defender Europe deliver a valuable strategic message through which we demonstrate our resolve to one another and fellow allies and highlight our presence and readiness to potential adversaries and competitors.
“And if we do it right when our adversaries see we are highly trained and deeply committed to our allies … maybe, just maybe, our unrivalled readiness could deter some fights altogether before they take place.
“But if not, well, that’s why you and I are called warfighters… right? And a winning warfighter culture begins with a focused training culture. When the next fight comes, when the enemy is at the gate, we will not have the luxury of time to get ready.”
Gen Poppas will also be speaking at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Merville Barracks in Colchester, the home of 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team.