Huntsville Center program keeps service members on target

Photo By William Farrow | Soldiers of the 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team approach a target during a live-fire drill as part of the unit’s 2018 rotation at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La. The U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville is the designated Range and Training Land Program Mandatory Center of Expertise.  

HUNTSVILLE, AL, UNITED STATES

08.10.2020

Story by William Farrow 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville

HUNTSVILLE, Ala.-- Firing weapons at targets is fundamental to U.S. armed forces readiness. Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines must master the basics of marksmanship with a variety of weapons and weapons systems in an assortment of scenarios in order to accomplish the military’s mission to protect and defend the United States, at home and abroad.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville is the designated Range and Training Land Program Mandatory Center of Expertise.

“The RTLP MCX provides centralized management and engineering support to all parts of the Training Support System enterprise. TSS includes the Sustainable Range, Soldier Training Support and Mission Training Center Program, all designed to meet the challenges of a dynamic threat environment,” said Kent Ingram, RTLP project manager.

Live fire training, maneuver exercises, flight operations and myriad other training activities provide hands-on experience critical to support national security objectives and to ensure a high state of military readiness. Test ranges serve critical functions in the development and testing of new weapons systems.

The RTLP MCX is the centralized repository for information and expertise in planning, programming, design and construction of automated ranges, Training Support Centers, Combat Training Centers standards and Mission Training Complex standards, and projects for the TSS Program.

The RTLP MCX assists the Department of the Army and installations in planning, site development, programming and design of ranges — both military construction, and Operations and Maintenance funded.

“The goal is to standardize ranges while decreasing the overall cost of range design, construction, operation and maintenance as well as implementing new technologies to improve training capability in support of new weapons systems and tactics,” Ingram said.

“We design ranges to meet Army requirements for training and maintain range requirement baselines.”

At U.S. military ranges across the globe, Huntsville Center’s RTLP helps ensure our nation’s military personnel have cutting-edge designs and technology for targets, target retrieval systems, range control and hit detection systems to meet the readiness needs of our nation’s warriors.

• Date Taken: 08.10.2020
• Date Posted: 08.11.2020 12:32
• Story ID: 375734
• Location: HUNTSVILLE, AL, US