Monday, October 26, 2015

3-star: Army grows Pacific Pathways, ties with Asian armies

3-star: Army grows Pacific Pathways, ties with Asian armies: The Army is mapping out Pacific Pathways exercises for the next two years as the service looks to grow the program to include troops from the reserve component and other services.

“Any time you have something that’s good like this, you want to see how you can enable it,” Lt. Gen. Stephen Lanza, commanding general of I Corps, said in an interview with Army Times. “One of the great things about how you build readiness is you want to continue to look at how you continue to adjust conditions, how you add complexity to the training.”

Pacific Pathways made its debut in 2014 when more than 800 soldiers from the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, spent three months in Asia.

The Pathways concept employs a single unit through what officials call a “training pathway.” This unit spends three to four months in a series of already approved, consecutive bilateral and multilateral exercises and engagements with foreign militaries.