Army and Marine Corps Formalize Their Training Partnership

By Dolly Rairigh Glass

Colonel (P) Francisco A. Espaillat, Project Manager, Combined Arms Tactical Trainers (PM CATT) looks on as Colonel David A. Smith, Program Manager, Marine Corps Training Systems (PM TRASYS) signs a Memorandum of Agreement, officially recognizing the working partnership of the two organizations.

Colonel (P) Francisco A. Espaillat, Project Manager, Combined Arms Tactical Trainers (PM CATT) and Colonel David A. Smith, Program Manager, Marine Corps Training Systems (PM TRASYS), officially recognized the two organizations’ working partnership, signing a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on May 22, 2012.

The MOA outlines the goals, objectives, and responsibilities between PM TRASYS and PM CATT in their efforts toward increasing partnership through synergistic capability development. The primary focus of the MOA will be to drive down development, procurement and sustainment costs for similar Army and Marine Corps training requirements.

“The Marines and Soldiers that use our training devices will benefit greatly by what we are doing here today,” said Espaillat. “This synergy we are building around training systems, especially in light of the current and future budget, is critical to our future success.”

Espaillat also noted how this will help improve technology development by industry. “When we combine our requirements and put them on the table, it is much more powerful, and going forward we can figure out where we need to go, collectively, to train our Marines and Soldiers in the future. This is a good day for us, and a good day for the training community.”

Colonel Smith added, “With the Army and the Marines working more closely together on common training requirements, especially in our approaches to Collective and Virtual training systems, our industry partners can better leverage their internal resources. I am confident they will appreciate our efforts, and help us drive down our training costs.”

Just last summer, PM TRASYS signed an MOU with PM TRADE to officially document their commitment to maintain a partnership to work together on similar individual Soldier and Marine training devices. “From the Marine Corps’ perspective, as part of Team Orlando, this is just an extension of what we’re already doing – with PEOSTRI, NAWCTSD and AFAMS,” said Smith. “This isn’t theory. It is a example of real work being done inside Team Orlando that helps Marines, Soldiers and industry.”