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Corps, Navy look to boost training at Lejeune

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — The Marine Corps and Navy are hoping to get more bang for their buck out of this base’s vast training areas.

The Navy is assessing possible impacts from an increase in training, including a 20 percent increase in small-arms fire, a 10 percent increase in MK19 40mm grenade rounds, and a 5 percent increase in artillery, mortars and tank rounds.

There’s also a push to increase fixed-wing and helicopter missions, as well as target practice with air-to-surface Hellfire missiles. Sailors could even get in on the action.

“The Navy wants to increase their training capabilities at Lejeune,” said James Schleining, director of the base Range Development Division. “We have an impact area and water ranges.”

Those are the kind of assets the Navy could use for bombing sorties and small boat operations training.

Part of the need for additional training, Schleining said, is the Corps’ goal to increase its end-strength to 202,000 Marines by the end of fiscal 2011. From that expansion, Lejeune expects more than 6,000 additional Marines.

Since April 2007, three infantry battalions — 1/9, 2/9 and 3/9 — have been reactivated. Each battalion has been placed with an existing regiment under 2nd Marine Division. Schleining said the ranges haven’t been affected that much yet by the end-strength increase.

Another reason for the proposal to increase training is to keep Lejeune-based units at home more.

“We’re preparing ourselves for the future,” Schleining said. “We’re trying to increase the capability of our ranges to do more and different types of home-station training. There’s an economical value to keeping it here.”

When Marines have to travel out of town to train, that takes up time they could be spending in pre-deployment training, he said. More opportunities to train at home also give Marines here the chance to better prepare for training on the West Coast, including Mojave Viper in Twentynine Palms, Calif.

The closest training range for Marine aviators to practice firing the Hellfire missile is at Fort Bragg, N.C., an Army base about 100 miles southwest of Lejeune. Because there’s only one range at Bragg set up for Hellfire training, getting an opportunity to use the range can take months, Schleining said. The only other option for North Carolina-based Marines is at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz.

If approved, Hellfire missile training would take place on Brown’s Island, a live-fire impact area off Onslow Beach. The impact area is part of thousands of acres that make up Lejeune’s training areas, including 98 maneuver areas, 34 gun positions, 50 tactical landing zones and 78 live-fire ranges.