This year the Joint Force Training Centre celebrates its 15th anniversary. The Centre entered the world of allied training in 2004 with modest manpower, technical capabilities and no facilities of its own. Despite these circumstances JFTC made a vigorous start. Through the years, JFTC has steadily grown in numbers, experience and capacity, and has gained a strong and highly esteemed position in NATO’s training and exercise environment. The three main areas deriving from our mission, training for current operations, preparation for future operations and contribution to warfare development are well developed and firmly established. Our expertise gained from numerous and successfully conducted Resolute Support training events helped us to launch the training in support of the NATO Mission in Iraq. In parallel, JFTC continues to execute exercises for operational level commands, such as Trident Joust and Brilliant Joust and became the established venue of choice for Rapid Reaction Corps-France’s annual Citadel Bonus exercise. Our involvement in the NATO-Georgia exercise and the mentoring programme for the NATO-Georgia Joint Training and Evaluation Centre gained considerable interest by the NATO Secretary General and the Military Committee. The same applies for our leading role in the Steadfast Pyramid/ Steadfast Pinnacle exercises in Latvia. JFTC remains one of NATO’s innovation forerunners. We continue to be the home of CWIX, the Coalition Warrior Interoperability eXploration, eXperimentation, eXamination, eXercise, NATO’s premier annual interoperability event and keep developing experiments and tests in support of future NATO exercises. The articles in this magazine will provide you with an in-depth view of our Centre’s development throughout the years, as well as of our current key areas of focus and our way ahead. In July I will hand over the command responsibility for JFTC to my successor. Looking back on the last three years I feel very satisfied with what we have achieved together with the men and women, military and civilian, working shoulder to shoulder in our Centre. With the implementation of NATO’s approved command structure adaptation process JFTC will be stronger than ever before, fostering the Centre’s firm position as the focal point for NATO pre-deployment training, a key venue of allied exercises and a key hub to support NATO’s warfare development. Major General Wilhelm Grün, the Commander of the Joint Force Training Centre ■ Transformation Through Training • Issue No: 12 • May 2019 • 5