Crisis Advance Planning and Force Capabilities Integration: Enabling Rapid Global Mobility by Accelerating the Deployment Process

Abstract

Abstract : As a result of the reduction in overseas U.S. forces at a time of global instability, the U.S. military has transformed to a home-based expeditionary force, highly dependent on rapid deployment to project force abroad in response to crisis. Effective response to crises demands rapid, decisive force projection in order to reduce loss of life, mitigate the after effects of disaster such as the spread of disease, and ensure success against our more hostile adversaries in time of war. Rapid force projection demands pre-deployment planning processes that are timely and flexible. Unfortunately, the current pre-deployment processes are neither rapid nor flexible enough to effectively respond to crises. Moving potentially tremendous amounts of personnel and equipment from CONUS bases, demands more efficient, effective planning tools and processes. To facilitate changes to the deployment process, senior leadership has set a time standard for development and validation of a TPFDD force flow for the first seven days of a crisis within 72- hours. The USJFCOM 4 JDPO division has identified several process improvement areas to meet the 72-hour time standard. Key among them is the Joint Force Capabilities Register, a. capabilities-based tool for deployment planning. This graduate research project addresses the current joint planning process, problems with the current process, the 72-hour objective time standard, the benefit of advance planning for crisis, and the merits and challenges of the USJFCOM Joint Force Capabilities Register. It provides a survey of crisis deployment acceleration initiatives from USSOCOM, USCENTCOM, and USP ACOM, and offers suggestions for accelerating the crisis deployment processes of the future.