Regionally Aligned Forces: Business Not as Usual

Abstract

Abstract: Few understand the rationale or components of the Regionally Aligned Forces (RAF) concept. This article describes the concept and addresses its chief criticisms, namely, how it will account for diverse ground force requirements, how it relates to the Army's force structure, and its affordability. ********** The term Regionally Aligned Forces (RAF) is widely familiar today; however, few understand the basic elements of the concept, or the goals the Chief of Staff of the Army (CSA), General Raymond T. Odierno, wants to achieve with it. Officers in HQDA have been on the road communicating the RAF concept to as broad an audience as possible. But the concept has drawn its share of skeptics. The most common questions fall into three broad categories: 1) Regional alignment for what? What are the ground force requirements for today? What is the real demand? 2) Isn't this just a way for the Army to justify force structure? Is the Army really doing anything differently? 3) Is the RAF even affordable? Won't it collapse under its own weight due to our extraordinary fiscal challenges? This article addresses each of these broad questions and presents the basic concept and rationale for RAF. Why RAF? At its core, RAF is the CSA's initiative for aligning Army capabilities to an expanded set of requirements for the Joint Force--post-2014. As General Odierno stated at the Association of United States Army Eisenhower Dinner in October 2012, we will leverage the Army's mission command capability by organizing our missions around highly trained squads and platoons--the foundation for our company, battalion, and brigade combat teams--for specific mission sets and conditions. This regional alignment of forces will not only offer combatant commanders access to the full range of capabilities resident in the Army today, it will maximum flexibility and agility to national security decision-makers. (1) RAF is a critical first step in operationalizing the concept of Strategic Landpower, which is the combination of land, human, and cyber activities that make decisive outcomes more likely, and increases options for preventing and containing conflict. (2) RAF is integral to the Army vision of being Globally Responsive and Regionally Engaged and it is fundamental to our ability to Prevent, Shape and Win across the globe. It is essential to the US defense strategy and represents the Army's commitment to provide culturally attuned, scalable, mission-prepared capabilities in a changing strategic environment characterized by combinations of nontraditional and traditional threats. Army Regionally Aligned Forces are defined as 1) those units assigned to or allocated to combatant commands, and 2) those service-retained capabilities aligned with combatant commands and prepared by the Army for missions. They are drawn from the Total Force, which includes the Active Army, the Army National Guard, and the Army Reserve. They consist of organizations and capabilities that are: forward stationed; operating in a combatant command area of responsibility; supporting (or ready to support) combatant commands through reach-back capabilities from outside the area of responsibility. They conduct operational missions, bilateral and multilateral military exercises, and theater security cooperation activities. RAF specifically addresses those requirements that are enduring in nature for the combatant commander, from set-the-theater to the most-likely contingencies. Accomplishing such missions requires an understanding of the cultures, geography, languages, and militaries of the countries where RAF are most likely to be employed, as well as expertise in how to impart military knowledge and skills to others. Hence, much of the Army is and remains aligned by virtue of assignment or allocation to a combatant commander. In contrast, Global Response Forces (GRFs) are the designated Joint GRF that maintains a 24/7 global mission to deploy anywhere in the world within 18 hours, as well as the other service retained units that are required to stay intact and at a high states of readiness. …