Rafs Concept Analysis

A modernized and ready, tailored land force capability to meet combatant commanders’ requirements across the range of military operations meets a number of ASPG near term objectives. The imperative addresses operational adaptability, maintains a global stabilizing presence, and regionally aligns forces.

Major military units and headquarters include NATO’s Allied Command Transformation, U.S. Joint Forces. Command, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, the U.S. Air Force’s Air Combat Command, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Command, and the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.

2. Summary: ADP 6-0 is broken down into three major sections. These sections are; the guiding principles, the Art of Command, and the Mission Command Warfighting Function. This paper will place emphasis on the guiding principles and the Art of Command portions of the manual as they provide the baseline for conceptual implementation. Additionally, as a Group Support Battalion (GSB), the Mission Command Warfighting Function predominantly lies within the responsibility of line Battalion commanders. Within the GSB, our primary mission is to provide augmentees and unique enablers to commander’s to further enable them to meet mission success.

Regionally Aligned Brigades/Forces is the vision of the Chief of Staff of the Army and the Secretary of the Army that will provide combatant command with constantly readily available troops that are versatile and responsive. Regionally Aligned Forces are based on an organizing principle that allows the United States (U.S.) Army to provide units that maintain core war-fighting skills complimented with cultural awareness training, language training, and regional expertise. A revised ARFOGEN cycle based on Active Component and 60-month Reserve Component sequence will replace the current Army model. Mission specific training requirements will be communicated, based on combatant command’s require¬ments, and organized through FORSCOM. These

As Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford emphasized in his February 26, 2015 statement to the house subcommittee on defense, “The challenges of the future operating environment will demand that our Nation maintains a force-in-readiness that is capable of global response.” Given today's fiscally constrained environment, the United States Marine Corps (USMC) continues to experiment with new tactics, techniques, and procedures to enable mission efficiency and improve combat effectiveness. Recognizing the gap between traditional crisis response capacity and demand, geographic combatant commanders (GCC) require alternative and creative solutions to traditional employment challenges. The Expeditionary Force 21 concept is one way the Marine Corps is answering that challenge. Expeditionary Force 21 is the USMC’s vision and response to threats in the contemporary environment while observing the limitations of

The Department of the Army XXXXXXX, in coordination with XXXXXX and XXXXXX, ordered the restructure of the XXXX Aviation Brigade and augmentation of aviation capabilities with the first Rotational Aviation Forces (RAF) concept in the US Army. The mission of the RAF is to support the XXXXXXX alliance in XXXXX and XXXXX.

In a speech at George Washington University in November of 2015, the United States Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter also addressed challenges facing the United States, stating that the security of the US depends on a force better than it is today. This force not only includes the military services, but also extends to the civilian workforce of the combat support agencies, upon which this paper focuses. The vision of the future force is one that can quickly adapt and achieve success in a sophisticated, highly-technical and rapidly changing environment; maximize the benefits of commercial technology development; and address global military competition to defend the nation and make the world a better place.

The purpose of this white paper is to highlight current mobility requirements that have dictated the operational philosophy shift that will require the continuous utilization of the Guard and Reserve to accomplish its missions. We will discuss the personnel requirements in order to accomplish future missioning. It will also briefly discuss the fiscal relevance that these new force structure and operational requirements while reviewing the full time mobilization positions that are strategically positioned at the right functional level.

The Army is in a period of transitioning to a new construct on how it trains and employs Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs). This new idea is called Regionally Aligned Forces (RAFs). The basic concept for RAFs is to align BCTs to a Combatant Commander (COCOM) for use as needed by that COCOM. By being aligned to a COCOM, the BCT and its respective Soldiers will receive specific region cultural and language training and also be provided specific training focus as determined by that COCOM. On a rotational basis units within those regionally aligned BCTs will deploy to their designated region to support the COCOM and in return the unit and Soldiers receive invaluable experiences and realistic training. This essay is to discuss how the Army’s move to RAFs is a great strategic move for the Army on many fronts. Listed are a few of the fronts that the transition to regionally aligned forces addresses. As the Army draws down its forces in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) it has to find ways to remain relevant and useful in a time of budget reductions, smaller conflicts and greater uncertainty across the Department of Defense (DoD). With the reduction in size of the Army and the contraction of forces stationed abroad, there needs to be a plan to address this cultural exposure our forces are losing. In addition, the Army needs to preserve the lessons learned over a decade at war and not fall back into a garrison mindset where realistic training becomes unrealistic and worthless.

The mission command of the Battalion Headquarters, company, and the platoon is to provide the most realistic training. Thus, improving the training performance across the Combat Brigades Units. Moreover, this practical training builds on positive reinforcement of training objectives, identifies the errors on the training battlefield, subsequently enhancing the survival rate on the actual battlefield (Operation Group, 2017).

Regional Aligned Forces (RAF) are units from the Active, Reserve and National Guard component linked to specific Combatant Commands (CCMD) regions. The concept of to regionally aligning Brigade Combat Teams (BCT) with each global combatant command is a brilliant strategy. RAF reduces the number of future conflicts, strengthen relationships with alliance and agencies, and provide cultural broadening assignment and training opportunities for U.S. soldiers.

A major hurdle was thus the war was being fought in foreign terrains and as such, the soldiers had to adapt and learn quickly how to navigate and combat in new grounds. Proper training is also essential for defining roles and functions for each member of the troops to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of the entire units. Confusion of formations and chain of command during battle can be devastating to any unit. Uniformity is crucial in minimizing losses and the number of casualties in battlefields. Similarly, it is neccesary to avoid conflict of interest among soldiers of the same troop and with allies. This war being a collaborative battle among allies thus required the highest level of collaboration and cooperation. Proper training was thus important to ensure that all troops worked and operated as cohesive units.

This pertains to Phase 0 planning, and the conduct of Theater Security Cooperation (TSC), which are “designed to ensure success by shaping perceptions and influencing the behavior of both adversaries and partner nations, developing partner nation and friendly military capabilities for self-defense and multinational operations, improving information exchange and intelligence sharing, and providing United States forces with peacetime and contingency access.”1 This is important as a more forward positioned force can support TSC exercises which continue to strengthen relationships with our allies, and continue to build on partner nations and their capability. This allows for a greater understanding on how global contingency operations will be conducted within a certain area of operation, and strengthen the command and control that will be needed. This will require the Marine Corps to tailor its forward presence to support, with an emphasis on security cooperation and crisis response of the SPMAGTF, and Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) command elements. The MEU can then mutually support TSC exercises under a MEB command element, with additional enablers from within the Area of Responsibility (AOR) from the forward postured forces. A prime example is the current integration of the Task Force 51/5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade (TF 51/5) located in Bahrain, and TF 51/5 serving as the Combined Joint Task Force for exercise Eager Lion in Jordan, with 24 MEU supporting. The Naval integration allows for the integration of disparate assets under a single command, which focuses the command and control in a single unified effort.2 Because the Navy and Marine Corps fall under a single one star command, “TF 51/5 can

The Army’s mission is to build forces capable of Unified Land Operations, able to operate effectively with Joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational partners across the range of military operations to provide capable and ready forces to combatant commanders (CCDRs) in support of the National Security and National Defense Strategies, while sustaining and maintaining the quality of the All-Volunteer Force. (United States, 2014)

In order for military personnel to operate optimally in foreign nations, it is important to comprehend and understand the culture and capabilities of that country. The Army gives leaders the essential topics to understand which are; political, military, economic, social, infrastructure, information, physical environment, and time (PMESIIPT-T). This is intended to give leaders practical information to use when conducting operations in France, as well as building a framework for researching what they will need to know for other countries as well.