Friday February 21, 2014
What is it?
Regionally Aligned Forces is the Secretary of the Army and Chief of Staff of the Army’s vision for providing combatant commanders with versatile, responsive, and consistently available Army forces. Regionally Aligned Forces will meet combatant commanders’ requirements for units and capabilities to support operational missions, bilateral and multilateral military exercises, and theater security cooperation activities.
What has the Army done?
U.S. Army Central has assigned forces permanently to its area of responsibility, allocated reserve units and created a community where Soldiers continue to build relationships and foster partnerships with regional partners. RAF addresses the desire to build partner capacity by developing innovative, low-cost, and small footprint approaches to achieve security objectives whenever possible.
Armored brigade combat teams from the 4th Infantry Division from Fort Carson, Colo., partner with regional military units to deter aggression and limit malign influence to enhance regional stability and reassure regional partners. Combat Aviation Brigades have fostered partnerships with the Kuwaiti Air Forces through social and cultural events, professional discussions and unit level tactical engagements to shape conditions for U.S./Kuwaiti interoperability.
What continued efforts does the Army have planned for the future?
While U.S. Forces Command is responsible for training, ARCENT is developing an online portal to provide assigned forces with training resources such as cultural awareness briefings. The 41st Fires Brigade from Fort Hood, Texas, is scheduled to take part in regional partnership events with the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The key tasks for the partnership events are to build partner nation capacity and capability, assess operational and tactical progress and standardize artillery planning, coordination and techniques that facilitate interoperability between U.S. and regional partners.
Why is this important to the Army?
The Army is regionally engaged and globally responsive and an indispensable partner and provider of a full range of capabilities to combatant commanders in a joint, interagency, intergovernmental and multi-national environment. Regional alignment synchronizes the Army’s strategic framework of Prevent, Shape, and Win by addressing the Army’s enhanced regional and global presence. It improves the global security environment by increasing partner capacity. As part of the joint force, the Army provides the versatility, responsiveness, and consistency to Prevent, Shape, and Win.
Resources:
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