Monday, June 20, 2016
The increasing complexity of global security challenges causes combatant commanders from United States Northern Command, United States Southern Command, United States Africa Command, United States Pacific Command, United States Central Command, and United States European Command to request more U.S. Army forces to deter the nation’s adversaries and assure allies. These objectives are achieved by building capacity and interoperability with allies, while simultaneously protecting the homeland and building readiness across the force. The Army builds and sustains readiness through prioritization, investment in training, and modernization. This allows the Army to maintain capacity to respond to emerging threats and deter, fight, and win wars in defense of the United States and its national interests.
The Army is meeting Secretary of Defense ordered support to combatant commands with 187,500 Soldiers in over 140 worldwide locations. The Army is involved in numerous global exercises while continuing to support eight named operations including, Inherent Resolve, Freedom’s Sentinel, Octave Shield/New Normal, Spartan Shield, Joint Guardian, Enduring Freedom-Horn of Africa, Noble Eagle, and Juniper Shield.
With force and budget reductions, the demand to meet global requirements challenges the Army’s ability to maintain readiness for future contingencies. The Army will work to increase overall readiness with a goal of achieving a ready Army by 2020.
The Army will use four Readiness pillars: Manning, Training, Equipping, and Leader Development, to enable the Total Force, including Army Reserve and Army National Guard, to generate readiness and meet the National Strategy. Many demands on the force, including rotational exercises on the Korean Peninsula and in Europe, provide opportunities to build readiness. This is achieved when units execute tasks within their core competencies of Combined Arms Maneuver and Decisive Action. The Army will continue to seek these opportunities to recover readiness as a strategic hedge against uncertainty.
The global security environment is increasingly uncertain and complex. The Total Force must be postured to shape the global security environment by providing trained and ready forces to Combatant Commands that deter threats and offer contingency response capabilities. The Army will continue to strengthen defense relationships and build increased capacity with allies.
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