RAF and Sustainment Warfighting Function

Abstract

The United States is in the midst of implementing a responsible transition after ending the war in Iraq, drawing down in Afghanistan, and defeating Al-Qaida and its terrorist affiliates, while moving the economy from catastrophic recession to lasting recovery.1 Headquarters, Department of the Army (HQDA) has developed an updated concept for providing trained and ready Army forces to the geographic combatant commanders (GCC) in support of their theatre campaign plans (TCP). This concept, advanced by HQDA, called Regionally Aligned Forces (RAF), is intended to support the GCCs to shape the environment, mitigate tensions, and deter armed conflict in their area of responsibility (AOR).2 RAF provides the combatant commander (CCDR) with up to joint task force (JTF) capable headquarters with scalable, tailorable capabilities to support shaping the environment. JTF capability includes Army units assigned to combatant commands; allocated to a combatant command; and those capabilities service retained, combatant command aligned (SRCA) and prepared by the Army for combatant command (CCMD) regional missions. These forces include Army organizations and capabilities from the corps down to the brigade echelon which are: forward stationed; operating in a CCMD AOR; supporting from outside the AOR, including reach-back capability; and prepared to support from outside the AOR. CCMD requirements are driving and implementing these regional missions. RAF requires an understanding of the cultures, geography, languages, and militaries for the countries where they are deploying, as well as expertise how to impart military knowledge and skills to others.3 The Army intends that the RAF concept will support CCMD and U.S. Government requirements to Prevent, Shape, and Win, while remaining operationally adaptable to respond to global contingencies, if required.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 2015
Accession Number
ADA618271

Entities

People

  • James D. Scudieri
  • Matthew H. Ruedi

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • C4I
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Combatant Commanders
  • Command And Control
  • Deployment
  • Employment
  • Health Services
  • Logistics
  • Military Science
  • Students
  • Supply Chain
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Terrorists
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • United States
  • United States Africa Command
  • United States European Command
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.