Army - Kicking Tires On Jltv

U.S. Army/Sgt. Alexandra Hulett
U.S. Army/Pfc. Craig Philbrick
Above: Soldiers from the 1st Armored Division
and Spanish Legionnaires during African Readiness
Training 15 in Spain; right: An 82nd Airborne
Division soldier helps a Polish soldier during an
exercise of NATO nations in Hohenfels, Germany.
haps additional help for security cooperation,
to the Department of State; and a
new tool to keep American troops out of
major foreign operations, to isolationists.
These different interpretations point to a
problem with the messaging associated
with the concept of regionally aligned
forces. This messaging problem leaves
room for the criticism that the RAF concept
is nothing substantially new but instead,
a gimmick to defend force structure
in a period of sequestration.
Improve Concept
The Army can, however, improve the
RAF concept and its implementation and
thus, reduce the risk of such an interpretation.
Four concrete measures can help
ensure that the RAF concept endures and provides better
trained and available forces to the joint force while also contributing
to the development of future leaders.
First, the Army’s service component commands must search
for opportunities for RAF units and soldiers to operate in
their area of responsibility. The service component commands
should work with partner nations to develop combined
training activities, and also with the U.S. Army Forces
Col. Allen J. Pepper is an infantry and Sub-Saharan Africa foreign
area officer currently serving as the senior defense official/defense
attache in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. He holds
a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Military Academy and a master’s
degree from the University of Strasbourg, France.
Command to provide the funding for RAF units to deploy
and participate in this training. Section 1203 of the National
Defense Authorization Act for 2014 authorizes expenditures
for this kind of training, allowing the service component
command to present attractive proposals to partner nations.
In a time of reduced training money, the service component
commands likely will face considerable resistance for such expenses.
But the chief of staff’s prerogative for the Army to be
the leader in the human domain makes such deployments important
tools for Army readiness and relevance.
In addition, the service component commands must work
with geographic combatant commands to develop proposals
for security assistance programs and cases, with the training
aspects executed by RAF tactical units and soldiers from the
34 ARMY ■ February 2016