Army plans to shift troops to U.S. Africa Command: Aims for quick crisis response

There can be no "quick crisis response" unless the force is in the right staging location)s) and there is dedicated airlift which of course is the same requirement for Commander's In-Extremis Force.

V/R

Dave

Army plans to shift troops to U.S. Africa Command

Aims for quick crisis response

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/23/army-plans-to-shift-troops-to-us-africa-command/?page=all#pagebreak

By Kristina Wong

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The Washington Times

Sunday, December 23, 2012

U.S. Africa Command, the military’s newest regional force, will have more troops available early next year as the Pentagon winds down from two ground wars over the past decade, Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, Army chief of staff, told The Washington Times.

As part of Gen. Odierno’s Regionally Aligned Forces concept, about 1,200 soldiers will deploy to Africa as early as March in an effort to place troops strategically around the globe to respond quickly to sudden challenges in hot spots such as Libya and to develop ties with the people and officials in host countries.

“It’s about us moving towards a scalable, tailorable capability that helps them to shape the environment they’re working in, doing a variety of tasks from building partner capability to engagement, to multilateral training to bilateral training to actual deployment of forces, if necessary,” Gen. Odierno said in an interview.

Amid budget cuts and with President Obama’s new military strategy downplaying the chances of another major land war, the Army has sought to maintain its relevance among admirals and generals in the Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa — likely places for the next flash point. When terrorists attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, no U.S. troops were close enough to help.

Gen. Odierno, the Army’s 38th chief of staff, said the idea for the Regionally Aligned Forces came to him during his tours of duty as the top U.S. commander in Iraq and as the commander of U.S. Joint Forces. He realized then that combatant commanders — the generals and admirals conducting foreign operations — wanted better-defined support for their missions and were not getting it from the Army because it was engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/23/army-plans-to-shift-troops-to-us-africa-command/?page=all#pagebreak