RAF and Protection Warfighting Function

As the United States concludes the second of two major conflicts within a twelve year period, military leaders are reflecting on lessons learned, looking inward, analyzing recent innovations, and reviewing strategy in order to enhance and codify the nation s war-fighting capabilities. They are preparing for future conflicts in a rapidly changing global environment by scrutinizing equipment, doctrine, force structure, personnel, and related military systems. The Chief of Staff of the Army (CSA), General Raymond Odierno, recently implemented the Regionally Aligned Forces (RAF) concept execution order (December 2012), which lays out the Army s strategy to support the joint force in the future operational environment. This concept provides combatant commanders (CCDRs) with tailored, responsive and consistently available Army forces, including joint task force (JTF) headquarters to respond to emerging global challenges.2 Regionally Aligned Forces provide the CCDR with land forces for a variety of missions as set forth in the Unified Command Plan (UCP) in accord with the National Security Strategy (NSS). RAF is a fresh concept for providing resources for the CCDR. The question is, however: do RAFs provide CCDRs with the best means for executing strategy in the 21st century? Continued analysis, after-action reports, and further research are warranted. This report examines one of six warfighting functions (WfFs) Protection to determine if RAF provides appropriate capability. Challenges and risks associated with Protection are identified using the Doctrine, Organization, Training, Material, Leadership, Personnel, and Facilities (DOTMLPF) problem-solving construct. This essay describes the post-9/11 environment, shows how forces will be regionally aligned, and elaborates on the WfF of Protection. The Army Service Component Command (ASCC), corps, division, and brigade levels are analyzed to identify potential capability gaps in Protection. ; Published in the Carlisle Compendia of Collaborative Research, p82-96, Feb 2015.