Army Stands Up to 6 Security Force Assistance Brigades (SFAB)

[JJ_BPK]

6 Brigades????

Security Force Assistance Brigades (SFAB)

Army Stands Up 6 Brigades to Advise Foreign Militaries
Military.com | Feb 16, 2017 | by Matthew Cox

The U.S. Army announced Thursday the creation of six new brigades designed to take on the service's growing mission of training and advising foreign militaries.

The first of six planned units known as Security Force Assistance Brigades, or SFABs, as well as the new Military Advisor Training Academy will be established at Fort Benning, Georgia, starting in October, according to an Army press release

The brigades are the service's first permanent units whose core mission is conducting security cooperation activities, allowing quick response to combatant commander requirements, the release states.

Until now, the service has been deploying combat units to train, advise and assist security forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and other partner nations. The new units are designed to enhance the readiness of the Army by reducing demand for existing brigade combat teams to conduct security force assistance operations, preserving BCT readiness for full-spectrum contingency operations, according to the release.

"SFABs will benefit the Army by providing trained and accessible resources for support to missions such as:
foreign internal defense,
stabilization operations,
security force assistance
and counterinsurgency operations,"
Anderson said.


link:

[Pete]

Wonder if there will be any 18 Series slots in the new brigades?

[glebo]

I don't think so Pete, these are to be conventional.

[Box]

I need to ask......
...what in the holy sweet fucking name of all that is good is going on in the US Army?


Just think - we will finally have a Regiment within the US Army that was recruited, organized, trained, and equipped to do things like FID, SFA, and COIN.

I dont know why someone didnt think of this sooner - six O6 level commands to focus on these new and emerging mission sets....

Lets call them...

1st SFAB
3rd SFAB
5th SFAB
7th SFAB
10th SFAB
20th SFAB

...and then once they have established themselves and gained the trust of senior army leadership, we could get each of them an extra BN so they could dabble in UW

After reading the new army times about letting folks grow beards, this all makes sense now.
It's too bad I am less than six months from retirement because this seems like the kind of challenge that a man could make a career out of.

[sfshooter]

Did the term "force multipliers" lose it's significance in the Army? Next thing you know they'll be trying to stand down the SF units since the conventional guys think they can do it all.

[blue02hd]

Congratz to all you AD guys!!

Looks like SF has worked itself out of a job. First MARSOC, now this,,,,,,,

[Badger52]

Somewhere from my childhood there's an old issue of Look magazine rolling over in its grave.

[scooter]

Originally Posted by blue02hd

Congratz to all you AD guys!!

Looks like SF has worked itself out of a job. First MARSOC, now this,,,,,,,

The Army had MiTT teams and SPiTT teams and BiTT teams galore back during the wars... We never ran out of work. Mostly because we were doing different things, and they just weren't that effective. In all of the countries we are in, there are lots of units we aren't touching due to manpower constraints. Plenty of work to go around.

[LarryW]

Originally Posted by Billy L-bach

- six O6 level commands to focus on these new and emerging mission sets....

Bet making billets is the reason for the season. Like boll weevils looking for a home.

[Box]

I am having a hard time being convinced that somewhere, we aren't just missing the plot and drifting off-message.

Money to big army for this, or money to the guys we already PAY to do this to cover the added requirement.

Again, somebody missed the boat or we would be discussing 2d SFG, 4th SFG, 6th SFG, 8th SFG, 9th SFG, and 21st SFG in stead of 6 different SFABs filled with PFCs and 2LTs

See that thing on the horizon.... its the boat we missed.

[sinjefe]

Except SF, post 9-11 basically said they wouldn't train, advise and assist anyone except CT forces. That leaves a HUGE gap open for the Army. We did it to ourselves.

[sfshooter]

Originally Posted by scooter

The Army had MiTT teams and SPiTT teams and BiTT teams galore back during the wars... We never ran out of work. Mostly because we were doing different things, and they just weren't that effective. In all of the countries we are in, there are lots of units we aren't touching due to manpower constraints. Plenty of work to go around.

I went into Iraq in '03 as a senior trainer for the New Iraqi Army. The initial group of guys was mostly ex/retired SF, SEAL types and a few crazy jarheads. It was headed up by CMATT (Coalition Military Assistance Training Team), and consisted of US, Brit and Aussie troops. The Civilian side was headed up by retired general Crocker. Some of you guys might remember him from Afghanistan as he wasn't fond of SF from what I heard. That contract turned into a complete cluster fuck. By 4 months into the contract most of us spec op types had quit and found better contracts. That first battalion of the New Iraqi Army almost all quit about a month after they graduated. Vinnel Corporation which had the contract also had had a contract for years training the Saudi National Guard and I know of some ex Vietnam SF vets that worked there.

In Afghanistan I lived on a little camp with ODA 713. Right next door was an Afghan Kandak (battalion) that had a handful of National Guard advisors. When that team became involved in a serious engagement in the Zerkoh valley to the south they called the Guard guys to bring the Afghans for support. The Guard guys got "lost" and never made to the firefight. Took some F-16's to get things right.

I imagine there are a lot of stories like this and I have more. If you don't have the right kind of guys with the right training you aren't going to have very good advisors/trainers. I agree also that there is plenty of work for this type of thing or the PMC's wouldn't be getting contracts for this. Don't know what they will turn out from their "special" school at Ft. Benning but it will be interesting to see.
I have just never been impressed seeing conventional guys in this role.

[scooter]

Originally Posted by Brush Okie

My guess it will be short bus special not SF special.

If it's job security everyone is concerned about, take a deep breath. We're fine. GPF isn't going to work us out of a job. There are way, way more RFFs for SF than we can ever fill. These brigades are an attempt at relevance, not a concerted effort to replace us. The first time a "real" war breaks out they will drop this mission like a hot rock.

EDIT - secondly, they aren't going to advise and accompany. No conventional commander is going to be cool with five guys accompanying an Indig battalion in kinetic operations. Won't happen.

[Box]

I wouldn't characterize it as a job security issue... but as a problem of mission focus and resource management.
and vision.


This is a chance for growth.
We are stretched thin, so I think someone should be saying,
"Hey, we got this... no need for six more army brigades and the ungodly funding that comes with it - give me six battalions of SF guys, and we'll do it ourselves."
fuck letting the Army stick their nose under the tent... it never turns out well


For the last five years, I have had team guys talking about how ridiculous our mission sets are...
local police that cannot do offensive operations - meanwhile, conventional forces are partnered with BN sized combat units.
OUR JOB

Living FAR out in the countryside trying to deal with local powerbrokers...
...only for a conventional O5 and his "TAC" to show up and essential usurp the gathering because he is the battlespace coordinator.
OUR JOB

Admittedly, I have been off the ODA for some years now, but as a company SGM, the complaints I got from the teams about the lopsided mission creep is unbelievable.
We should be god damned furious that the Arny is putting out want ads for lower enlisted folks to dabble in our business because we are "too busy."
....too busy doing what?

I understand that we are turning down missions because of how 'in demand' we are but why not capitalize on that value?
Or we could keep throwing money at whatever "niche" we seem to be in search of right now while other folks move in to fill voids.

It seems more like we are willing to "let" them do shit we dont "want" to do because we are busy trying to reinvent ourselves.
I'd rather say, "give me more money to build a bigger schoolhouse, and I'll take care of it instead of seeing 6 SFAB being developed that will essentially conventionalize something that is supposed to be one of our bread and butter gigs. We should be screaming bloody murder for expansion that allows us to cover something instead of sitting quietly while some whackjobs are submitting DOTMILPF documents showing how good a job big army will do

I am of the opinion that nothing good for the best interest of the SF Regiment will come of this.

...but I am wrong about a lot of things, so who knows

[bblhead672]

Is this an attempt to put 15-20,000 regular Army people who couldn't otherwise qualify for Special Forces into SF Roles? Dilute the SF brand with progressives, women and LGBT types doing similar (but not as effective) activities?