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What does everyone think about the idea of units being regionally aligned? I personally think it's a great idea. While I understand the necessity of being prepared for full spectrum operations, being regionally with an area provides training and readiness that I don't believe can be matched in any other way. Training rotations to the AOR provides soldiers with boots on ground experience and allows for better cultural immersion to the area. It would also provide opportunities for units to work with partner forces in the region, building cohesion.
Posted 10 y ago
Responses: 2
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When I first heard of this concept, I too thought it was a great idea. But the more I think about it, the more I feel like it would take a lot more time and effort to be able to implement this properly. It kind of leads to the debate about which is better - to be a specialist in one area, or well-rounded in a few areas. As an officer, if I came up in one region, would it be benificial for me to switch to another regional alignment as a CPT or MAJ? I would probably have to re-learn a heck of a lot of things! If there was a major conflict in one area of the world, would the other regionally aligned units still be able to fully suport it, or would TTPs/SOPs, etc all need to be dumped and re-learned during the conflict? But I think theses challenges could all be overcome if we have the right leaders and SMEs deeply invested in this concept. If there can be quantifiable, tangable benifits to operating in such a manner, I would be fully onboard. I know this has worked for Special Forces so far, but the "big Army" is a different beast. How much research has been done on the benifits of regonally alligned units in the Army?
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Sir,
I think you make some great points in regards to how this can have a negative effect on the flexibility of a unit and its ability to accept diverse assignments as operational needs arise.
The only true answer to this would be costly and time consuming. It would be to train in the needs of your region and then find more baseline training to work from for other potential alignments.
Maybe there is something to reviewing how SF managed to pull from a diversity of regionally-aligned units to all serve in the CENTCOM AO to see how if this flexibility could be modelled and utilized for the big Army.
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It would certainly make for a good research paper for the folks in ILE or CGSC! I am a bit outside of my logistical profession here, but the SF units that are regionally alligned all fall under SOCOM if I am not mistaken, and SOCOM has their own budget and support channels independent of the other major commands, allowing them to tailor the requirements of their missions with a lot more flexibility than the regular Army. To regionally align corps and divisions in an era of sequestration seems extremely ambitious to me. It is a very interesting idea, but I am not sure the timing is right...
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I think the concept sounds good, but not sure the logistics or funding could be functionally obtained with ease or mutual agreement from all involved, would need some further details on how it would or should be followed through on or even implemented.
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