An Advise-and-Assist Commander Has Advice for the U.S. Army’s New Partner-Trainers by Daniel Morgan - Defense One
Training foreign partners to help fight and meet other security challenges has long been central to the American way of war — so important, in fact, that the U.S. Army has become accustomed to dispatching entire brigade combat teams to do the job. But this is neither the most efficient use of combat forces nor the most effective way to get the job done, especially when other threats are challenging U.S. conventional capabilities. That’s why the Army’s introduction of Security Force Assistance Brigades (SFABs) is so welcome.
The SFABs build partner security forces’ capabilities while reducing demand on conventional combat forces needed as war-ready forces to meet rising near-peer threats. But every idea has limitations and room for improvement. Based in part on my experiences in command of 1-87 Infantry — which in 2013 became one of the first advise-and-assist battalions in Regional Command-East, Afghanistan — here are some thoughts…