Christopher G. Pernin

Building Armies, Building Nations: Toward a New Approach to Security Force Assistance

• In what ways can SFA provision be improved? • What can case studies of three historic large-scale U.S. SFA programs—South Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq—tell us about the relationships between armies and nation-building and the potential role of SFA? • What can case studies of three attempts by postcolonial states—Ghana, Mali, and Nigeria—tells us about the relationships between armies and nation-building and the potential role of the SFA?

What is the global landpower network and what value might it provide

ABSTRACT US national security guidance, as well as the US Army’s operational experiences since 2001, emphasizes the importance of working closely with partner countries to achieve US strategic objectives. The US Army has introduced the global landpower network (GLN) concept as a means to integrate, sustain and advance the Army’s considerable ongoing efforts to meet US national security guidance. This study develops the GLN concept further, and addresses three questions. What benefits can the GLN provide the Army? What are the essential components of the GLN? What options exist for implementing the GLN concept? By developing the GLN concept, the Army has the opportunity to transition the GLN from an often ad hoc and reactive set of relationships to one that the Army more self-consciously prioritizes and leverages as a resource to meet US strategic objectives.

Enabling the Global Response Force: Access Strategies for the 82nd Airborne Division

Abstract : The U.S. Armys 82nd Airborne Division (hereafter, the 82nd) plays a significant strategic role as part of the Global Response Force (GRF), whose mandate is contained in a Joint Chiefs of Staff executive order that codifies generalized global missions for which the GRF needs to be prepared, forces that could be called upon as part of the GRF (from across the Joint community), and time lines for providing them. The time lines, among other factors, make the GRF an important national asset for rapid responses to unforeseen or, more specifically, unplanned operations. One part of ensuring the GRF works is having working concepts and a generalized and specific understanding of what global access means to the GRFs mandate. For rapid time lines, the GRF may not have considerable advanced planning for access, meaning there is a need to develop a strategic view of what access means. From the standpoint of the 82nd, global access means defining what potential or likely operations might look like. This includes having soldiers trained and equipped for the specific missions and a vision of how they will work with the United States Air Force (USAF) for lift and support and within the constraints and demands of specific combatant commands (CCMDs) and Joint Staff. This requires a common understanding of GRF operations from a Joint perspective.

Worldwide C-17 Availability to Support 82nd Airborne Operations from Fort Bragg/Pope Field

Abstract : The Global Response Force (GRF) must respond to a variety of potential missions across arange of military operations. In addition to traditional missions, GRF is the force called on in any national threat necessitating rapid response. Recent defense guidance further expanded possible roles for the GRF by increasing the types and numbers of missions they will be called on to undertake, thus challenging existing ways those forces operate. RAND Arroyo Center was tasked to provide operational and organizational analysis of the many challenges facing the 82nd Airborne Division GRF. This report focuses on the availability of C-17 aircraft to support the GRF, a subset of the research of the RAND fiscal year 2014 study Enabling the Global Response Force to Meet Future Needs. The purpose of the RAND research presented here was to determine the availability of C-17s deployed worldwide to assist the GRF with rapid response to a national threat. This research represents only part of the overall research effort. Research dealing with other challenges facing the GRF can be found in John Gordons work on scenarios for future 82nd Airborne operations and Christopher G. Pernin et al., Enabling the Global Response Force: Access Strategies for the 82nd Airborne Division, RAND Corporation, RR-1161-A. The findings presented here should be of interest to defense policymakers, the air mobility community (specifically, Air Force Air Mobility Command), and U.S. Air Force and Army planners.