Senator wants Army to look into assigning an SFAB to AFRICOM

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) is asking the Army about the feasibility of assigning a Security Force Assistance Brigade to U.S. Africa Command.

In a letter sent today to Army Secretary Mark Esper, Inhofe writes:

As you know, AFRICOM does not have any assigned forces, but must compete for allocated forces within the Department of Defense's global force management process. The Army has allocated a Brigade Combat Team to AFRICOM in the recent past as part of the Regionally Aligned Forces (RAF) program. These operations were a success for our African nation partners and built strategic partnerships for the United States. However, they also negatively affected the allocated BCT's readiness, especially for core missions such as full-spectrum combat operations.

The new SFABs "are designed specifically for this type of mission and are manned appropriately, without the need to leave most of the BCT at home station and deploying only the senior leadership of the BCT," Inhofe continues. Assigning an SFAB to AFRICOM would also allow a BCT to "focus on its training and maintaining the highest levels of readiness to meet other [combatant command] requirements or operational plans."

Read the full letter here.