Security Force Assistance Brigade

A primary tenet of U.S. Strategy during the Global War on Terror (GWOT) was building the capacity and capability of national and local security forces to combat the conditions believed to fuel extremism and terrorist activities. The Department of Defense utilized two primary joint constructs to provide this needed capabillty, MiTTs trained the Iraqi Army and National Police and ETTs did the same in Afghanistan. Training over 350,000 Soldiers and Police between the two nations MiTTs and ETTs were heavily employed but suffered from a lack of standardization in programs of instructions, force structure, and selection criteria. To address both the shortfalls of MiTTs and ETTs and concurrently respond to the growing need for global SFA engagement the Army utilized portions of Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs) as Regionally Aligned Forces (RAF). Utilizing BCTs as RAF as the primary mechanism to deliver SFA mitigated many of the issues of MiTTs and ETTs but also negatively affected the readiness of BCTs to prepare and execute their primary role, win in large�scale ground combat operations leading to the creation of the dedicated Security Force Assistance Brigades in 2017.

From August 2017 to May 2020 the Army established six Security Force Assistance Brigades (SFABs). Originally designed to provide advise, assist, and accompany capabilities to Afghan, Iraqi, and Peshmerga Security Forces, the Army reorganized SFABs in 2019 to meet the global challenges inherent to strategic competition. With the completion of global alignment in summer 2021, SFABs transitioned and assumed a role the Secretary and Chief of Staff of the Army described as “the Army’s leading edge of campaigning.” In addition to providing Combatant Commands’ persistent, predictable, and effective capabilities during competition SFABs provide the Joint Force the vital capability of integrating, synchronizing, and operationalizing America’s unsurpassed network of Allies and partners during crisis and conflict. SFABs’ role in crisis and conflict has not only been tested during Combat Training Center rotations and Warfighter Exercises, it was put to use as part of EUCOM and NATO’s assure and deter operations during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.[2][3]

SFAB Advisors advise, support, liaise and assist foreign partners across the globe. SFABs are the United States Army's solution to providing dedicated and trained personnel to relieve the Brigade Combat Teams from performing combat advisory missions and enable them to focus on their primary combat mission. [4] Before SFABs, the combat advisory role was filled by non-commissioned officers and commissioned officers detailed from the Brigade Combat Teams to train host nation military forces, leaving critical leadership billets unfilled. Operating in units with roughly 800 personnel, SFABs are designed to be versatile and deployable worldwide and are made up exclusively of NCOs and officers, however E-4s with promotable status are accepted and receive promotion to sergeant (E-5) upon graduation of MATA.[5]

SFABs are conventional units composed of volunteers recruited from units across the Regular Army. Volunteers undergo a five-day assessment at Fort Benning, called Assessment and Selection, A and S evaluates a candidate's physical fitness, decision-making, problem solving, and communications skills as well as their ethics and morals.[6] All SFAB volunteers then attend MATA training. Trainees may receive additional language training, culture training, foreign weapons training and medical training, among other topics.[7][8] The SFABs are equipped with secure, but unclassified communications gear, utilizing T2C2 (Transportable Tactical Command Communications) systems, a novel type of backpack satellite voice and data terminals.[9][10] CECOM is augmenting this gear with vehicle-mounted, and hand-carried radios.[11]

[12]

• 11th Security Force Assistance Brigade - British Army equivalent.