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NATIONAL DEFENSE STRATEGY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

III. DESIRED CAPABILITIES AND ATTRIBUTES

B. ATTRIBUTES

To execute this strategy, U.S. military forces possess a number of attributes:

1. SHAPE AND SIZE OF MILITARY FORCES

The shape, size, and global posture of U.S. military forces are configured to::

• Defend the U.S. homeland; ¹

• Operate in and from four forward regions to assure allies and friends, dissuade competitors, and deter and counter aggression and coercion;

• Swiftly defeat adversaries in overlapping military campaigns while preserving for the President the option to call for a more decisive and enduring result in a single operation; and,²

• Conduct a limited number of lesser contingencies. ³

These force planning standards have informed decisions to date on the force's overall mix of capabilities, size, posture, patterns of activity, readiness, and capacity to surge globally. This framework and these standards will be reviewed in the 2005 QDR.

The force planning framework does not focus on specific conflicts. It helps determine capabilities required for a range of scenarios. The Department analyzes the force requirements for the most likely, the most dangerous, and the most demanding circumstances. Assessments of U.S. capabilities will examine the breadth and depth of this construct, not seek to optimize in a single area. Doing so allows decisionmakers to identify areas where prudent risk could be accepted and areas where risk should be reduced or mitigated. Importantly, operations related to the war on terrorism span the breadth of this construct.

Defend the homeland. Our most important contribution to the security of the U.S. homeland is our capacity to identify, disrupt, and defeat threats early and at a safe distance, as far from the United States and its partners as possible. Our ability to identify and defeat threats abroad before they can strike-while making critical contributions to the direct defense of our territory and population is the sine qua non of our nation's security.

Operate in and from four forward regions. Our military presence abroad comprises tailored and increasingly rotational forces operating in and from four forward regions Europe, Northeast Asia, the East Asian Littoral, and the Middle East Southwest Asia. Complemented by our capabilities for prompt global action, our forces overseas help assure partners, dissuade military competition, and deter aggression and coercion.

Our forward deterrence capabilities, in particular, are adaptable forces able to respond rapidly to emerging crises and control escalation on our terms. These forces are complemented by immediately employable global strike, special operations, and information operations capabilities that provide additional options for preventing and deterring attacks.

Our military presence in the four regions does not constrain our capacity to undertake military missions worldwide, nor does it delimit our global interests. For example, we remain steadfast in our commitment to the security of the Americas, yet we require a very small military presence in Central and South America. Our current military presence abroad recognizes that significant U.S. interests and the bulk of our forward military presence are concentrated in the four regions, even as our forces are positioned to undertake military operations worldwide. Swiftly defeat adversaries and achieve decisive, enduring results. We cannot be certain in advance about the location and specific dimensions of future conflicts. Therefore, we maintain a total force that is balanced and postured for rapid deployment and employment worldwide. It is capable of surging forces into two separate theaters to "swiftly defeat" adversaries in military campaigns that overlap in time.

Further, recent experience highlights the need for a force capable of turning one of two "swift defeat" campaigns, if the President so decides, into an operation seeking more farreaching objectives. Accomplishing these goals requires agile joint forces capable of rapidly foreclosing an adversary's options, achieving decisive results in major combat actions, and setting the security conditions for enduring conflict resolution. We must plan for the latter to include extended stability operations involving substantial combat and requiring the rapid and sustained application of national and international capabilities spanning the elements of state power.

Conduct lesser contingencies. Our global interests require our armed forces to undertake a limited number of lesser contingency operations, perhaps for extended periods of time. Lesser contingencies include smaller scale combat operations such as strikes and raids; peace operations; humanitarian missions; and non combatant evacuations. Because these contingencies place burdens on the same types of forces needed for more demanding military campaigns, the Department closely monitors the degree and nature of involvement in lesser contingencies to properly balance force management and operational risks.

2. GLOBAL DEFENSE POSTURE

To better meet new strategic circumstances, we are transforming our network of alliances and partnerships, our military capabilities, and our global defense posture. Our security is inextricably linked to that of our partners. The forward posture of U.S. forces and our demonstrated ability to bring forces to bear in a crisis are among the most tangible signals of our commitment to the security of our international partners.

Through the 1990s, U.S. forces remained concentrated in Cold War locations-primarily in Western Europe and Northeast Asia. In the Cold War we positioned our forces to fight where they were stationed. Today, we no longer expect our forces to fight in place. Rather, operational experience since 1990 indicates we will surge forces from a global posture to respond to crises. This recognition, combined with rapid advances in technology, new concepts of operation, and operational lessons learned, is driving a comprehensive realignment of U.S. global defense posture.

The President stated, "A fully transformed and strengthened overseas force posture will underscore the commitment of the United States to effective collective action in the common cause of peace and liberty." Force posture changes will strengthen our ability to meet our security commitments and contend with new challenges more effectively. As we transform our posture, we are guided by the following goals:

• Expanding allied roles and building new security partnerships;
• Developing greater flexibility to contend with uncertainty by emphasizing agility and by not overly concentrating military forces in a few locations;
• Focusing within and across regions by complementing tailored regional military presence and activities with capabilities for prompt global military action;
• Developing rapidly deployable capabilities by planning and operating from the premise that forces will not likely fight in place; and,
• Focusing on capabilities, not numbers, by reinforcing the premise that the United States does not need specific numbers of platforms or personnel in administrative regions to be able to execute its security commitments effectively.

Key changes to global defense posture. Key changes in global defense posture lie in five interrelated areas: relationships, activities, facilities, legal arrangements, and global sourcing and surge.

Relationships. Our ability to cooperate with others in the world depends on having a harmony of views on the challenges that confront us and our strategy for meeting those challenges. Strengthening defense relationships at all levels helps build such harmony.

Changes in global posture seek both to strengthen our relationships with partners around the world and to help cultivate new relationships founded on common security interests. We are transforming many of our alliances to contend with our new circumstances. Command structures are another important part of our relationships and are being tailored to address our new political and operational needs. We also will lower the operational vulnerability of our forces and reduce local social and political friction with host populations.

Activities. Our posture also includes the many military activities in which we engage around the world. This means not only our physical presence in key regions, but also our training, exercises, and operations. They involve small units working together in a wide range of capacities, major formations conducting elaborate exercises to achieve proficiency in joint and combined operations, and the "nuts and bolts" of providing support to ongoing operations. They also involve the force protection that we and our allies provide to each other.

Facilities. A network of forward facilities and capabilities, mainly in four critical regions, provides the United States with an unmatched ability to act globally. However, the threat posed by catastrophic challenges and the risks of surprise place an even higher premium on the ability to take rapid military action.

To strengthen our capability for prompt global action and our flexibility to employ military forces where needed, we require the capacity to move swiftly into and through strategic pivot points and remote locations. The new global posture-using main operating bases (MOB), forward operating sites (FOS), and a diverse array of more austere cooperative security locations (CSL)- will support such needs. In addition, our prepositioned equipment and stocks overseas will be better configured and positioned for global employment. We will make better use of "reach back" capabilities for those functions that can be accomplished without deploying forward.

MOBS are permanent bases with resident forces and robust infrastructure. They are intended to support training, security cooperation, and the deployment and employment of military forces for operations. The more austere facilities-FOSs and CSLs-are focal points for combined training and will expand and contract as needed to support military operations. FOSs are scalable, "warm" facilities intended for rotational use by operational forces. They often house prepositioned equipment and a modest, permanent support presence. FOSs are able to support a range of military activities on short notice. CSLs are intended for contingency access, logistical support, and rotational use by operational forces. CSLs generally will have little or no permanent U.S. personnel assigned. In addition to these, joint sea basing too holds promise for the broader transformation of our overseas military posture.

Increasing the flexibility and support provided by prepositioned equipment and materiel is another important aspect of our facilities infrastructure. A decade of operational experience indicates that a new, more innovative approach to prepositioned equipment and stocks is needed. Support materiel and combat capabilities should be positioned in critical regions and along key transportation routes to enable worldwide deployment.

Prepositioned capabilities afloat are especially valuable. In addition, singleservice prepositioned capabilities will no longer suffice. As in all other aspects of transformation, prepositioning must be increasingly joint in character.

The new posture will be enabled by "reachback" capabilities-support capabilities that are available remotely rather than in forward theaters. For example, intelligence support, including battle damage assessment, can be provided from outside the theater of operations. Leveraging reach back capabilities reduces our footprint abroad and strengthens our military effectiveness. We also seek to increase the involvement of our partners in reach back functions.

Legal arrangements. Many of the current legal arrangements that govern overseas posture date from an earlier era. Today, challenges are more diverse and complex, our prospective contingencies are more widely dispersed, and our international partners are more numerous. International agreements relevant to our posture must reflect these circumstances and support greater operational flexibility. They must help, not hinder, the rapid deployment and employment of U.S. and coalition forces worldwide in a crisis.

Consistent with our partners' sovereign considerations, we will seek new legal arrangements that maximize our freedom to:

• Deploy our forces as needed;
• Conduct essential training with partners in the host nation; and,
• Support deployed forces around the world.

Finally, legal arrangements should encourage responsibility sharing between us and our partners, and provide legal protections for our personnel through Status of Forces Agreements and protections against transfers of U.S. personnel to the International Criminal Court.

Global sourcing and surge. Our military needs to be managed in a way that will allow us to deploy a greater percentage of our force where and when it is needed, anywhere in the world. Thus, the Department is transitioning to a global force management process. This will allow us to source our force needs from a global, rather than regional, perspective and to surge capabilities when needed into crisis theaters from disparate locations worldwide. Our global presence will be managed dynamically, ensuring that our joint capabilities are employed to the greatest effect.

Under this concept, Combatant Commanders no longer "own" forces in their theaters. Forces are allocated to them as neededsourced from anywhere in the world. This allows for greater flexibility to meet rapidly changing operational circumstances.

A prominent consideration in our global posture changes is to move our most rapidly deployable capabilities forward. For. example, heavy forces will return to the United States, to be replaced in large part by more expeditionary capabilities such as airborne forces and Stryker brigades. As a result, our immediate response times should be greatly improved

¹ Homeland Defense activities represent the employment of unique military capabilities at home at varying levels to contend with those circumstances described at the conclusion of Section 11, C, 1.

² Campaigns to "swiftly defeat" the efforts of adversaries are undertaken to achieve a circumscribed set of objectives aimed at altering an adversary's behavior or policies, swiftly denying an adversary's operational or strategic objectives, preventing attacks or uncontrolled conflict escalation, and/or rapidly re establishing security conditions favorable to the United States and its partners. "Swiftly defeating" adversary efforts could include a range of military activities-from stability operations to major combat that will vary substantially in size and duration. Examples of "swift defeat" campaigns include Operation(s) Desert Storm and Allied Force.

Campaigns to "win decisively" are undertaken to bring about fundamental, favorable change in a crisis region and create enduring results. They may entail lengthy periods of both major combat and stability operations; require regime change, defense, or restoration; and entail significant investments of the nation's resources and time. "Win decisive" campaigns will vary significantly in size and scope but will be among the most taxing scenarios. Examples of "win decisive" campaigns include Operations) Just Cause and Iraqi Freedom.

³ Lesser contingency operations are undertaken to resolve or ameliorate particular crisis circumstances and typically describe operations more limited in duration and scope than those outlined above. These operations include military activities like strikes and raids, non combatant evacuation operations, peace operations, and disaster relief or humanitarian assistance. Lesser contingency operations range in size from major undertakings like Operation(s) Restore Hope or Provide Comfort to the much smaller, episodic dispatch of U.S. forces to respond to emergency conditions.