Roughly 3,000 soldiers, possibly more, are expected to serve tours across the continent in 2013, training foreign militaries and aiding locals.
As part of a "regionally aligned force concept," soldiers will live and work among Africans in safe communities approved by the U.S. government.
They will be split up and their deployments will vary in time, so the entire brigade won't be abroad at once, it seems.
But with the entire brigade seemingly committed, the unit clearly won't be combat ready during 2013. That has been one question I've had. I didn't know if the earmarked brigade would send only small contingents and yet remain capable of being deployed even if under-strength. Clearly not.
The brigade that will carry out this mission has not yet been identified.
Remember that as our big-unit combat missions decline, our special forces remain heavily committed to a shadow war. Regionally aligned brigades are the Army's effort to take the training mission off of special forces to leave these elite troops freed for combat missions.
UPDATE: It will have a lot to do, it seems:
The U.S. military is expanding its secret intelligence operations across Africa, establishing a network of small air bases to spy on terrorist hideouts from the fringes of the Sahara to jungle terrain along the equator, according to documents and people involved in the project.
At the heart of the surveillance operations are small, unarmed turboprop aircraft disguised as private planes. Equipped with hidden sensors that can record full-motion video, track infrared heat patterns, and vacuum up radio and cellphone signals, the planes refuel on isolated airstrips favored by African bush pilots, extending their effective flight range by thousands of miles.
About a dozen air bases have been established in Africa since 2007, according to a former senior U.S. commander involved in setting up the network. Most are small operations run out of secluded hangars at African military bases or civilian airports.
In a lot of that area, state control exists only on a map. It helps to keep eye balls on the region.
