Army advisor brigade ramps up Pacific partners’ military effectiveness

WASHINGTON — In front of its headquarters near the Pacific Ocean, soldiers from 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade are planting palm trees.

The unit, established in 2020, has set up partnerships with six nations in U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, including Japan, Indonesia, Mongolia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines. The 5th SFAB is headquartered at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington.

SFABs were created to build expert advis ing units to help partner nations fill gaps in their militaries, key to the U.S. strategy to have coalitions to counter the weight of peer adversaries such as Russia or China.

Each palm tree so far planted represents one of the countries the unit has built partnerships with. The unit plans to plant more.

“There’s one for every country, as we grow partnerships, we will plant more palm trees,” Lt. Col. Dustin Blair, 4th Battalion, 5th SFAB commander, told Army Times in an interview at the annual Association of the U.S. Army conference on Wednesday.

SFAB soldiers are seeing some of those early partnerships show their own signs of military capability growth already.

“The greatest counterweight to our growing adversary in the Indo-Pacific region is this nested group of partners and allies,” Blair said.

The unit sent advisors to Mongolia more than two years ago.

Capt. Dan Sprouse, Team Leader, Maneuver Advisor Team 5132 built a powerful relationship in Indonesia beginning upon his arrival in Indonesia in May. (Army)

“Our (non-commissioned officers) worked directly with the sergeant major of the army of Mongolia to stand up an NCO education system,” Command Sgt. Maj. Brian Robert, 3rd Squadron, 5th SFAB, told Army Times.

SFAB soldiers worked with the Royal Thai Army for their first combined training with Strykers and an Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Lt. Col. Gerry Resmondo told Army Times.

Those Thai units now use Strykers at their own combat training centers and are working on ways to maneuver a brigade, Lt. Col. Gerry Resmondo, 3rd Squadron, 5th SFAB commander, told Army Times.

That’s not a capability they had before working with 5th SFAB, Resmondo said.

Staff Sgt. Jesse Enebrad, an advisor with 5th SFAB, supervises members of the Maldives National Defense Forces on a marksmanship range at Central Area Command, Kahdhoo, Maldives, May 23, 2022 (Spc. Jacob Núñez/Army)

In an upcoming training event this month, Blair said that South Korea, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand are all sending company-sized elements to participate, and another seven Asian nations are sending observers.

Much of that work is aimed at getting a steady pipeline of partner nations flowing into the Joint Pacific Multi-National Readiness Center in Hawaii, Blair said. The facility offers partner forces realistic training, evaluation and opposition.

“A lot of countries will go into training, but they’ve never had an opposing force,” Resmondo said.

The Joint Pacific Multi-National Readiness Center gives users access to five islands that help replicate some of the maritime-focused terrain they’ll face if fighting China. But it’s sometimes not an option.

The portable combat training center program began last year with groups from Army CTCs taking expedient range monitoring gear and observer-trainer-controllers to offsite locations.

SFAB soldiers trained with one such portable CTC this year in Indonesia, which has hosted Garuda Shield, formerly a bilateral training exercise with the United States.

That grew to Super Garuda Shield earlier this year with 14 nations participating in the large-scale exercise, Blair said.

While the reach of SFABs in the region is far, the unit is doing a lot of that in small teams.

Resmondo said that about 11 teams with a total of 130 soldiers are now conducting six-month rotations in the region. They have the authorized capacity to increase that to 20 teams with 272 personnel.

The entire brigade includes 820 volunteer soldiers split into 64 advising teams. Those teams deploy every 18 months for six months at a time.

Some teams may be as small as a captain and two enlisted personnel. Others might be larger, depending on the needs of the training package.

The brigade has the authorization to build partnerships with another eight nations currently.

So, there might be some more trees to plant. And some species of palm trees live more than 100 years.

Clarification: This article has been updated to accurately state the deployment cycles of the advisor teams.

Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.

华盛顿——在靠近太平洋的总部前，第五安全部队援助旅的士兵们正在种植棕榈树。

该部队成立于2020年，已与美国印太司令部六个成员国建立了合作关系，包括日本、印度尼西亚、蒙古、泰国、马来西亚和菲律宾。第5特种部队航空旅的总部位于华盛顿州刘易斯-麦科德联合基地。

SFAB 的建立是为了组建专家顾问部队，帮助伙伴国家填补其军事上的空白，这对于美国建立联盟以对抗俄罗斯或中国等势均力敌的对手的战略至关重要。

目前种植的每一棵棕榈树都代表着该单位与之建立伙伴关系的一个国家。该单位计划种植更多棕榈树。

“每个国家都有一棵棕榈树，随着伙伴关系的加深，我们将种植更多的棕榈树，”第 5 特种部队辅助旅第 4 营指挥官达斯汀·布莱尔中校周三在参加美国陆军协会年会时接受《陆军时报》采访时表示。

SFAB士兵们已经看到，一些早期的合作关系已经展现出军事能力增长的迹象。

布莱尔说：“在印太地区，对抗我们日益壮大的对手的最大力量，就是这个由伙伴和盟友组成的紧密联盟。”

该部队两年前就向蒙古派出了顾问。

丹·斯普劳斯上尉，5132机动顾问队队长，自五月抵达印尼以来，便与印尼建立了牢固的关系。（陆军）

“我们的（士官）直接与蒙古军队的军士长合作，建立了一个士官教育体系，”第5特种部队航空旅第3中队的指挥军士长布莱恩·罗伯特告诉《陆军时报》。

陆军中校杰里·雷斯蒙多告诉《陆军时报》，SFAB士兵与泰国皇家陆军进行了首次与斯特瑞克装甲车和步兵旅战斗队的联合训练。

陆军第5特种部队旅第3中队指挥官格里·雷斯蒙多中校告诉《陆军时报》，这些泰国部队现在在自己的作战训练中心使用“斯特瑞克”装甲车，并且正在研究如何机动一个旅。

雷斯蒙多说，在与第5特种部队顾问旅合作之前，他们并不具备这种能力。

2022年5月23日，第5特种部队顾问团的参谋军士杰西·埃内布拉德在马尔代夫卡杜岛中央地区司令部的射击场上指导马尔代夫国防军成员。（陆军下士雅各布·努涅斯/陆军）

布莱尔表示，在本月即将举行的培训活动中，韩国、印度尼西亚、菲律宾和泰国都将派出公司规模的人员参加，另有七个亚洲国家将派出观察员。

布莱尔表示，这项工作的大部分目标是确保有稳定的伙伴国家向位于夏威夷的太平洋联合多国战备中心输送兵力。该中心为伙伴部队提供实战训练、评估和对抗演练。

“很多国家都会进行训练，但他们从来没有遇到过真正的对手，”雷斯蒙多说。

联合太平洋多国战备中心为用户提供五个岛屿，用于模拟他们在与中国作战时将面临的部分海上地形。但有时这并非可行之策。

便携式作战训练中心计划于去年启动，陆军作战训练中心的小组将便捷的靶场监控设备和观察员-训练员-控制员带到异地地点。

今年，SFAB士兵在印度尼西亚使用这种便携式CTC进行了训练。印度尼西亚曾举办过“加鲁达之盾”演习，该演习以前是与美国的双边训练演习。

布莱尔说，今年早些时候，这一行动发展成为“超级迦楼罗盾”演习，共有 14 个国家参加了这项大规模演习。

虽然特种部队援助旅在该地区的活动范围很广，但该部队大多以小队的形式开展行动。

雷斯蒙多表示，目前约有11支队伍，共计130名士兵，正在该地区进行为期六个月的轮换部署。他们获准将轮换队伍增加到20支，共计272人。

整个旅由820名志愿兵组成，分为64个顾问小组。这些小组每隔18个月部署一次，每次部署6个月。

有些团队可能只有一名队长和两名士兵。其他团队的规模可能会更大，具体取决于训练计划的需求。

该旅目前已获准与另外八个国家建立伙伴关系。

所以，或许还可以再种些树。而且有些棕榈树的寿命超过100年。

澄清：本文已更新，以准确说明顾问团队的部署周期。

自2004年以来，托德·索斯为多家出版物撰写有关犯罪、法院、政府和军事方面的文章，并因与人合著的关于恐吓证人的文章入围2014年普利策奖决赛。托德是参加过伊拉克战争的海军陆战队老兵。