The 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade is expanding its presence in Africa with continuous, predictable rotations and a focus on sharing information among teams about its growing number of military partnerships.

Based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the 2nd SFAB is regionally aligned with the U.S. Africa Command area of operations. Force packages that comprise 20, 12-person teams are deploying to the continent on six-month rotations, then returning home for 12 months to reset, rearm and retrain in preparation for the next deployment.

“That allows us to share lessons learned across force packages, ensure that the units that are training to deploy are getting the most current information, the most current status on the ground from the unit that just returned as well as the unit that’s currently in country,” Maj. John Flach, commander of C Company in the brigade’s 2nd Battalion, said during a recent phone call with reporters. 

What the unit lacked before, he said, was “continuity of effort. Now we’ve been able to lay out even up to a five-year timeline for training [so] we can ensure that there’s continuity of effort and not repetition or regression in the training glidepath for our partner force.”

Advisers from the brigade are in Morocco and Tunisia for African Lion, the largest U.S. exercise in Africa, which kicked off June 7 with Moroccan forces and other partners and allies. Partnerships are expanding to other countries, and use of the SFAB’s agile teams, which keep a small footprint and offer a variety of capabilities, is growing. 

“Prior to the [COVID-19] pandemic, there was a very aggressive plan to expand partnerships across the continent [of Africa]. That’s continuing to grow,” brigade commander Col. Michael Sullivan said during the call. 

“Right now, besides Tunisia and Djibouti, we are in Senegal, Kenya and Ghana, and we’ll be in Morocco for African Lion,” Sullivan said. “It’s my responsibility to provide … force packages made up of 20 separate teams six months at a time. That capacity allows us to hit multiple different countries.”

The SFABs are specialized units established to perform the advise-and-assist missions that had been relegated ad hoc to brigade combat teams. The SFABs, whose teams concentrate on advising conventional forces, have now been aligned with geographic combatant commands around the world and are operating in various countries supported by elements of the National Guard SFAB.

The 1st SFAB at Fort Benning, Georgia, was the first SFAB and is aligned with U.S. Southern Command; the 3rd SFAB at Fort Hood, Texas, is aligned with U.S. Central Command; the 4th SFAB at Fort Carson, Colorado, is aligned with U.S. European Command; and the 5th SFAB at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, is aligned with U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.