"The Army defines Regionally Aligned Forces (RAF) as: 1) those units assigned or allocated to combatant commands, and 2) those service-retained, combatant command-aligned forces prepared by the Army for regional missions. They are drawn from the total force, including the Active Army, the Army National Guard, and the Army Reserve. RAF consist of organizations and capabilities that are forward stationed, operating in a combatant command area of responsibility, and supporting (or ready to support) combatant commands through reach-back capabilities from outside the area of responsibility. Furthermore, RAF conduct operational missions, bilateral and multilateral military exercises, and theater security cooperation activities. In theory, the RAF concept provides a scalable, tailorable capability to meet combatant commanders' steady-state and phase zero shaping requirements. Additionally, the RAF concept improves the Army's ability to provide culturally and regionally aware forces for specific missions. As U.S. bases overseas are reduced, the challenge will be to maintain robust regional engagement. The RAF concept is designed to meet this challenge ... As with any new management concept, however, adopting RAF comes with both opportunities and challenges. RAF provide the Army with planning predictability, i.e., the ability to provide forces to the combatant commander if and when needed. Forecasting operational requirements more effectively will enable the Army to better anticipate costs and prioritize budgets. In order to mitigate the effects of reduced budgets, the Army will continue to reduce its overall end strength. Reduction initiatives will require the force to be efficiently manned, trained, and equipped to meet global security requirements. The RAF concept provides a fresh and responsive means for managing the force, while providing better support to the combatant commander"--Executive summary.