By U.S. Army

Army to discontinue Asymmetric Warfare Group and Rapid Equipping Force

The Department of the Army announced the discontinuation of both the Asymmetric Warfare Group and the Rapid Equipping Force as the U.S. Army transitions from counterinsurgency operations to a focus on multi-domain operations and large-scale combat operations.

The Army established these units to rapidly identify material and non-material solutions to operational challenges encountered during the counterinsurgency fight in Afghanistan and Iraq. As our focus changes to great power competition and large-scale combat operations, Army analysis indicated that the personnel and resources could best be utilized in building the operational fighting force.

To ensure the value of the organization’s work over the past 14 years is not lost, all lessons learned will be maintained by the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center (CAC), via the Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL), Centers of Excellence (COEs), and other TRADOC enterprise stakeholders.

Personnel and resources from both organizations will be reallocated to the operational force. Both organizations will be fully deactivated by Sept. 30, 2021, and will transition the mission of providing immediate support to other organizations.