text: Stability
  FOSTERING SUSTAINABILITY
  6-13. BCTs foster sustainability when the security environment is stable enough to support efforts to
  implement long-term programs that commit to the viability of the institutions and economy of the host nation.
  The BCT consolidates gains to encourage capacity-building reconstruction activities to enable sustainable
  development. Often military forces conduct these long-term efforts in support of broader, civilian-led efforts.
  SECTION II – OPERATIONS DURING STABILITY TASKS
  6-14. Reconnaissance and security operations are imperative to successful stability tasks. Reconnaissance
  focuses on identifying enemy forces, human interaction and engagement, and vital infrastructure to collect
  information necessary to understand sources of stability and instability within the BCT’s area of operations.
  As the environment changes, so do the sentiments of the population and its key actors. Staffs continuously
  assess their area of operations based on information collected to provide context to understanding the human
  dimension of their area of operations. BCTs conduct security operations to establish safe and secure
  environments that enable positive gains and sustainable stability. Since the complexity of the human context
  is ever changing and evolving in any environment, reconnaissance and security operations are continuous.
  Commanders constantly reassess and refine intelligence estimates to determine if they are collecting the right
  information and developing intelligence to understand the operational environment.
  6-15. BCTs conduct reconnaissance and security operations to gain an understanding of sources of stability
  and instability, and the intentions and capabilities of key actors to shape the BCT’s and unified action
  partners’ area of operations during stability tasks. Sources of instability are actors, actions, or conditions that
  exceed the legitimate authority’s capacity to exercise effective governance, maintain civil control, and ensure
  economic development.
  6-16. Enemy forces influence instability sources to create conflict, exacerbate existing conditions, or threaten
  to collapse failing or recovering states. Sources of instability include catastrophic events, humanitarian crises,
  foreign power-instigated violence, domestic rebellion, and civil war.
  6-17. The following vignette describes utilizing Cavalry squadrons in the execution of reconnaissance and
  security missions that enabled the BCT’s success during stability operations.
  Third Armored Cavalry Regiment in Tall Afar
  The city of Tall Afar is located in Northwestern Iraq and is a compact city with a mixed
  ethnic population of over 250,000 people. In late 2004, the Iraqi Security Forces (known
  as ISF) in Tall Afar collapsed, allowing enemy threat to impose a grip of terror on the city.
  Through violence and intimidation, the enemy took control of every aspect of the city and
  crippled the local government. The city divided, as the population was forced into sectarian
  boundaries, which helped to fuel sectarian and tribal violence across the city. The enemy’s
  firm grip on the city, coupled with the city’s geographically central location lying between
  the city of Mosul and the Syrian border, enabled the enemy threat to utilize Tall Afar and
  the surrounding region as a training ground and staging base for operations. Foreign
  fighters flooded in from Syria, finding sanctuary in Tall Afar and the surrounding cities and
  towns and increasing the enemy threat capacity to conduct operations in Mosul and across
  Northern Iraq.
  In April 2005, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (known as ACR) deployed to the Southern
  Baghdad area of operations to conduct reconnaissance and offensive operations. For two
  months, 3rd ACR, partnering with the ISF, successfully conducted counterreconnaissance
  operations to deny enemy threat the ability to influence political and economic development
  within the capital city of Baghdad. During this time, 3rd ACR received orders to move their
  area of operations to the western region of the Ninewa Province. The regiment
  task-organized itself to conduct multiple operations across separate areas of operations.
  Ahead of the rest of the regiment, 2-3 ACR (Sabre Squadron) deployed to the Ninewa
  Province to conduct initial reconnaissance operations of the area of operations, including
  the city of Tall Afar. The regiment detached 3-3 ACR (Thunder Squadron), an engineer