U.S. particular operations forces have a singular function to play in in the present day’s strategic competitors with China and Russia, but—outdoors a distinct segment neighborhood—understanding of what SOF do is proscribed, outdated, and under-appreciated. It’s time that modified. For world safety challenges that transcend conventional boundaries and reduce throughout theaters and domains, Protection Division planners ought to look extra typically to particular operations forces.
Whereas most frequently related to direct-action missions and counterterrorism, the trendy particular operator is way over only a “trigger-puller.” Hailing again to the roots of particular operations within the Nice Battle interval, particular operators are extremely expert at offering intelligence and executing missions under the edge of battle that complicate the targets of nice energy rivals. In World Battle II, for instance, British and American particular operators performed an outsized function in organizing and coaching resistance forces in Nazi-occupied France to undermine the German occupation.
It behooves the nationwide safety neighborhood to replace its understanding of the modern-day particular operator and to make use of these extremely skilled and specialised forces to pursue U.S. targets in opposition to near-peer rivals.
Right now, U.S. particular operations forces have a various array of expertise, together with experience in fields comparable to coding, area, and cyber operations. SOF will not be solely operators—deployed in kinetic, bodily battlespaces—they’re additionally, as importantly, enablers—conducting placement and entry in areas the place they’ll accumulate data and intelligence and allow missions by way of AI and engineering assist. They’ll function throughout the spectrum of competitors, executing and supporting U.S. diplomatic, informational, army, and financial efforts to fight adversary threats globally.
4 roles in strategic competitors
This versatility and specialised experience positions U.S. particular operations forces as an indispensable participant in strategic competitors in at the least 4 methods:
First, particular operations forces can function the supporting arm of U.S. built-in deterrence, which seeks to combine all instruments of nationwide energy throughout domains, geography, and the spectrum of battle. Whereas particular operators are efficient at direct motion—like seizing, destroying, capturing, or recovering targets—different core competencies—comparable to data and psychological operations, overseas inside protection, and civil affairs operations—can form regional environments by which China and Russia are energetic. Certainly, SOF cross-functional groups are constructed to mix these capabilities, giving U.S. decisionmakers larger flexibility and choices to reply to multi-pronged and multi-domain challenges. They could be of specific use in far-flung, and sometimes much less prioritized, elements of the globe, the place they will help thwart Russian and Chinese language data and irregular warfare.
Second, U.S. particular operators are postured across the globe, the place they keep multi-generational relationships with worldwide allies and companions that give them in-depth understandings of native dynamics and gamers. This could make them efficient counters to China and Russia in locations the place conventional U.S. army or overseas service officers are much less current, together with Africa, Central Asia, and Latin America. For instance, China’s rising affect in america’ yard is regarding; it has invested in 10 area services in 5 Latin American international locations, permitting it to broaden its area program and surveil U.S. and others’ area belongings as they move over the Southern Hemisphere. U.S. particular operations’ allied and associate relationships and its space-cyber-special operations “triad” may permit america to function extra strategically in Southern Command’s space of accountability with out unduly shifting Joint Pressure consideration and assets from the Indo-Pacific and Europe.
Third, particular operators have their fingers on the heart beat of strategic competitors. They keep persistent, not merely episodic, engagement with allies and companions, which provides them a complete understanding of host nations, threats to stability and safety in a number of areas, and the second- and third-order results of operations in native contexts. As such, they’re nicely positioned for “operational preparation of the setting,” supporting the broader U.S. army by bettering situational consciousness, understanding, and operational responsiveness. Particular operators are skilled to know cultural dynamics, observe adversary habits, and advance U.S. pursuits on the bottom in locations the place america lacks even a diplomatic presence. Their presence is mild and sometimes covert, enabling them to watch and share intelligence in areas the place others can not function. This provides U.S. decisionmakers larger flexibility and latitude in the place and the way they apply presence and obtain strategic results in opposition to rivals. Particular operators’ deep native relationships and understanding allow operational preparation of the battlespace, and guarantee favorable outcomes even when diplomacy and deterrence fail.
Lastly, particular operations forces can assist the U.S. army’s push towards joint multi-domain operations. Particular operators are joint by nature; they work throughout the Joint Pressure, with interagency companions, and allies and companions. Different models and planners ought to draw on their experience and capabilities throughout coaching, planning, and execution.
An excellent funding
U.S. protection spending might be anticipated to stay comparatively flat even amid scorching conflicts in Europe and the Center East and heightened tensions with China. Finally, this may require the U.S. army to do extra with much less. Whereas price range and recruitment challenges could stress the army branches to deprioritize particular operations billets, it will be a mistake to underinvest in SOF. On the contrary: at a time when america should prioritize its world safety targets and be selective about the place it chooses to be current and have interaction, the sunshine and comparatively inexpensive nature of particular operations forces’ world presence supplies nice worth for cash. As Christopher Maier, assistant protection secretary for Particular Operations and Low Depth Battle, instructed the Senate Armed Companies Committee in 2022: “representing lower than 2 p.c of the Protection price range, USSOF present an outsized function within the nationwide protection technique.”
To completely harness U.S. particular operations forces’ potential in strategic competitors, a shift in mindset is required—not solely inside the particular operator neighborhood, but in addition within the branches of the U.S. army, the Joint Pressure, and interagency.
As particular operations forces advocate to decision-makers how greatest to harness their capabilities, they need to emphasize not solely their direct-action capabilities, but in addition the oblique SOF competencies—particular reconnaissance, unconventional warfare, overseas inside protection, civil affairs operations, army data assist operations, and safety power help—that can be utilized at totally different phases of competitors and battle. An enhanced supporting function for particular operations forces in strategic competitors requires the nationwide safety enterprise to embrace a brand new picture of particular operators—as helpful enablers not simply operators, and as a power to make use of to keep away from escalation, moderately than because the last-resort heavy-hitters when nothing else works.
Gen. James “Hoss” E. Cartwright, USMC (Ret.) served as eighth vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees. He serves on the Board of Administrators for the Atlantic Council, IP3 Safety, and the College of Pennsylvania’s Heart for Ethics and Rule of Regulation. He’s additionally a member of the Board of Governors for Wesley Theological Seminary.
Clementine G. Starling is the director of the Atlantic Council’s Ahead Protection program and a resident fellow for the Scowcroft Heart for Technique and Safety. She lately wrote a report titled “Stealth, Pace, and Adaptability: The Function of Particular Operations Forces in Strategic Competitors.”