INTRODUCTION
Special Operations Forces (SOF) serve three purposes that are increasingly important in the current international environment. First, they expand the range of options available to decision makers confronting crises and conflicts below the threshold of war, such as terrorism, insurgency, and sabotage. Second, they act as force multipliers in support of conventional forces engaged in major conflicts, increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the U.S. military effort. Finally, they expand national capabilities to react to situations requiring exceptional sensitivity, including noncombatant missions such as humanitarian assistance, security assistance, and peace operations.
SOF'S HERITAGE: ROLES AND MISSIONS
Special Operations Forces have a dual heritage. They are the nation's penetration and strike force, able to respond to specialized contingencies across the conflict spectrum with stealth, speed, and precision. They are also warrior-diplomats capable of influencing, advising, training, and conducting operations with foreign forces, officials, and populations. One of these two generic SOF roles is at the heart of each of the following special operations missions.
MAXIMIZING SOF'S EFFECTIVENESS IN SUPPORT OF DEFENSE STRATEGY
To support the National Security Strategy of Engagement and Enlargement, Special Operations Forces provide decision makers with increased options for achieving the national military objectives of promoting stability and thwarting aggression. To realize their full potential as strategic assets, SOF receive national level oversight to ensure their full integration into planning for conventional operations and interagency planning.
Skillful integration of SOF with conventional forces allows SOF to be a force multiplier in conventional operations. DoD is improving SOF interoperability with conventional forces and ensuring SOF's inclusion in strategic planning, joint training, interagency exercises, and DoD educational curricula.
Special Operations differ from traditional military operations in degree of political risk, their often unconventional mode of employment, their independence from friendly support, and their dependence on detailed intelligence and indigenous assets. For these reasons, some SOF missions carry an exceptionally high degree of physical risk. Because of the political sensitivities surrounding many SOF missions, where failure can damage national prestige, close coordination at the interagency level between SOF and U.S. government agencies is necessary. Close interagency coordination maximizes SOF effectiveness in the political-military environment short of war.
SOF AND REGIONAL DANGERS -- MAJOR REGIONAL CONFLICTS
Special Operations Forces are force multipliers for U.S. conventional forces combatting regional aggression. SOF contribute directly to conventional combat operations, complicating enemy operations through assistance to indigenous forces allied with the United States, and sealing the victory through post-hostility and restoration activities. In Operation Desert Storm, for example, SOF conducted special reconnaissance, direct action, and other missions behind Iraqi lines, contributing to deception operations that misled the enemy about the coalition's operational plan and facilitated coalition warfare. According to information obtained from prisoners of war, psychological operations leaflets and broadcasts were responsible for between 50,000 and 80,000 enemy surrenders. Active and Reserve component Civil Affairs units managed displaced person and refugee operations and distributed humanitarian assistance, supplies, and services. Reserve CA also assisted Kuwaiti government ministries in planning and executing the immediate post-conflict restoration.
Because of their language skills and regional orientation, Special Operations Forces are particularly well suited to conventional coalition warfare. For example, in Operation Desert Storm, SOF personnel were deployed as liaison officers to multinational staffs under the tactical control of the Commander in Chief of U.S. Central Command. Their in-depth knowledge of the coalition members, language, and militaries allowed them to successfully link the CINC to each member of the coalition. General Norman R. Schwarzkopf referred to this contribution as the glue that held the coalition together.
SOF AND THE DANGERS POSED BY WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
The proliferation of WMD is one of the most serious security threats that the United States, its allies, and friends confront in the post-Cold War era. When U.S. forces are faced with a theater WMD threat, SOF can assist in deterring, destroying, or defending against it. Psychological Operations can support deterrence by communicating to foreign audiences a U.S. commitment and capability to prevent the proliferation and use of WMD. SOF direct action capabilities contribute to deterrence and destruction options by providing a precision strike capability against weapons, storage facilities, and command and control nodes. SOF special reconnaissance capabilities can contribute to the defense against WMD threats by providing real-time intelligence unavailable from other sources.
SOF AND REGIONAL DANGERS -- LOW INTENSITY CONFLICT
Special Operations Forces play an important role in low intensity conflict because of the unique capabilities resident in SOF and the special character of low intensity conflicts. Low intensity conflict is a particularly challenging area for the United States, because it encompasses a range of activities that weaken regional security and undermine the ability of the U.S. to accomplish its objectives. U.S. efforts to counter low intensity threats do not focus on traditional military objectives. They are not driven by the requirement to destroy enemy forces or capture terrain, but rather by the need to establish or reestablish an environment conducive to regional or international stability without resorting to the political, economic, and military risks of war. Terrorism, lawlessness, subversion, insurgency, and coups d'etat will continue to be some of the principal means by which national and subnational actors carve out their places in the world. Such activities may be used to weaken regional security by undermining support for U.S. presence, reducing U.S. access and influence, complicating the coordination of collective defense efforts, or directly attacking Americans, allies, or regimes friendly to the United States.
SOF AND THE CHALLENGES OF DEMOCRATIZATION
Many of the skills in the Special Operations Forces inventory are directly applicable to support friendly, democratic regimes. With their linguistic ability and cross-cultural sensitivities, SOF can quickly establish an effective working rapport with foreign military and paramilitary forces and, when required, government officials. Specifically, SOF (especially civil affairs, psychological operations, and Special Forces (SF)) can assess appropriate host nation projects, conduct disaster or humanitarian assistance planning seminars, and assist interagency coordination, foreign liaison, and public information programs. Operation Uphold Democracy is a classic example of how unique SOF language and cultural skills can be successfully applied in the initial stages of a peacetime military campaign plan. In Haiti, SOF performed a number of key functions. During the peak of the multinational force phase of the operation, there were approximately 1,350 SOF personnel operating in small teams, based in 30 population centers throughout Haiti. From those centers, SOF visited over 500 towns and villages, where they were essential to establishing a safe and secure environment.
Some military units, especially combat support and combat service support units -- such as engineer or medical units -- and even some civilian agencies benefit from having civil affairs, psychological operations, or SF personnel attached for overseas peacetime missions. Prior to deployment, SOF personnel can train members in the cultural aspects of their projects and how to deal with local military officials and civilians with whom they may come in contact. During deployment, SOF can assist them in coordinating with local representatives and populations.
CURRENT AND RECENT OPERATIONS
The sensitivity of Special Operations precludes a discussion of most specific SOF activities in this report. However, examples of some recent operations include the following:
The most telling benchmark of SOF's 1995 operations is the extremely high operational tempo of overseas deployments. SOF conducted over 2,765 deployments (over 3,650 personnel) to 137 countries to accomplish tasks in their primary mission areas. These numbers reflect a 23 percent increase over 1994 deployments.
FORCE STRUCTURE
Special Operations Forces are prepared to operate worldwide and across the spectrum of conflict. Approximately 46,000 active and Reserve Component personnel from the Army, Navy, and Air Force are assigned to U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). SOF are organized into three Service components and a joint command. In actual operations, Service component units are normally employed as part of a joint force by the theater CINCs through their subordinate unified commands, the theater Special Operations Command (SOC). The SOC normally forms a Joint Special Operations Task Force (JSOTF), which may be employed independently or in support of a larger Joint Task Force (JTF). Psychological operations or civil affairs units may be assigned as part of a JSOTF or a JTF, or as a separate Joint Psychological Operations Task Force (JPOTF) or a Joint Civil-Military Operations Task Force (JCMOTF), respectively.
Army Special Operations Forces include Special Forces (Green Berets), Ranger, Special Operations Aviation (SOA), PSYOP, CA, signal, support, and headquarters units under the U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC). Army Special Forces are organized into five active and two Army National Guard groups. The Ranger regiment consists of three active battalions, based at three locations across the United States. SOA consists of one active regiment in the United States and one detachment in Panama. PSYOP is organized into three groups, one active and two U.S. Army Reserve (USAR). The CA force structure consists of three USAR CA commands, nine USAR CA brigades, 24 USAR CA battalions, and one active duty CA battalion. Ninety-seven percent of the CA force is found in the USAR.
Naval Special Warfare (NSW) forces support naval and joint special operations within the theater unified commands. NSW forces are organized into two Naval Special Warfare Groups and two Special Boat Squadrons. Each Naval Special Warfare Group is composed of three Sea, Air, Land (SEAL) Teams with ten platoons and a SEAL Delivery Vehicle (SDV) Team. Also assigned to each of the Groups are Naval Special Warfare Units, which are small command and control elements located outside CONUS to support NSW forces assigned to theater SOCs or components of naval task forces. The Special Boat Squadrons and their subordinate Special Boat Units have a variety of small boats. The last of 13 programmed Cyclone Class Coastal Patrol ships was delivered in January 1996. The 84-foot Mark Five Special Operations Craft (Mark V SOC) has begun initial deliveries with two (of 20 total) craft delivered in August 1995. Additionally, several nuclear attack submarines are configured to carry Dry Deck Shelters for launching SDVs.
Air Force SOF are organized into one active Special Operations Wing, two active Special Operations Groups (one each in Pacific and European Commands), one Air Force Reserve Special Operations Wing, one Air National Guard Special Operations Group, and one active Special Tactics Group. Within these units are Special Operations squadrons, some of which can perform long-range infiltration, aerial refueling, resupply, or exfiltration missions deep within sensitive or enemy held territory. Some squadrons can conduct PSYOP leaflet drops, or broadcast radio or television signals, while other squadrons provide close air support, interdiction, and armed escort capabilities. These aircraft support both SOF and conventional forces.
COMMAND RELATIONSHIPS
The DoD Reorganization Act of 1986, as amended by the National Defense Authorization Act of 1987, mandated unique relationships for command, control, and oversight of SOF. The act directed the establishment of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict (ASD(SO/LIC)) to serve as the senior civilian advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and to the Secretary of Defense on matters pertaining to special operations and low intensity conflict. The act also directed the establishment of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and assigned it several service-like responsibilities, including programming, budgeting, and acquisition responsibilities. The policy and resource oversight responsibilities of ASD (SO/LIC) and the service-like responsibilities of USSOCOM create a relationship which is unique within the Department of Defense. This relationship facilitates SOF's responsiveness and adaptability to the needs of the National Command Authorities in the changing national security environment.
SOF THEMES FOR THE FUTURE
Recognizing that the demand for forces to selectively respond to diverse regional concerns will be greater than ever, the following themes will continue to guide the SOF community:
CONCLUSION
Special Operations Forces are particularly suited to many new activities which will flow from the National Security Strategy. Many of these missions require traditional SOF capabilities, while others such as counterproliferation and information warfare are relatively new and are the subject of developing SOF doctrine. Operations of the late 1980s and early 1990s have proven that SOF are invaluable as facilitators and peacetime operators, as well as strike troops. In order to be as effective as possible, SOF face two major challenges: they must integrate -- with conventional forces, other U.S. agencies, friendly foreign forces, and other international organizations (United Nations, Red Cross, etc.) -- yet they must preserve the autonomy necessary to protect and encourage the unconventional approach that is the soul of special operations. This flexibility will facilitate meeting the other major challenge of the 1990s -- to develop capabilities and perceptions to enable SOF to conduct operations successfully in support of peacetime objectives.
