Special Operations Outlook 2020 Edition by Faircount Media Group

2020-2021 EDITION

INTERNATIONAL SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES COOPERATION FEATURES

Trans-Regional Resistance Working Group USSOCOM AT&L INTERVIEWS Maj. Gen. Daniel D. Yoo, MARSOC Lt. Gen. Francis M. Beaudette, USASOC

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CONTENTS 10 USSOCOM 2020 SOF AT&L PEO Portfolio Updates Courtesy of USSOCOM

24 TRANS-REGIONAL RESISTANCE WORKING GROUP Sharing SOF Lessons Around the Globe By Scott R. Gourley

32 AFSOC

New Strategic Guidance Directs AFSOCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Future By Scott R. Gourley

40 TARGET ENGAGEMENT SPOTLIGHT By Scott R. Gourley

48 MARSOC Interview: MARSOC Commander Maj. Gen. Daniel D. Yoo By J.R. Wilson

56 SOF COMMUNICATIONS By Andrew White 62 IN THE HEADLIGHTS OF NSW MODERNIZATION By Scott R. Gourley 70 NON-STANDARD COMMERCIAL VEHICLES By Scott R. Gourley 74 USASOC Interview: USASOC Commander Lt. Gen. Francis M. Beaudette By Scott R. Gourley

82 INTERNATIONAL SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES COOPERATION By Andrew White 88 THE SON TAY RAID: 50 YEARS November 21, 1970

By David Isby

NATIONAL ARCHIVES RG 111

78 USSOCOM EMBRACES NEW TECHNOLOGIES By Scott R. Gourley

2020-2021 EDITION

Published by Faircount Media Group 450 Carillon Parkway, Suite 105 St. Petersburg, FL 33716 www.defensemedianetwork.com www.faircount.com EDITORIAL Consulting Editor: Scott R. Gourley Editor in Chief: Chuck Oldham Managing Editor: Ana E. Lopez Senior Editor: Rhonda Carpenter Contributing Writers: Scott R. Gourley, David C. Isby Andrew White, J.R. Wilson

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USSOCOM

USSOCOM 2020 SOF AT&L PEO Portfolio Updates Special Operations Forces Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (SOF AT&L), part of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), ensures special operations forces (SOF) have the equipment and services required for them to complete missions across the globe. SOF AT&L is organized into program executive offices (PEO) and directorates. The PEOs include Command, Control, Communications and Computers (C4); Fixed Wing; Maritime; Rotary Wing; Services; SOF Support Activity; Special Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Exploitation (SRSE); and SOF Warrior. The Directorates include Acquisition Comptroller, Agility, Resources, Operations, Procurement, Logistics, and Science and Technology.

Special Operations Outlook

U.S. ARMY PHOTO BY PFC. WILLIAM LOCKWOOD

COURTESY OF USSOCOM (EDITED FOR STYLE AND LENGTH)

USSOCOM U.S. Army soldiers assigned to Delta Company, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, overwatch and provide cover for an assault on a night raid during a training exercise at Fort Irwin, California.

AT&L provides full life-cycle management by seamlessly q SOF developing technologies within the Science and Technology Directorate, to producing and fielding that technology in programs of record through the PEOs, and finally to sustainment and eventual divestiture through the Logistics Directorate. SOF AT&L is manned by military and civilian personnel from all four military services. While SOF AT&L is co-located with SOCOM headquarters on MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, SOF acquisition professionals also serve at military installations globally.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DIRECTORATE The Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate’s vision is to “Relentlessly discover, develop, adapt and employ next-generation technologies that provide SOF an overwhelming competitive advantage.” S&T priorities are aligned with the SOCOM commander’s Capabilities and Programming Guidance (CPG). The current CPG builds on the 2018 National Defense Strategy and SOF Future Operating Environment. S&T is focusing research efforts on the following six capability focus areas:

• Biotechnologies/Human Interface: Focuses on biomedical, human performance, and man-machine interface technology development efforts to support the SOF medical community. Additionally, SOCOM’s Preservation of the Force and Family (POTTFF) program and SOF AT&L focus on integrating human considerations with and across all system elements to optimize SOF operator performance. • Hyper Enabled Operator: Focuses on improving the speed and quality of operator decision-making by providing the benefits of advanced data analytics at the edge in contested and denied environments. • Network and Data Management: Focuses on enabling SOF through enhanced decision-making and reduced cognitive loading by driving advanced data analytics to the tactical edge, while ensuring connectivity for communications and navigation in contested or denied areas. • Next Generation Effects/Precision Strike: Focuses on enhancing SOF lethality and ensuring dominance in denied and future operating environments by developing technology, scalable effects weapons, and cyber/electronic attack effects with increased range.

u U.S. Air Force Special Tactics Airmen assigned to the 24th Special Operations Wing conduct close air support training during Emerald Warrior 17 at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.

• Next Generation Mobility: Focuses on advancing technology solutions for air, ground, and maritime mobility. • N ex t G e n e r at i o n I nte lli g e n c e , S u r ve ill a n c e , a n d Reconnaissance (ISR) and Tactically Relevant Situational Awareness: Focuses on increasing and enhancing SOF’s ability to manage threats and the environment through the development of cutting-edge, autonomous ISR systems in order to maintain a competitive military advantage, reduce operative cognitive load, and support rapid, on-the-move ability to learn and communicate knowledge in all domains.

Strategic Engagement S&T must continue to strengthen relationships with Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories; federally funded research and development centers; and university-affiliated research centers, academia, and industry in order to leverage their larger efforts against SOCOM S&T priorities. S&T’s Strategic Engagement process seeks to discover new technologies, reduce redundancies, gain efficiencies, and synchronize long-range future planning to enable SOF to maintain an operational advantage. SOF must continually engage in market research that is strategic, insightful, and actionable, and is launching a new platform known as Engage SOF (eSOF) to achieve this. The eSOF program will replace the Technology Industry Liaison Office and provide responsive, accessible, and transparent strategic market research across the global SOF enterprise. The primary purpose of eSOF is to facilitate USSOCOM communications, connections, and collaboration with industry on capabilities, ideas, and solutions for SOCOM’s areas of interest. Information gained from industry, academia, and other government agencies will shape acquisition strategies across the SOF enterprise thereby enhancing the efficient transition of emerging or needed technologies, products, and services in support of the SOF warfighter.

Technical Experimentation (TE)

U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO BY TECH. SGT. BARRY LOO

S&T conducts TE events throughout the year, each with different themes. TE events offer multiple venues to rapidly assess, develop, counter, and exploit emerging capabilities to address immediate SOF needs. TE events also allow industry, academia and other external organizations the opportunity to engage and demonstrate technology and concepts and get direct feedback from SOF and acquisition professionals. TE 20-3 will take place in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020 at the RELLIS Campus of Texas A&M University in Bryan, Texas. The theme of TE 20-3 will be network and data management.

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) S&T manages SOCOM’s SBIR/STTR program. The objective is to stimulate technology innovation by awarding contracts to small businesses to meet federal research and development needs. SBIR/STTR topics are released in April, August and November. Leading the way to reform, SOCOM has been granted authority to utilize a program intermediary agreement to execute a portion of the command’s SBIR funding. SOCOM will leverage this authority to; a) reach technology developers who are unwilling or unable to do business through standard DOD business channels, and b) speed the time required to move from concept to technology fielding.

Futures S&T employs its Futures team as SOCOM’s high-risk, highreward technology investigator and incubator. Futures looks for high-risk, innovative, and disruptive technologies seven to 15 years in the future to provide an asymmetric advantage against peer or near-peer adversaries’ capabilities. Investigation occurs by conducting Innovation Foundry, Rapid Capability Assessment, and Tech Sprint events. From these, Futures aggressively derives concept required capabilities and mission essential technologies top-down from the National Defense Strategy, CPG, and SOCOM’s Future Operating Concept. Futures embraces a high-velocity decision-making approach that gets to answers – yes or no – quickly. Additionally, Futures targets nontraditional partners who are more open to agile, high-speed tech sprints or thinking outside the box.

Sharing Technology Needs S&T provides multiple means of sharing SOCOM’s technology needs with the public. SOCOM’s “SOF hard problems” (e.g., small unit dominance, mission assured communications, and signature management) and FY 20 S&T investment priorities are listed online for public awareness under the “Doing Business” dropdown at: https://www.socom.mil/SOF-ATL/Pages/SOFATL.aspx.

ACQUISITION AGILITY DIRECTORATE To support continued emphasis on innovation, SOCOM established a venue called SOFWERX, an unclassified, open

USSOCOM

collaboration activity designed to bring nontraditional partners from industry, academia, and the government together to work on SOCOM’s most challenging problems. Established under a Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA) between SOCOM and DefenseWERX, the SOFWERX facility serves as an incubator for innovative thinking and provides a venue for exploring novel ideas with nontraditional partners. SOF AT&L’s Acquisition Agility directorate is responsible for coordinating SOCOM’s collaboration with SOFWERX. SOFWERX serves as an easy access point to SOCOM for an ecosystem of more than 40,000 members from new businesses, small businesses, technology collaboration hubs, and nontraditional partners. The SOFWERX facility is located off base and conducts design thinking sessions, technology sprints, rapid prototyping, and other events with government, academia, and industry experts. Major events hosted in 2019 at SOFWERX include the following:

February 2020 – FOSOV Autonomous and Automated Ground Mobility Capability Collaboration Event (CCE) SOFWERX hosted SOCOM PEO SOF Warrior and 44 enterprise teammates from the Family of Special Operations Vehicles enterprise at an Autonomous and Automated Ground Mobility CCE. The event explored tactical, SOF autonomy, and automation ground mobility

Special Operations Outlook

zero to five-year gaps, analyzed and defined future concepts, and prioritized operational use cases which will be used to develop future SOF autonomous and automated ground mobility requirements.

July/November 2019 – PEO-Rotary Wing Next Generation Cockpit SOFWERX hosted SOCOM PEO Rotary Wing and 65 enterprise teammates for a CCE and Industry Demonstration Day to inform requirements for the next generation of special operations aviation cockpit hardware and software in legacy and future vertical lift platforms. Its purpose was to ensure state-of-the-art technology was considered for future cockpit management solutions, including open systems architecture as well as heads-down, heads-up, and helmet-mounted displays. The event also enabled SOCOM to identify technology that could potentially increase aviator capability from the cockpit. Attendees submitted more than 50 technologies and incentives. Insights gained helped shape requirements for a future capability assessment event. Additionally, SOCOM selected eight companies to demonstrate their full cockpit capabilities to more than 30 government representatives. SOCOM also selected 20 independent capabilities to showcase at an exposition.

August 2019 – SOAR Helmet System Capability Assessment Event (CAE) SOFWERX hosted PEO SOF Warrior and partners for a CAE to identify current and near-future-state rotary wing helmets for consideration and potential use by the U.S. Army Special Operations Aviation Command to replace the existing HGU-56/P helmet system. SOCOM selected eight companies to present their capabilities to government representatives during one-on-one sessions. Based on those sessions, SOCOM will select the top candidates to move forward with potential fielding.

PHOTO BY MASTER SGT. BARRY LOO, U.S. AIR FORCE

p Ryan Lynch, a SOFWERX special operations forces technician from the Mobile Technology Repair Complex, mills a metal plate at the SOFWERX Foundry in Tampa, Florida, Feb. 6, 2018. In addition to the fabrication of custom equipment, the foundry supports service members through prototyping and repair. SOFWERX is an open collaboration facility successfully bringing hundreds of nontraditional partners together to work on some of U.S. Special Operations Command’s most challenging problems.

USSOCOM August 2019 – Joint Acquisition Agility Summit In collaboration with SOCOM, SOFWERX hosted a Joint Acquisition Agility Summit (JAAS) to bring together SOF AT&L agreements officers and program managers alongside other acquisition professionals in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. Attendees participated in a solutions based, design thinking approach to identify best practices for expediency and efficiency in executing Other Transaction Agreements (OTAs) and other nonfederal acquisition regulation based authorities.

June/August 2019 – Offline Language Translation Tool CCE SOFWERX, in collaboration with SOCOM, hosted an Offline Language Translation Tool CCE. The purpose of the event was to identify current limitations and ways to overcome limitations for offline translation devices, or Android based applications available and/ or can be readily available to provide near real-time translations of incoming audio to English audio and/or text. The desired end state is a tool that provides a stand-alone, offline, non-cloud-based capability.

May 2019 – Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) CAE

PEO ROTARY WING PEO Rotary Wing (RW) equips the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) (160th SOAR(A)) with the most advanced, lethal weapons systems available. RW’s purpose is to ensure these soldiers receive overmatch capabilities and robust support. To guarantee the 160th SOAR(A) maintain readiness and an advantage against all threats in all operating environments, RW is recapitalizing its aircraft, integrating lethality and survivability upgrades, and looking toward the future of SOF vertical lift. Collaborating with the Technology Applications Program Office at Fort Eustis, Virginia, Systems Integration Management Office at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and Product Manager SOF Training Systems in Orlando, Florida, the RW enterprise successfully develops, delivers, and sustains the 160th SOAR(A)’s RW systems. Recent highlights have included the following: • The light assault/attack A/MH-6M Little Bird (LB) Program Management Office (PMO) continued block upgrade development and testing that will recapitalize the LB fleet. This

q The light assault/attack A/MH-6M Little Bird (LB) Program Management Office (PMO) is continuing block upgrade development and testing to recapitalize the LB fleet, aircraft performance, and situational awareness in the cockpit.

USASOC PHOTO

SOFWERX, in collaboration with SOCOM, the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear Defense, and the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center, hosted a CWMD CAE to identify CWMD technologies relevant to today’s challenges. Out of 191 submissions, 34 companies were selected to present 44 capabilities to government representatives during one-on-one sessions.

Agreements and negotiations are ongoing with the respective government organizations.

USSOCOM

Special Operations Outlook

PEO FIXED WING PEO Fixed Wing (FW) delivers special operations manned and unmanned fixed-wing airpower capabilities. Overall, FW executed more than $2.4 billion in FY 2019 to develop, deliver, and sustain FW intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), strike, and mobility weapons systems in direct support of SOF operations worldwide. FW delivery of revolutionary ISR assets, MC-130J and AC-130J recapitalization, lethal munitions, and advanced technology ensures SOF mission success today and through tomorrow’s fight worldwide.

U.S. MARINE CORPS PHOTO BY SGT. ALLISON LOTZ

t Left: An MH-60M Black Hawk helicopter participates in an aerial refueling exercise. The medium assault MH-60M Blackhawk PMO continued the Block 1 modification, increasing payload availability and aircraft reliability, and providing better situational awareness for aircrews. u Right: U.S. Army MH-47G Chinook helicopter pilots perform preflight operations during Emerald Warrior 2013. The heavy assault MH-47G Chinook PMO awarded several major contracts to ramp up the MH-47G Block II Renew program to recapitalize the heavy assault fleet.

Find: Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance The Airborne ISR team fields and maintains a fleet of ISR manned and unmanned aerial systems. The manned aircraft include the U-28, MC-12 Javaman, DHC-8, and King Air aircraft. The unmanned platforms include the MQ-1C, MQ-9, and several variants of Group 1-3 systems.

Infiltrate: Mobility The MC-130J recapitalization program adds SOF capabilities to the service-common aircraft. Three mission systems provide electronic warfare, increased communications, terrain following radar, and enhanced situational awareness. The special mission processor ingests data from across the network for aircrew display, executing automated functions and increasing overall system performance. These integrated mission systems enhance MC-130J capabilities to conduct dynamic air-refueling, airdrop, insertion, extraction, and resupply missions under challenging conditions. The CV-22 is also undergoing updates with the terrain following radar, a color helmet-mounted display, and enhanced situational awareness capabilities.

U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO BY STAFF SGT. ELIZABETH RISSMILLER

modification improves aircraft performance and situational awareness in the cockpit. • The medium assault MH-60M Blackhawk PMO continued the Block 1 modification. This modification increases payload availability, increases reliability for the users, and provides better situational awareness for aircrews. • The heavy assault MH-47G Chinook PMO awarded several major contracts to ramp up the MH-47G Block II Renew program that will recapitalize the heavy assault fleet. • SOCOM’s acquisition executive approved full rate production for the Silent Knight Radar (SKR) program. The SKR program will enter into a three-year multiyear procurement contract in 2021, increasing lethality by accelerating fielding within the current budget profile. SKR provides SOF aircrews with a common terrain following/terrain avoidance capability. • The Mission Equipment PMO continued development, testing, and integration of the Degraded Visual Environment Pilotage System (DVEPS) on the MH-60M and MH-47G. DVEPS fuses information from aircraft sensors with terrain elevation data to display real-time reference points, obstacles, and landing zone information to the aviator, providing aircrews situational awareness during all phases of flight and significantly increasing aircrew and passenger survivability. RW aligns its efforts with the National Defense Strategy by prioritizing delivery of more lethal, capable, survivable, and innovative weapons systems. The strategy also directs improvement and reform of business practices as a method to achieve greater warfighter lethality. This remains a complex problem, requiring industry and RW to collaborate in new, innovative ways. RW is interested in creative solutions from industry partners that: • Increase speed of responding to requests for proposal, reduce unproductive portions of procurement lead-time, and reduce lead times for weapon system procurement. • Maximize collaboration with industry using cooperative research and development agreements. • Integrate with the services to pursue future rotary-wing capabilities, to include supporting future vertical lift development. • Offer ways to hyper-enable aircrews through integrating federated, complementary systems to aid in rapid decisive decisionmaking (i.e. How can we make what we have more effective?). RW and industry must work together to increase responsiveness and relevancy by “moving at the speed of SOF,” in order to ensure the 160th SOAR(A) warriors are prepared for what they will confront on tomorrow’s battlefield.

u Right: The CV-22 is undergoing updates with the terrain following radar, a color helmet-mounted display, and enhanced situational awareness capabilities. q Below: Four USAF MC130J Commando IIs from the 17th SOS execute a simultaneous overhead break June 22, 2017, off the coast of Okinawa, Japan, during a mass launch training mission. The MC-130J recapitalization program adds SOF capabilities to the servicecommon aircraft. Three mission systems provide electronic warfare, increased communications, terrain following radar, and enhanced situational awareness.

helmet-mounted displays for potential application to the AC-130J, increasing crew efficiency and survivability. To aid in the AC-130J’s precision fire, stand-off precision-guided missiles work to deliver increased accuracy, reduced collateral damage, and the ability to hit static and moving targets while maintaining minimal visual and acoustic signature. Finally, the integrated strike program leads the High Energy Laser (HEL) program, providing the first-ever offensive laser weapon system from a gunship. The HEL demonstrates a precision, scalable, low-kinetic weapon with the integration of “best-in-breed” subsystems.

Finish: Strike The integrated strike program leads AC-130J recapitalization efforts, which include the addition of an advanced precision-strike package to provide close-air support and precision fire capability in both electronic warfare and degraded weather environments. Additionally, technology advancements over the past year in legacy AC-130W gunships will continue to inform advancements in infrared suppression systems, missile warning systems, and

Technology Insertion: Tomorrow’s Fight PEO Fixed Wing supports the development of advanced technology sensors, defensive countermeasures, advanced avionics, and mission training systems. The Special Applications for Contingencies (SAFC) program develops and demonstrates enhanced sensors, payloads, datalinks, guidance/navigation upgrades, and airframe modifications to address capability gaps

USAF PHOTO BY SENIOR AIRMAN JOHN LINZMEIER

U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO BY SENIOR AIRMAN JAMES BELL

AFSOC

U.S. AIR FORCE/COURTESY PHOTO

USSOCOM

PEO MARITIME PEO Maritime is responsible for delivering cutting-edge undersea and surface technologies and capabilities to Naval Special Warfare Command. The key to each of the maritime mobility platforms is the Navy Sea, Air, and Land Teams (SEALs) and Special Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewmen. PEO Maritime is composed of five program offices that focus on the development, production, and sustainment of wet and dry submersibles, submarine-hosted Dry Deck Shelters (DDS), combat diving equipment, and a variety of surface craft.

Special Operations Outlook

p Above: AC-130J recapitalization efforts include an advanced precision-strike package to provide close-air support and precision fire capability in both electronic warfare and degraded weather environments. q Below: Members assigned to an East Coast Naval Special Boat Team lift a Combat Craft Assault with amphibious dock landing ship USS Carter Hall (LSD 50) during Exercise Trident (TD) 20-2.

The undersea systems enhance SEAL lethality by enabling increased mobility and payload capacity. DDS is an in-service program, which hosts the SEAL Delivery Vehicle (SDV). DDS is undergoing an extensive modernization to increase the payload capacity by 300 percent, increase the payload volume by 30 percent, and incorporate remote control capabilities. SDV is a legacy system that is incorporating enhancements to operator interfaces and additions to the number of payloads carried. A replacement to the SDV called the Shallow Water Combat Submersible (SWCS) is currently in production. Both SDV and SWCS are wet submersibles, requiring operators to be exposed to the environment while using an underwater breathing apparatus to conduct operations. Joining the undersea fleet is the Dry Combat Submersible (DCS). DCS enables increased range and payload and protects SEALs from the undersea environment by encapsulating them within a one-atmosphere dry submersible shell. To prepare Naval Special Warfare for the delivery of SWCS and DCS, both programs have delivered production representative platforms to train operators, mitigate risk, and insert technology. The surface fleet continues its extensive recapitalization effort, consisting of the Combatant Craft Assault (CCA), Combatant Craft Medium (CCM), and Combatant Craft Heavy (CCH) mobility platforms along with enhanced mission equipment technology to

U.S. NAVY PHOTO BY MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 2ND CLASS RUSSELL RHODES JR.

for Group 1-3 unmanned aerial systems supporting airborne ISR operations.

U.S. NAVY PHOTO BY MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 2ND CLASS BRIAN G. REYNOLDS

USSOCOM

p Above: The Ohio-class guided-missile submarine USS Ohio (SSGN 726) prepares to moor at Fleet Activities Yokosuka with two Dry Deck Shelters (DDS) fitted. An extensive modernization to DDS will increase the payload capacity by 300 percent, increase the payload volume by 30 percent, and incorporate remote control capabilities. t Left: The Combatant Craft Medium (CCM) is a reconfigurable, multi-mission maritime surface tactical mobility craft with a primary mission to insert and extract special operations forces in a medium threat environment. The CCM remains in full-rate production, fielding an additional three boats to both East and West coast operational units.

U.S. NAVY PHOTO BY MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 2ND CLASS TIMOTHY M. BLACK

PEO SOF WARRIOR

augment the platform capabilities. Development continues on a new maritime precision engagement system and will ultimately provide the entire combatant craft fleet with a standoff weapon capability. The CCA program achieved full operational capability in November 2019 with delivery of the final craft; a follow-on production contract targeting replacement of aging hulls is in development. The CCM remains in full-rate production, fielding an additional three boats to both East and West coast operational units. Both CCA and CCM platforms continue to deploy to operational theaters worldwide. The CCH maintains a forward-deployed presence on a rotational basis, with an additional craft in production. The SOF combat diving program completes the maritime portfolio by developing and fielding SOF-peculiar (SOF-p) diving equipment that interfaces with all PEO Maritime platforms. A key component of the special operations mobility equation is the SOF-p capability required to deliver the combat diver. SOF combat diving focuses on the development of equipment in the areas of maritime environmental protection, diver navigation, propulsion, and communications while increasing operator effectiveness and efficiencies.

PEO SOF Warrior (SW) is a joint staffed, multidiscipline organization chartered to provide state-of-the-art combat capabilities to SOF warfighters. Organized under subordinate program management offices, the PEO SW enterprise team cultivates an aggressive, risktaking culture among acquisition, financial, security, engineering, logistics, and contracting personnel. The team prides itself on the use of innovative acquisition strategies to accelerate delivery of capabilities. SOF Warrior planned and executed $2 billion toward the development, production, worldwide fielding, and sustainment of SOF-peculiar equipment supporting five SOCOM component commands to include special mission units and theater special operations commands. PEO SOF Warrior continues to concentrate its efforts on acquiring a diverse range of combat and combat support, ISR, and next generation targeting capabilities for application in all environments. Recent highlights include the following:

Program Manager for Special Programs (PM-SP) PEO SOF Warrior established the Tactical Assault Kit (TAK) Product Center and SOCOMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s TAK configuration steering board to manage further development and use of the Android-TAK (ATAK). TAK leverages commercial smartphones, servers, and existing radios with a government software core to create a secure, interoperable, tactical-level common operating picture. The TAK team, comprising members from SOCOM, U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, and the Department of Homeland Security,

U.S. NAVY PHOTO BY MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 1ST CLASS ERIC CHAN

PHOTO BY LANCE CPL. GEORGE MELENDEZ

USSOCOM

worked to produce unique products equipped with the latest commercial technologies for different user communities. For SOF users, the products aimed to enhance interoperability on the battlefield for coordination among ground troops, vehicles, supporting aircraft, and long-range fires in support of real-time combat maneuvers. The TAK configuration steering board was recognized for acquisition excellence and presented the David Packard Excellence in Acquisition Award in December 2019. The team’s efforts exemplify how a successful modern software development program that keeps pace with commercial innovation can have a game-changing impact on the warfighter to enhance combat operations. Another key achievement was the establishment of the Next Generation Information and Awareness (NGIA) effort for innovative solution development, rapid prototyping, and initial fieldings using competitive yet flexible acquisition processes. SOF Warrior leveraged advanced commercial technologies in support of the Hyper Enabled Operator initiative and development of the light weight machine gun (LWMG), Nighthawk unmanned aerial system, .50-caliber polymer ammunition, and advanced fragmentation grenade. SOF Warrior’s NGIA effort also supported development and fielding of multi-functional and open-system architecture capabilities in surveillance and intelligence, electronic warfare, communications, cyber, unmanned aerial systems, and counterunmanned aerial systems.

PM-Survival, Support and Equipment Systems (PM-SSES) SOCOM awarded a $95 million, five-year indefinite delivery/ indefinite quantity, contract (with an additional two-year option) to field the first-ever purpose-built coxswain helmet to support the Naval Special Warfare community. This system provides a significant weight reduction over legacy systems as well as the addition of ballistic and non-ballistic maxillofacial and ballistic eye protection. PEO SOF Warrior, through PM-SSES, also received the SPEAR Maritime Body Armor Vest (MARBAV) and the Jumpable Plate Carrier (JPC) for fielding and deployment. MARBAV and JPC provide significant advancements over previous versions including reduced water retention, reduced weight, and increased comfort. Additionally, SOCOM has incorporated improvements to tactical medical capabilities within the Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) program, including the new XSTAT 12 hemorrhage control device. This device is designed to treat life-threatening bleeding

t Left: U.S. Naval special operators from Naval Special Warfare Command (NSWC) conduct dive training in the United States. The SOF combat diving program completes the maritime portfolio by developing and fielding SOF-peculiar (SOF-p) diving equipment, focusing on the development of equipment in the areas of maritime environmental protection, diver navigation, propulsion, and communications, while increasing operator effectiveness and efficiencies. p Above: A Marine with the Force Reconnaissance Company, III Marine Expeditionary Force stationed at Camp Schwab in Okinawa, Japan, examines his Android Tactical Assault Kit (ATAK) device on the aircraft before the team jumps at the IDIS-Corps facility in Parker, Arizona, in 2017. PEO SOF Warrior established the Tactical Assault Kit (TAK) Product Center and SOCOM’s TAK configuration steering board to manage further development and use of the Android-TAK (ATAK).

from penetrating wounds in areas difficult to access (i.e. junction areas). New enhancements to TCCC medical capabilities also include improved chest decompression needed to better provide treatment of tension pneumothorax, a life-threatening condition that can occur with chest trauma.

PM-Naval Special Warfare Special Programs (PM-NSW-SP) PEO SOF Warrior, through PM-NSW-SP, fielded SOCOM’s new small-arms battle rifle with two upper receiver groups, in two different calibers, enabling individual users to tailor the weapon for mission requirements. PEO SOF Warrior also fielded a modular combat pistol designed to allow a SOF operator to deploy with various optics, laser, and light combinations as well as the ability to change between various-sized grip/frame modules and barrel lengths. Additionally, PM-NSW-SP has initiated development of a device that will provide signals to tactical communications equipment in GPS-denied environments. This device or Position Navigation and Timing (PNT PUCK) will provide an operator transiting on foot PNT signals to tactical communications equipment in a tiered approach. The program office conducted several design analysis reviews with industry engineers and end-users to inform and manage size, weight, and power as well as form factor options. The design analysis events helped engineering teams design a device that can be seamlessly integrated into current load-bearing vests and pouches with minimal impact to the current equipment configuration for users.

USSOCOM

PM-Counter-proliferation (PM-CP) SOF Warrior, through PM-CP, fielded more than 500 electronic countermeasure systems and nearly 700 system upgrades in the fight to counter radio-controlled improvised explosive devices. PM-CP also assumed responsibility as the lead synchronizer for SOF Warrior’s counter-unmanned aerial systems mission and fielded more than 650 new systems across 13 combat evaluations to meet urgent warfighter requirements. Additionally, PM-CP delivered more than 2,600 specialized equipment items for explosive ordnance disposal and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defense missions to provide global SOF with detection, identification, sampling, decontamination, and individual protection capabilities against threats from weapons of mass destruction.

PM-Family of Special Operations Vehicles (PM-FOSOV) PEO SOF Warrior, through PM-FOSOV, continues fielding lowvisibility, non-standard commercial vehicles (NSCV) in support

Special Operations Outlook

p The SOCOM Suppressed Upper Receiver Group (SURG) in 5.56mm. PEO SOF Warrior, through PM-NSW-SP, fielded SOCOM’s new small-arms battle rifle with two upper receiver groups, in two different calibers, enabling individual users to tailor the weapon for mission requirements.

of low visibility operations conducted in denied environments. NSCV2 vehicles have completed all testing and are in full-rate production with a monthly manufacturing output of approximately 16. PM-FOSOV has also awarded two prototype vehicle contracts for purpose-built NSCV development. Purpose built vehicles may prove to be the future of NSCV by providing a more rugged, longer lasting platform with an overall reduction of life-cycle cost compared to the traditional NSCV. SOCOM is also exploring two NSCV-mounted Precision Strike variants in close coordination with PM-SOF Lethality. Finally, SOCOM is slated to award a follow-on contract for the Light Tactical All-Terrain Vehicle (LTATV) in 2020. This contract was solicited with full and open competition and is expected to yield an improved and more durable LTATV. The Ground Mobility Vehicle (GMV) 1.1 program continues production and fielding as it moves closer to initial operational capability by the end of 2020.

PM-SOF Lethality (PM-SL) SOF Warrior, though PM-SL, acquisitioned a 5x25 power and 7x35 power standard precision–variable powered scope with improved target acquisition and probability of hit between 50 meters and 1500 meters. Additionally, PL-SL awarded SOCOM contracts for the handgun aiming laser and the precision aiming laser with a red visible pointer, near infrared pointer/illuminator, laser range finder, environmental sensors, and ballistics calculator. Additionally, PM-SL conducted a 2020 SOF Range event, which included nearly 500 participants from various SOF communities, DOD/national laboratories, and intelligence communities.

PHOTO BY SCOTT R. GOURLEY

Finally, PM-NSW-SP is in the third year of development for a Maritime Demolition Initiation System (MDIS). This project was initiated in fiscal year 2018 to answer the capability gap of a reliable waterproof initiation system. MDIS is leveraging lessons learned from previously fielded devices, such as reliability, cost, performance, shelf life, and versatility. The project is using the information to develop a next generation modular firing device. Two of the most commonly used initiators will be combined to make one and reduce life-cycle costs as a result. In fiscal year 2019, multiple design iterations and reviews were held with the end-users, which led to some significant design changes intended to increase the safety of the system. The open system architecture has been completed as well as work to finalize the tactical prototype. fiscal year 2020 will see a critical design review, operational assessment, and start of the safety review/certification process. By combining the best features of the two most common initiation systems, SOCOM expects a return on investment in year four of fielding with an anticipated $704,000 in annual savings.

USSOCOM PEO Command, Control, Communications, and Computers (C4) PEO C4 is responsible for acquiring and delivering cutting-edge C4 and Military Information Support Operations (MISO) systems. In 2019, C4 delivered more than 25,000 communications, information technology (IT), and MISO capabilities to SOF worldwide. Expanding on focus efforts from 2018, PEO C4 continued modernizing IT and communications at the edge. The Next Generation Tactical Communications (NGTC) program initiated fielding of the low-rate initial production AN/PRC-163 Next Generation Handheld (NGHH) tactical radio in September 2018, followed by full-rate production and initial fielding in October 2019. The AN/PRC-167 Next Generation Manpack (NGMP) tactical radio is moving forward with an operational assessment scheduled for the summer of 2020. The NGHH and NGMP are dual-channel, multi-band radios enabling simultaneous communication over two channels hosting both narrowband and wideband voice and internet protocol based data waveforms. Additionally, PM C4 achieved a full-rate production decision for the AN/PRC-161 handheld link-16 radio and is fielding toward full operational capability. The AN/PRC-161 digitally integrates ground forces with air platforms, enabling rapid and accurate execution of digitally aided close-air support, significantly shortening the kill chain timeline and reducing the risk of fratricide. The Satellite Deployable Node (SDN) program awarded a contract for the service life extension of fielded satellite terminals, providing deployed forces access to IT services through a scalable, man-packable solution. The SDN-ISR kit entered full-rate production, providing SOF the ability to receive full-motion video over the SDN family of systems while the tactical local area network program restructured acquisition and sustainment strategies, resulting in significant efficiencies. MISO programs shifted focus toward transformative development efforts aligned with national directives to invest in next generation MISO capabilities. In anticipation of emerging requirements, the program initiated nine research and development projects with SOFWERX in transformative technologies such as holographic imaging, offline two-way live language translation, and physiological analysis. Additionally, the team conducted five industry events, analyzing more than 100 white papers on artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to enhance core MISO capabilities of audience analysis, language translation, sentiment analysis, and measures of effectiveness. The Command, Control, Communications, and Computers (C4IAS) program led the acquisition effort in support of the SOCOM chief information officer’s digital transformation initiative by awarding a one-year base and four-year option Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (MSEA) contract vehicle. The MSEA provides SOF the ability to acquire and consume DOD-approved unclassified and classified O365 Software as a Service (SaaS) and Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) commercial cloud services. C4IAS also established an Impact Level (IL2) presence in Amazon Web Services in support of SOCOM’s public facing website, www. socom.mil. The migration from the SOF Information Environment (SIE) to a commercial cloud service reduces the overall cybersecurity risk to SOCOM networks.

PEO SPECIAL RECONNAISSANCE, SURVEILLANCE AND EXPLOITATION (SRSE) PEO SRSE is responsible for the acquisition, development, fielding and sustainment of SOF next-generation ISR and digital

data analytics capabilities. PEO SRSE has been designated as the lead for two new programs of record: Mission Command System/ Common Operating Picture (MCS/COP) and Remote Advise and Assist (RAA); both initiating in fiscal year 2021. MCS/COP will unify the SOF enterprise via a common operational picture that provides global situational awareness. RAA will provide force protection, prevent potential fratricide, and provide enhanced situational awareness improving U.S. SOF visibility of partner force operations from a distance. PEO SRSE continues to develop and demonstrate technologies to support SOF operational requirements using affordable, tactically controlled, and tailored space assets. The current focus is development and demonstration of modular ISR payloads using a standardized satellite bus. This approach allows for a “plug and play” approach, enabling maximum mission flexibility. PEO SRSE continues to leverage SOF-user expertise, government partnerships, the Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities (TENCAP) program, and commercial industry. Additionally, the program office is collaborating with the larger space community in a quest for rapid, resilient, and responsive space launch. PEO SRSE’s Joint Threat Warning System (JTWS) program progressed toward more complex, near peer, signal prosecution through software and hardware advancements within existing sensors. Moreover, advanced algorithm technologies were vetted and selected to provide more accurate direction finding for manned ISR aircraft that require improved threat warning and enhanced target acquisition, without changing existing antennas on the aircraft. JTWS also continued to explore cyber-enabling capabilities within existing program of record signals intelligence sensor kits. The Mission Support Systems program office continues to fully deploy the National Reconnaissance Office Fusion Analysis Development Effort platform; garrison and tactical/deployable full-motion video; and signals intelligence processing, exploitation, and dissemination equipment in support of Distributed Common Ground/Surface System Special Operations Forces (DCGS -SOF) requirements. The Special Operations Forces Planning, Rehearsal, and Execution Preparation (SOFPREP) program transitioned SOF modeling and simulation common databases to the National Geospatial Agency in support of an intelligence community and DOD-federated co-production ecosystem. The Sensitive Site Exploitation (SSE) program continues to provide leading-edge biometrics and forensics devices to SOF worldwide. The program equipment enhancements are identified and evaluated through SOFWERX industry days, limited user assessment testing, and combat evaluations. Additionally, SSE fielded the latest software to exploit captured electronics. Several exploitation analysis centers received upgraded shelters, dramatically improving environmental systems, lighting, and electrical distribution. The Technical Collection and Communications (TCC) program office oversees the development and testing of commercial and government material solutions for integration into TCC programs of record, which include Hostile Forces-Tagging, Tracking, and Locating (HF-T TL), Tactical Video Systems/ Reconnaissance Surveillance Target Acquisition (TVS/RSTA), Blue Force Tracking (BF T), and Special Communications Enterprise (SCE). The technology focus areas include global and non-global positioning system based capabilities, unattended ground sensors, and advanced methods for clandestine communications.

TRANS-REGIONAL RESISTANCE WORKING GROUP Sharing SOF Lessons Around the Globe BY SCOTT R. GOURLEY

U.S. Special Operations Command elements qWhile maintain a global posture, their experiences and support of and by partner nations create a range of unique geographic approaches to meet special operation forces (SOF) challenges. In an effort to share some of those challenges and approaches across the U.S. and international partner SOF enterprise, Special Operations Command Pacific (SOCPAC) co-hosted a Trans-Regional Resistance Working Group (TRWG) with the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, California, in early February of this year. Special Operations Outlook was honored to be invited to participate in the event. As described in TRWG overviews, the overarching theme of the three-day event involved “a comparison between Russian and Chinese aggression with the key takeaways that would be applicable to nations in the IndoPacific as they seek to increase efforts in the resilience and resistance areas of their national security strategy.” In addition to attendees from across the U.S. SOF enterprise, the TRWG included government and/or SOF representatives from nearly a dozen partner nations.

RESISTANCE AND RESILIENCE SIMILARITIES “While each of you may bring different perspectives from your respective country, your respective culture, your respective politics, or your respective neighborhood, I challenge you to think that there are lots of similarities,” asserted Maj. Gen. Jonathan P. Braga, commander, U.S. Special Operations Command Pacific. In his welcome comments, Braga said that the TRWG was about “finding those similarities and places where we can share and cooperate and strengthen each other in resistance and resilience.” He added, “On the backbone of last year’s discussion at our Pacific Area Special Operations Conference [PASOC] about sovereignty, I think it really goes back to: How do you improve your house? How do you improve your country? How do you improve your resilience and your resistance and ultimately your sovereignty?”

Special Operations Outlook

Expanding on representative regional challenges and related resilience issues, Braga pointed to the subject of elections. “I think last time I checked, there are 10 elections coming up in Asia over the next year,” he began. “As examples, there will be elections in New Zealand and Mongolia. Taiwan just had elections. The U.S. is going to have an election. And I didn’t count for our European brothers and sisters out there. I know there are elections there, too. And those elections are a commonality.” “Now, is the U.S. military in charge of protecting U.S. elections? No,” he continued. “But we are part of the national security apparatus, and we are a part of that resiliency. But are we prepared for it? I would challenge you that the U.S. military, right now, is maybe not embracing the type of challenges we’re facing.” Expanding on some of those future challenges, he summarized, “We equip the military to destroy things. We’re built to protect our homeland, but ultimately destroy things in a Phase Three high-end conflict. I hope we never have that conflict. I hope we stay in the Competition Phase. This is defensive in nature; defensive in nature to prevent mirror imaging escalating to Phase Three.” Braga emphasized the need for countries to have their “house in order” and have their sovereignty secured, in part through robust resilience and resistance planning. “You have to ask, have you affected your adversary’s – fill in the blank, whoever it is, whoever you’re most concerned about – ‘cost calculus’ for breaking into your house? Do you have a dog that’s going to bite? Do you have an alarm that’s going to go off? Are the police going to come? Is a neighbor going to take a shotgun out and do something about it? Is your resilience and resistance strong enough before Phase Three? Because nobody wants to pay that price. Nobody in the world desires high-end conflict.” Over three days of keynote addresses, panel discussions, and focused breakout sessions, the TRWG explored the type of resistance and resilience issues

U.S. ARMY PHOTO BY STAFF SGT. ELIZABETH PENA

TRWG

TRWG q A U.S. Air Force flight engineer with the 352nd Special Operations Wing guides an Estonian special operations forces member driving a military vehicle off a U.S. Air Force CV-22B Osprey during training Sept. 3, 2019, at Amari, Estonia. During the week-long training, U.S. and Estonian special operations forces partnered on Fast Rope Insertion and Extraction System familiarization, casualty evacuation, and rapidly loading and off-loading a tactical vehicle onto the aircraft.

TRWG

p Above: Col. David Maxwell (Ret.) takes questions while discussing the role of resilience and resistance in power and competition during Special Operations Command Pacific’s Trans-Regional Resistance Working Group (TRWG) Feb. 4-6, 2020. SOCPAC and Naval Postgraduate School co-hosted the TRWG. This event was designed to create an open environment for the U.S. and its Indo-Pacific partners to talk about how resiliency and

U.S. NAVY PHOTOS BY CHIEF MASS COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST WILLIAM TONACCHIO

resistance can play a role in sovereignty. t Left: TRWG attendees formed into small breakout groups to discuss panel topics.

identified by Braga as well as those presented across the SOF enterprise.

MISSION TERMINOLOGIES Key underlying elements of these issues involved diplomatic, information, military, economic, financial, intelligence, and law enforcement (DIMEFIL), with much of the early conference foundational work focused on definitions of terminologies that are frequently used to describe and discuss SOF/DIMEFIL activities and how they relate to resistance and resilience challenges across Asia. As an example, in the case of so-called “gray zone” or “hybrid conflict” environments, conference discussions identified a key component of all these environments as “political warfare,” a term originally traced back to a 1948 document prepared for the National

Security Council by State Department Policy Planning Director George Kennan. At that time, Kennan defined the new type of warfare as “the logical application of Clausewitz’s doctrine in time of peace. In broadest definition, political warfare is the employment of all the means at a nation’s command, short of war, to achieve its national objectives …” While political warfare is not a specific SOF mission, there was considerable agreement that SOF is well positioned to support it, as referenced in the March 10, 2015 U.S. Army Special Operations Command white paper titled SOF Support to Political Warfare. Defining political warfare as “a strategy suited to achieve U.S. national objectives through reduced visibility in the international geo-political environment, without committing large military forces,” it states, “Likewise, Political Warfare can function as a critical, integrating element of U.S. national power against non-state adversaries such as the current Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Most often, the Department of Defense role in Political Warfare will be one of supporting other U.S. Government agencies that are more likely to lead strategy and planning development.” Related discussion avenues focused on the belief that financial warfare underlies political warfare, and that financial leverage is second only to ideas as an asset of power.

U.S. NAVY PHOTO BY MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 2ND CLASS CONOR MINTO

TRWG

With the dollar providing the largest and deepest pool of liquidity on the planet, some wondered if that financial power is currently being used to greatest advantage, calling for expanded examination of “capital density along with soldiers and missions.” “We can’t or won’t blow something up,” observed one audience member. “But perhaps we can stress their downstream distribution network.” SOF’s supporting role to political warfare was also viewed by some in TRWG discussions as one element of a “SOF Trinity,” acknowledging that special operations must continue to focus on high-end and counter-terror operations while balancing actions between support to political warfare, irregular warfare, and unconventional warfare. Another aspect of that trinity, irregular warfare (IW), was defined in DOD (Department of Defense) Joint Operating Concept Version 1.0, dated Sept. 11, 2007, as “a violent struggle among state and

Special Operations Outlook

p The littoral combat ship USS Fort Worth (LCS 3) conducts routine patrols in international waters of the South China Sea near the Spratly Islands as the People’s Liberation ArmyNavy (PLAN) guided-missile frigate Yancheng (FFG 546) sails close behind.

nonstate actors for legitimacy and influence over the relevant populations. IW favors indirect and asymmetric approaches, though it may employ the full range of military and other capabilities, in order to erode an adversary’s power, influence, and will.” Just over a decade later, H.R. 2810, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018, tweaked that definition to “activities in support of predetermined United States policy and military objectives conducted by, with, and through regular forces, irregular forces, groups, and individuals participating in

TRWG competition between state and non-state actors short of traditional armed conflict.” The past two years have also seen the development of an irregular warfare “annex” to the 2018 National Defense Strategy, with a related IW Annex Implementation Plan now being briefed at senior DOD levels. While some characterized these developmental actions in a positive light, others questioned the packaging of IW as an annex in the first place, arguing instead that it should be intertwined with the rest of the strategy in recognition that it is a principal operational domain. Related discussions addressed differences between IW, information operations (I/O), and cyber, with some viewing I/O and cyber as “almost the same things,” but asserting that they are being pushed apart due to a lack of appreciation for the psychological impacts of cyber. Many in the audience felt that western I/O capabilities were lagging, in large part due to “the approvals required” to conduct I/O. In fact, one point of general agreement seemed to be “It’s easier to get permission to put a Hellfire missile on the head of a terrorist than to influence what is between his ears.”

RESISTANCE AND RESILIENCE IN ASIA Supporting the group’s vision of new and expanded operational domains were multiple references to Unrestricted Warfare, the 1999 publication written by Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, two senior colonels in China’s People’s Liberation Army at the time, proposing new principles of war. While some have subsequently attempted to downplay the significance of that document, a quick update on the authors’ postpublication military career advancement served to spotlight some of the critical thinking found on those pages. In fact, while some asserted that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) current global vision and gray zone activities were simply “more subtle and sophisticated than those of Russia,” others identified it as “the fundamental problem in Asia,” adding that China’s security expansion “is about creating dependencies and not partnerships.” Elements and philosophies expressed in Unrestricted Warfare were used to illustrate possible thinking behind recent actions by China, ranging from I/O operations like major investments in Taiwanese media companies to using dominance in the online gaming industry to create positive storylines and thinking among youth around the world. Potential response options seen included accept and acquiesce; create civil/military resistance; or create and conduct a countersubversion campaign. Several speakers postulated a significant planning impact on potential CCP activities stemming from China’s now-abandoned “one child policy,” which some assert has left today’s People’s Liberation Army with the largest percentage of only children in history. Simply stated, would the fact that each of those soldiers represents the potential “end of a family bloodline” affect the planning toward actual combat operations? Some saw the need for refreshing or restoring traditional regional alliances. As an example, one TRWG keynote speaker, David Maxwell, a retired Special Forces colonel who is currently a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, was asked whether it might be time to abandon the “One China” policy that has provided a framework for U.S.–China relations over the past four decades, and move to recognize Taiwan. “This is my personal opinion, but yes,” he replied. “And you can quote me on that.”

And Maxwell was not alone in that opinion. In another keynote address, Lt. Gen. Wallace “Chip” Gregson (USMC, Ret.) spoke on the “strategic risk of inaction” in Asia. “We’ve lost our way,” he said. “We’re not losing. We’re just not competing.” Asserting that it was time for democracies in the region to refocus their national security postures, he said, “I think there is room here to break Taiwan’s military out of the box they have been in since 1979, when we broke the military alliance.” In addition to the exploration of new alliances with traditional partners, others cited common ground across parts of Asia with nontraditional entities, including organizations like Greenpeace. One point of clarification that was made throughout the TRWG was a clear distinction between China and the apparent actions of the CCP. In the final analysis, China’s global presence and participation remains in the best interests of everyone. They clarified that it is CCP actions, which some asserted are directed solely toward keeping CCP in power, that create regional concern and the need for enhanced resistance and resilience planning.

LESSONS FROM EUROPE As noted in Braga’s conference welcome, TRWG planners sought to identify synergies and commonalities between ongoing events in the Indo-Pacific and recent events in Europe, where Special Operations Command Europe (SOCEUR) hosted the first Unconventional Warfare/Resistance seminar in 2014, before Russian actions in Crimea. That seminar led to development of a multinational Resistance Operating Concept (ROC). Broadly speaking, it views resilience as a “whole of society effort,” which leads to resistance. Although not official “doctrine,” at least three nations have used the ROC as a basis for their own resistance planning. TRWG panels and speakers included a range of current resilience and resistance examples where European countries could potentially provide lessons learned for coalition partners across Asia, with one participant directly asserting that Taiwan’s special operations forces could learn a great deal from SOF elements in both Poland and Switzerland. In a broader sense, Braga referenced last year’s PASOC event, offering, “I think when you talk challenges in Europe versus challenge in Asia and the respective altered groups – we even talked Middle East and South America [with some] countries from there as well – it allowed people to remove the complexities of what’s happening in their respective countries and think theoretically about other countries with the same challenges. What are they doing about it?” SOF and ministry of defense representatives from several European countries shared their current approaches to resistance and resilience in light of recent and current Russian activities. Those activities were presented on a foundation provided by military, government, and academic speakers, who asserted that Russia’s current view of international politics “sees the West in permanent decline” and, as a result, started a pivot to Asia around 2012. Today, many feel that the internal stability of both Russia and China is based upon economic growth. Russian aims were identified as protecting what they view as their “backyard,” no longer declaring their rights but instead asserting them, and exploiting every instance of U.S. pullback where it can undermine support for the United States. One discussion noted that Russia’s goal of creating a polycentric world varied with geography, with kinetic force used close to Russia, and other means used in other areas.

TRWG t An automotive business on Lilla Essingen in Sweden that would become a neighborhood shelter in a conflict; part of Sweden’s “total defense” concept.

perspective on resistance and resilience from an Estonian SOF commander. Relating a brief national history that spanned the period from World War II to the present, Lt. Col. Margus Kuul observed that some form of invasion “remains an existential threat” to the nation. Kuul explained that armed resistance has been a part of national security planning since 2008, and offered the example of the Estonian Defense League, with its more than 25,000 members, as one aspect of that planning. He emphasized the importance of a “whole of government approach,” noting that proper preparation for resistance means that sometimes “a lawyer with a pen” is even more important than “a soldier with a gun.” “The key is to preserve the legitimacy of a government in exile,” he added. Universally acknowledged across the TRWG was the fact that it is not “kicking down doors” that makes SOF world class. Rather, in addition to the ability to capture or kill high value targets, the essence of SOF capabilities is in its ability to solve problems. And it is the application of that problem-solving expertise that creates such a massive contribution to resistance and resilience planning.

SCOTT R. GOURLEY PHOTO

ADDITIONAL CHALLENGES Those scenarios were balanced against what some called “the reality” of Russia being a diminished power, economically based on oil – 60 percent of Russia’s federal budget comes from oil and gas sales – and very good at cyber, “where they are originally impacting Western democracies.” One country that has fostered an evolution in its resistance and resilience thinking over the last few years is Sweden. According to Lars Hedström, deputy head for the Department of Security, Strategy and Leadership and Senior Associated Dean for External Relations, Swedish Defence University, today’s “total defense” philosophy can be seen as a “back to the future” concept similar to some of the thinking that came after World War II. Key to that thinking was that every person – from 16 to 65 – has a role in civil defense. “Everything washed out in the mid-’90s,” he told the audience. “But then came Georgia. And then came Ukraine. And the mindset totally changed.” Noting that Sweden’s 2015 defense bill saw the reestablishment of total defense, he said, “This is not just ‘2.0,’ because so much has changed.” The new concept, which links military and civil defense, was accompanied by a number of key elements, including reestablishing psychological defense; identifying, meeting and countering hybrid warfare and information, operations, and influence campaigns; protecting vital systems and active operations in the civil defense cyber domain; and strengthening intelligence capabilities. An explanatory document that was distributed to every household in Sweden seems to anticipate the presence of hostile I/O in any future operation, stating: “If Sweden is attacked by another country, we will never give up. All information to the effect that resistance is to cease is false.” In addition to the total defense examples provided by Swedish representatives, TRWG attendees learned about the Estonian

Remaining background issues that emerged during TRWG span from tactical to strategic levels. At the tactical level, for example, some attendees acknowledged that SOF tends to look at “conflict models” but not “competition models.” To be more reflective of future likelihoods, they felt that the aperture needed to be opened and adjusted to include competition at the tactical level as being “things that impose cost on the other’s strategy.” Many at TRWG also pointed to the United States falling well behind both Russia and China in I/O, both internally and externally. One shared example asserted that, in 1999, just 31 percent of Russians viewed Russia as “a great power.” In January 2020 that number was 75 percent. One speaker attempted to quantify the CCP’s I/O capabilities with the United States in the type of chart once used to compare and depict numbers of tanks and artillery pieces during the Cold War. Conceding China’s I/O “dominance” in areas like force size, funding, activities, and speed, they called for leveraging nontraditional partners, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and coalescing U.S. and partner efforts to challenge that overmatch. Another speaker highlighted the different I/O reaction speeds on the chart, calling for the reduction of I/O and other approval timelines. They asked rhetorically: “How do you prevent the next Spratly Islands? How do you prevent other actions occurring down the Mekong? If this is ‘the new normal,’ how do you prevent ‘the new normal’ from happening?” In his own remarks, Braga emphasized that applying SOF abilities to resistance and resilience planning was “anything but escalatory.” “Too much of our respective histories are littered with wars that cost too much in lives, blood, and treasure,” he said. “We’re about protection. We are the insurance policy. We are the firemen. “That’s our goal for this event,” he concluded. “We want participants to take home a list of concrete ideas that they can apply to their own situations.”

AFSOC

AFSOC New Strategic Guidance Directs AFSOCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Future BY SCOTT R. GOURLEY

U.S. Air Force Special Tactics operators move to clear an objective during exercise Southern Strike 2020, in Fort Morgan, Alabama, Feb. 6, 2020. Southern Strike is a large-scale, joint and international combat exercise, which features counter insurgency, close air support, en-route casualty care, noncombatant evacuation, and maritime special operations.

Special Operations Outlook

U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO BY MASTER SGT. JASON ROBERTSON

As with other service components within U.S. Special Operations Command, Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) is embracing a new generation of strategic guidance that will help to transition the commandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unique capabilities to address the new and evolving challenges of the next five to 15 years and beyond.

AFSOC FOUNDATION FOR THE FUTURE Released in March 2020, the updated AFSOC Strategic Guidance outlines what AFSOC Commander Lt. Gen. James “Jim” Slife sees as “The AFSOC We Will Need” in the future. Noting that AFSOC “evolved from a specialized crisis and contingency response force, optimized for episodic theater engagement, to the force of today, driven by the need to counter global violent extremist threats in the aftermath of September 11th, 2001,” the command guidance document explains that AFSOC answered the call and adapted where necessary, “resulting in a force largely optimized to continually rotate – at high operational tempo – into combat for years at a time to counter and defeat non-state threats while remaining prepared for crisis response. “However, the price for adopting this model was paid in full-spectrum readiness,” it cautions. “Now the strategic, fiscal, technological, and policy landscapes are shifting and the ‘AFSOC We Needed’ is no longer the ‘AFSOC We Will Need.’ Like the rest of the Department of Defense, Air Force Special Operations Command stands at a strategic inflection point. The reemergence of great power competition, tightening fiscal constraints, and the accelerating rate of technological change demand significant adjustments to transform AFSOC to ensure we are ready to successfully operate in this new environment.” The publication outlines a military evolution over several decades that established special operations forces as “a key element of the joint force; often supporting, occasionally supported.” It asserts that, since Sept. 11, special operations forces (SOF) became largely a supported force, adding, “However, AFSOC cannot assume the historical anomaly of being a supported force with a near-singular focus on countering violent extremist organizations (C-VEO) will persist. Accordingly, we must develop and provide unique capabilities valuable to the broader joint force while remaining an integral part of the joint SOF team.” That foundation builds to a problem statement of how AFSOC will need to transform to conduct competitive activities and prepare for combat against peer and near-peer adversaries while still remaining decisively engaged in the C-VEO fight. “AFSOC must orient to great power competition and – if necessary – conflict while finding efficiencies to optimize the C-VEO effort,” the guidance states. “Meanwhile, we will divest of capabilities with uncertain value propositions or high

AFSOC t A combat controller from U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command’s 321st Special Tactics Squadron, assigned to the 352nd Special Operations Wing in England, steps out of an MC-130J during a culmination exercise near Krakow on Dec. 5, 2018. The jump was one event of a two-month long joint training exercise to show members of the Polish Special Operations Combat Control Team how U.S. SOF conduct special operations air-land integration.

advantages for the joint force as well as our allies and partners,” through actions like employing “low-visibility capabilities to identify high-value targets in denied areas and contribute to the joint force’s ability to link those targets with desired effects,” leveraging “its access and placement to provide organic all-domain fires to open windows of opportunity the joint force can then exploit with mass,” and providing the joint force with “unique options to impose costs and hold adversaries at risk outside immediate conflict zones with a comparatively low risk of horizontal escalation.” The commander’s strategic guidance emphasizes the guiding principle that “AFSOC’s human capital is our competitive advantage,” acknowledging that the approach “will have effects across the active duty, Reserve, and National Guard elements” of the command. “Fundamentally, this is a call for change which will challenge the assumptions cemented by nearly 20 years of C-VEO operations, drive difficult decisions, and induce short-term turbulence to ensure long-term success,” it states.

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FOCUS AREAS

cost-to-benefit ratios while focusing investment in capabilities only AFSOC can provide the joint force.” As such, it says that the “AFSOC We Will Need” will organize, train, equip, validate, and deploy forces ready to: generate advantage in competition short of armed conflict; enable the joint force to win in armed conflict; execute efficient operations to counter violent extremist organizations; and respond to crisis. “AFSOC will continue to deploy forces executing prioritized global C-VEO operations and posture for crisis response with our joint partners and allies,” it says. “However, AFSOC will also provide unique value to the broader joint force in competition and conflict. We will adapt many of the skills our Airmen honed in the C-VEO fight to competitive activities in areas where our adversaries act through proxies and employ unconventional tactics.” Commonly known as “The Gray Zone” between peace and traditional war, the AFSOC Strategic Guidance references “competition below the threshold of armed conflict,” noting that SOF’s ability to operate with low visibility and scalable attribution means that Air Force Special Operations Forces (AFSOF) “can create uncertainty and induce friction into our adversaries’ decisionmaking cycles with lowered risk of escalation. Likewise, with unique access and placement, SOF can provide information vital to our policy makers by revealing an adversary’s malign actions in areas where traditional access is unavailable. This capability will strengthen relationships with our partners as well as expand the joint force’s competitive advantage and freedom of action. AFSOF will also prepare the environment and illuminate threats to develop understanding for the joint force should competition escalate to armed conflict.” If global situations should transition to armed conflict, it credits AFSOC with generating “specialized combat power to produce

Execution of the strategic guidance involves three command focus areas: developing human capital to enable AFSOC airmen to maximize their potential; organizing to ensure that human capital is ready for full-spectrum operations from the lowest tactical level to the theater-wide operational level; and equipping the human capital with the concepts and technology to compete and win. Those three command responsibilities – developing, organizing, and equipping AFSOC’s human capital – provide the key foundational pillars for the future vision. The commander’s guidance on development of the human capital opens with a leadership and accountability assessment that describes AFSOC culture as “healthy,” elaborating, “We are Airmen first and foremost, with expertise in special operations and firmly grounded in the Air Force core values of Integrity First, Service Before Self, and Excellence in All We Do. As a command, we are most effective in both our roles – as an Air Force major command and a SOCOM [Special Operations Command] service component – when we are closest to our parent service.” It also credits the AFSOC qualities of “disciplined professionals, biased for independent initiative, with deep technical expertise in their specialties,” with enabling operations “across a spectrum, ranging from intense, but routinized, armed conflict to great power competition, where operating as small teams in ambiguous environments with potential for great diplomatic and political consequences may be the norm.” Elaborating, it adds, “Our initiative must include the wherewithal to demonstrate strategic patience and – when necessary – restraint, ensuring the unique capabilities we provide are effective while also preserving the command’s credibility.” It summarizes the underlying characteristics of AFSOC’s human capital as serving the command, the Department of Defense, and the nation well “in the future operating environment where our teams will face contested connectivity to higher

p A U.S. Air Force MC-130H Combat Talon II from the 15th Special Operations Squadron, Hurlburt Field, Florida, conducts rapid infiltration flight operations for training as part of Exercise Emerald Warrior 19, Jan. 16, 2019.

echelons and will be expected to operate with minimal guidance and great latitude.” Preparation for this environment will feature the expanded development of AFSOC’s leaders and airmen at all levels, as well as the additional creation of “pathways for core AFSOC officers and NCOs [noncommissioned officers] to develop along deliberate tracks ranging from joint leadership to technical system expertise. “These pathways will have built-in education and training opportunities prior to deliberate placement in developmental positions or roles,” the guidance explains, adding that AFSOC will leverage organic education capabilities, supplement those with expanded Air Force, joint, and civilian education opportunities, expand training for critical support and service personnel, and provide tailored education and training to develop the critical civilian workforce to meet the demands of the future. But it won’t be service training and education alone. These aspects will rely on cohesion and resiliency in the force, based on critical traits that include mental, physical, social, and spiritual fitness, healthy unit cohesion at the tactical/squadron level, and continued care of the force and families. The document’s vision toward organizing AFSOC’s human capital begins with optimized force generation designed to “unburden our Airmen by fully resourcing our foundational training architecture and fielding four CONUS operational squadrons of virtually every capability area, in addition to our forward-stationed forces. These four operational squadrons will rotate through a four-phase force generation cycle, with one unit operationally tasked on a steady-state basis and a surge capacity to two units. Operationally tasked units may present their capability to

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operational commanders as a single entity or they may disaggregate to meet validated requirements while geographically distributed across the globe.” Acknowledging that this restructuring “may lower force offerings to the combatant commands in the short term,” it asserts that, “in time, it will provide a more competitive and lethal force. First, it will enable AFSOC to more accurately articulate its capacity to the joint force while allowing commanders to evaluate and manage risk more deliberately. Second, optimization will increase squadron readiness by empowering leaders, reducing complexity, and increasing the cohesiveness and resilience of our squadrons. Third, an increased dwell ratio of between 1:2.5 and 1:3 will enable Airmen and leaders to concentrate their efforts beyond resourcing the C-VEO mission. Instead, this model will build space for developing all-domain mission command, readiness for great power competition, and experimentation for the future fight. Finally, this sustainable cycle will create predictability for our Airmen, while its tailored generation will create uncertainty for our adversaries.” Other organizational efforts identified in the guidance range from closer integration of AFSOC command and control elements into joint warfighting structures to the appropriate structuring and resourcing of the training enterprise to ensure full-spectrum readiness across the total force. Equipping AFSOC’s human capital with concepts and technologies to compete and win begins with divestment activities to eliminate the platforms, systems, and missions determined to be least relevant to the “AFSOC We Will Need” vision. Specifically, it states: “We will divest in accordance with the following guidance. First, we will divest capabilities with uncertain value propositions or high cost-to-benefit ratios. This includes capabilities that incur high operating and sustainment costs to accomplish a niche mission set. Second, we will divest legacy force structure with missions which can be accomplished more efficiently or be executed by other elements of the joint force with greater capacity or more closely aligned missions.”

U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO BY TECH. SGT. GREGORY BROOK

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U.S. ARMY PHOTO BY STAFF SGT. ELIZABETH PENA

It emphasizes that, during the divestment of platforms, systems, and missions, AFSOC will retain its precious human capital from those areas and reinvest that force structure in high-value capability areas. “Any investments in C-VEO must increase efficiencies and reduce cost or manpower requirements,” it states. “As technology matures, automation, artificial intelligence, and other emerging technologies will help us realize such efficiencies.” The resulting trade space created by the divestments and efficiencies will be used to invest in three modernization areas: acquisition of survivable air and ground platforms and systems that can operate in permissive and contested environments with reduced risk to mission and force; increasing AFSOC capacity to operate across the spectrum of visibility and attribution and develop new methods for low-signature operations, including aligning niche, sensitive capabilities with National Defense Strategy priorities; and expanding AFSOC expertise in domain integration to meet emerging requirements by developing organic cyber delivery, growing the investment in information operations, and strengthening operational integration with space assets. In parallel with acquisitions in these modernization areas, the guidance highlights the continuation of pathfinding and experimentation efforts. “AFSOC will continue to ‘pathfind’ new operational concepts and technologies for the Air Force while aligning experimentation efforts with the SOF enterprise,” it states. “We will leverage the agility afforded by our small size, SOCOM’s unique requirements and resourcing systems, and the prudent tolerance for risk inherent in SOF while also taking advantage of the scale of Air Force research and development activities. Successful concepts and technologies will be integrated into AFSOC for specialized SOF missions and scaled up by the Air Force to provide the requisite mass to the joint force where applicable. The advantages of such a partnership will naturally accrue to SOCOM as the capabilities of AFSOC and the conventional Air Force evolve.” Experimentation will also witness an acceleration of AFSOC efforts, with the commander’s guidance acknowledging the acceptance of “prudent levels of risk in doing so to enable our Airmen to

p U.S. Air Force Special Tactics operators assigned to the 352nd Special Operations Wing (SOW) step out for movement during a simulated contact patrol, March 5, 2020, near Banak Air Base, Norway. The special tactics training event included movement to contact and hasty ambush-based training scenarios. The 352nd SOW deployed to Norway at the invitation of Norwegian forces in order to enhance warfighter capabilities in challenging arctic and mountainous terrain within special operations forces and conventional forces and operations.

experiment and learn, acknowledging that valuable advancement may endure significant initial failures or setbacks. “The headquarters will break down administrative barriers to expedite winning concepts from the squadrons and quickly deliver the latest technology to Airmen,” it adds. “Our Airmen are natural problem solvers, and rapidly fielding the technologies they demand is vital headquarters work to ensure we move faster than our adversaries.”

TIME HORIZONS In terms of timing, the new guidance aligns the commander’s focus areas across the U.S. National Military Strategy strategic time horizons. For example, it notes that force employment efforts in the zeroto three-year time horizon will be designed to optimize C-VEO efforts in alignment with the National Defense Strategy and in conjunction with SOCOM and combatant commands. “We will organize, train, and equip with the force we have today to begin the transformation to the ‘AFSOC We Will Need,’” it states. “Force employment establishes the initial conditions for success and introduces initiatives that will improve the long-term health of the command.” The same time horizon will witness development of human capital in areas like empowerment and accountability of NCOs and junior officers to lead in garrison and in combat through organizational constructs that push authority and responsibility down inside the squadrons, implementation of a deliberate process to educate,

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U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO BY SENIOR AIRMAN XAVIER NAVARRO

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p Above: U.S. Air Force Special Tactics operators assigned to the 352nd Special Operations Wing (SOW) prepare to conduct a simulated medevac mission on March 2, 2020, near Constanta, Romania, using the 352nd SOW’s CV-22B Osprey. The training event was part of a larger special operations air-land integration (SOALI) exercise with Romanian and Polish SOF. Above right: U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Aaron Boudreau, 73rd Special Operations Squadron, goes through his flight procedures in an AC-130J Ghostrider assigned to Hurlburt Field, Florida, at Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, Michigan, during Exercise Emerald Warrior 20.1, Jan. 22, 2020.

train, and validate AFSOC-generated command and control (C2) elements at echelon, and generation of squadron mission-oriented training plans, approved by group commanders and validated by wing commanders. Organizational changes in that same zero- to three-year time horizon will allow implementation of a force deploy-to-dwell time ratio of between 1:2.5 and 1:3. Near-term equipping efforts will range from pathfinding concepts and technology through rapid development and experimentation to the full resourcing of “select units with information operations and cyber capabilities to discover the best practices of employing and integrating information operations and cyber operations in competitive activities.” The three- to seven-year time horizon will focus on improvements to the current force to allow it to serve as “a bridge” to the force of the future. Key developmental activities slated for this period range from creation of sub-developmental pathways and training plan implementation for core SOF officer and enlisted corps to manage, develop, and retain the human capital needed for the future operating environment to the placement and tracking of those officers and NCOs across the Air Force and joint force. As previously outlined, this same period envisions the establishment and full resourcing of four CONUS squadrons “of virtually every capability type.” Key equipping actions in this time horizon include divestment of programs, systems, and capabilities with uncertain value propositions or high cost-to-benefit ratios, investment in survivable strike,

mobility, high-speed vertical lift, and ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance), fielding a cost-effective multirole armed overwatch platform, modernizing and scaling information operations and cyberspace best practices, implementation of an airborne cyber capacity, and integration of cyber defense at the unit level. Finally, the five- to 15-year time horizon not only provides command vision, but brings the AFSOC Strategic Guidance into alignment with other SOCOM component plans, like Naval Special Warfare Command’s NSW 2030 and U.S. Army Special Operations Command’s USASOC 2035. In this time frame, Slife’s vision includes the completion of “fundamental changes to our organization, human capital development, and equipment to transform the force and operate in novel and disruptive ways.” Human capital development efforts during this period range from the placement of AFSOC leaders in key joint, combined, and interagency roles with the right training, education, experience, and institutional fluency necessary to lead at the O-6 echelon in the future operating environment to the completion of the alignment of aviation and special tactics communities at the appropriate echelons. The focus of organizing that capital will be the fielding of “experimental units, devoid of Air Force Specialty Codes (AFSCs), organized to solve high-priority problems for the joint force.” Finally, equipping that force will be highlighted by the employment of “automation, artificial intelligence, and other emerging technologies to realize efficiencies, maximize the return on our human capital, and gain the advantage over our adversaries.”

THE CHALLENGE Reiterating that the strategic guidance charts a course to transform the command to the “AFSOC We Will Need” for tomorrow, the guidance asserts that AFSOC’s role is clear: “Our command will provide forces ready to generate advantage in competition, enable the joint force in conflict, and respond to crisis while remaining engaged in countering violent extremist organizations.” It concludes: “We are AFSOC – together, we can do this.”

TARGET ENGAGEMENT SPOTLIGHT

TARGET ENGAGEMENT SPOTLIGHT BY SCOTT R. GOURLEY As highlighted in last year’s Special Operations Outlook qUnited States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) acquisition planners continue a tradition of supplementing a range of traditional field experiments, technology demonstrations, and SOFWERX prize challenges, with an annual range event timed and located to coincide with the annual Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show, held each January in Las Vegas, Nevada. The range event, which was held on the Nevada Test and Training Range, took place the weekend immediately prior to SHOT Show 2020. This year’s technologies of interest were highlighted in a Special Notice published on Aug. 9, 2019. Identified as “USSOCOM SOF Range Event,” the request for information was designed “to solicit technology experimentation candidates from Research and Development (R&D) organizations, private industry, and academia for inclusion in future experimentation events coordinated by the U.S. Special Operations Command. … The intent is to provide participants with the opportunity to gain special operations forces (SOF) insight/perspective on participant technologies.” Specifically identified theme categories included target engagement, visual augmentation systems, and demolitions and breaching. Target engagement elements of interest identified in the USSOCOM notice included a Lightweight Medium Machine Gun in .338 Norma Magnum (NM), a Lightweight Assault Machine Gun in 6.5 Creedmoor (CM) caliber, and a Personal Defense Weapon in .300 Blackout (BLK). Several examples of applicable industry target engagement designs were in the spotlight during SHOT Show week.

LIGHTWEIGHT MEDIUM MACHINE GUN According to the initial notice, the Lightweight Medium Machine Gun (LMG-M) in .338 NM is envisioned as a weapon to fill “a capability gap for dismounted operations between the M2 HMG [Heavy Machine Gun] and M240 MMG [Medium Machine Gun]. “This capability will supplement but not replace the HMG chambered in .50 caliber and MMG chambered in 7.62 NATO,” the announcement explained, noting “desired threshold performance criteria” ranging from the ability to outperform the current MMG by delivering effective suppression on a point target at 1,200 meters to

u A SIG Sauer MG 338, with spare suppressed barrel, seen at the SHOT Show SOF Range Event.

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TARGET ENGAGEMENT SPOTLIGHT

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outperforming the current HMG by delivering effective suppression on an area target at 2,000 meters. This LMG-M capability has been an identified USSOCOM interest for several years, and one of the first companies to address the apparent capability gap was General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GD-OTS). The company has been highlighting and demonstrating its .338 MG Lightweight Medium Machine Gun for several years, with weight and maximum range specifications that seem to match the defined government descriptions. In addition to the GD-OTS design, another system highlighted during private firing demonstrations immediately prior to SHOT Show was the SIG Sauer MG 338 machine gun. Along with the demonstrations, on Jan. 15, 2020, the company announced completion of USSOCOM safety certification on the new weapon design, with the completed deliveries of “multiple systems” to the command. “SOCOM issued sort of an RFI for a .338 lightweight machine gun,” explained Robby Johnson, vice president, Defense & Law Enforcement Product Management at SIG Sauer. “And, at the time, we had entertained doing a .338 machine gun. It was always ‘on the drawing board.’ But that really pushed us into it.” “At that time there was also some ‘verbal interest’ from some groups out there, along with [SIG Sauer leadership] vision of this lightweight machine gun,” added Steve Rose, executive vice president, SIG Sauer Defense Strategies Group. “Of course, what we were hearing verbally from the soldiers, together with our experience, drew us into the decision that we were going to move forward [on development]. According to Jason St. John, director of government products in SIG Sauer’s Defense Strategies Group, “the SOF community as a whole” got their initial glimpse of the gun design at ISOF Range Day in January 2019.

p The Maxim Defense PDX, “born from the SOCOM PDW solicitation,” is available in .300 Blackout.

“Some important context is that, up until this time, SIG Sauer had not developed a machine gun or ventured down this path before,” he said. “So the call to work into this system was a significant one for the company.” Johnson added that the company had worked closely with USSOCOM and conducted several user demonstrations prior to delivering 11 guns “for what we call a combat evaluation.”

LIGHTWEIGHT ASSAULT MACHINE GUN The Lightweight Assault Machine Gun in 6.5 Creedmoor caliber (LMG-A) is seen as a replacement for the Mk. 48 assault machine gun chambered in 7.62x51mm NATO. Desired threshold performance criteria range from effective point target engagements at 800 meters or greater to effective suppression on area targets at 1,500 meters or greater. Additionally, it should weigh 25 percent less than the current M249 5.56x45mm squad automatic weapon (SAW). FN America utilized SHOT Show 2020 to highlight the prototype for the latest variant of its Mk. 48 machine gun: the Mk. 48 Mod 2, chambered in 6.5 CM. Features on the prototype include a stock adjustable for length of pull and cheek height; improved, locking charging handle; improved, double-notched sear; improved handguard with 3-, 6-, and -9 o’clock positions; improved bipod; and a more robust feed tray latch designed to ensure that the feed tray cover locks into place during reloads. The company notes that, once development is complete, existing Mk. 48 Mod 1 models could be

PERSONAL DEFENSE WEAPON The fall 2019 USSOCOM announcement also identified interest in a Personal Defense Weapon (PDW) in .300 BLK, describing it as “a highly concealable .300 Blackout upper receiver group (URG) and

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buttstock kit solution for the M4A1 platform,” and adding, “PDW solution should consist of .300 BLK URG, 7.62 suppressor, folding buttstock, 5.56 training solution, reconfigurable ergonomic components, and 300 BLK magazines.” One of the companies working toward a PDW solution to match that requirement is Maxim Defense, which used the SHOT Show timing to highlight its full family of MDX weapon systems – consisting of the MDX:505/PDX (5.5-inch barrel), the MDX:508 (8.5-inch barrel), and the MDX:510 (10.3-inch barrel) – with company literature noting, “The entire MDX line in 5.56 NATO is sponsored by The Maneuver Center of Excellence and part of Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment [AEWE] in 2020. Maxim is also attending Force-on-Force experiments with the U.S. Army, U.K. Army, and the Australian Army January through March 2020.” Additionally, it stated that the PDX, “Born from the SOCOM PDW solicitation,” was now available in .300 BLK. While unwilling to offer any comment regarding government solicitations or information requests of any kind, C.J. Dugan, a business development director for Maxim Defense, pointed to the company’s extensive analysis of ballistics in extremely short-barreled weapons. “People will build these PDWs or short-barreled rifles – and then they will grab ammo off the shelf that was designed for a longer barrel,” he said. “And that just didn’t make sense to me.” “But where we went with our ‘300 Blackout’ design is, about a year-and-a-half ago, actually through Kris [Tanto] Paronto [part

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configured at the armorer level to the Mod 2 variant with the addition of an upgrade kit and barrel conversion. The 6.5 CM machine gun design parallels the company’s introduction of the Mk. 20 SCAR Sniper Support Rifle (SSR), which releases state was first prototyped in the 6.5 CM cartridge “when USSOCOM announced plans [in 2019] to explore the cartridge for future adoption.” In addition to the 338 MG noted above, SIG Sauer’s St. John pointed to recent company efforts in 6.5 CM, offering, “If you look at our Next Gen Squad Weapon systems, one of the extensions of our automatic rifle [one of three current candidates for a ‘Big Army’ 6.8mm replacement of the current SAW], that weapon system is also available in 7.62 and 6.5 Creedmoor.” In fact, the company used its own private range day immediately prior to SHOT Show 2020 to debut the “MG 6.5” for the law enforcement/military /international community. “That gun is 12 pounds, 650 rounds per minute – basically it’s an identical version of our next-gen machine gun, just in 6.5 CR,” St. John said.

t Barrett’s DoD MRAD features a carbonfiber barrel, and is chambered for the .300 Precision Rifle Cartridge (PRC) from Hornady Manufacturing.

embrace of the two Norma Magnum designs by USSOCOM. In addition to the Mk. 22 Mod 0, Barrett also displayed a separate sniper rifle that the company is providing to “another USSOCOM element.” Also a variant of MRAD, the “MRAD DOD 300 PRC” is a single-caliber design utilizing the .300 Precision Rifle Cartridge (PRC), developed by Hornady Manufacturing. With a carbon-fiber barrel, the DOD design fires a 225 grain ELD-M [Extremely Low Drag – Match/Hornady] bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2,850 feet per second, slowing down to subsonic speed at approximately 1,650 yards.

AMMUNITION

of the 2012 CIA annex security team in Benghazi], I met with Fort Scott Munitions. And they had a very interesting projectile that’s patented, trademarked, everything, and that’s a ‘tumble upon impact,’” he said. “ W hat ’s really interesting about that projectile is the ogive is centered more towards the rear, which is kind of uncommon,” he added. “It’s a full copper or brass CNC spun projectile, and the design of it actually tumbles all the way down to [projectile speeds of] 500 feet per second.” He went on to cite Maxim Defense’s work with Fort Scott Munitions and their subsequent introduction of their own line of .300 BLK ammunition that provides those lethal effects optimized for a PDW design.

USSOCOM SNIPER RIFLES Along with industry responses demonstrated during USSOCOM’s range event, the SHOT Show itself provided an opportunity for some companies to spotlight other

domestic and international SOF weapons efforts. Representative examples were evident in the Barrett Manufacturing exhibit, where the company displayed two different sniper rifles that it is providing to different USSOCOM elements. The Mk. 22 Mod 0 is the designation for the Advanced Sniper Rifle, a program that Barrett won with a version of its Multi-Role Adaptive Design (MRAD) system in March 2019 [See “Barrett MRAD Expands to Grab Advanced Sniper Rifle Contract,” Special Operations Outlook, 2019-2020]. The rifle can be configured in three different calibers: a .338 NM anti-materiel solution; .300 NM anti-personnel solution; and 7.62x51mm training/urban combat solution. Significantly, some early program briefings have indicated desired options of 7.62x51mm, .300 Winchester Magnum, and .338 Lapua Magnum, and the evolutionary change to different anti-personnel and antimaterial cartridges seems to reflect a broad

According to Neal Emer y, senior communications manager for Hornady Manufacturing, the .300 PRC was developed to address what some feel to be “inherent issues” in any of the other “big thirties.” “The .300 PRC was an attempt to basically fix that and create something that doesn’t suffer from shoving the bullet down into the case; doesn’t suffer from a case that’s so big that there’s not a powder that fills it up well enough to get really low [standard deviations] and things like that. That is what we’re after. The goal is to have something that will easily handle the long, heavy, high-performance style, .30-caliber bullets with the greatest consistency possible for extended long-range shooting,” he said. “There are inherent problems with a lot of the ‘big thirties,’ there just are,” echoed Scott Javins, military product manager at Hornady. “One of them is barrel life. With the .300 PRC, the barrel life on it is over 2,000 rounds with a quality barrel. The end users on that actually tested past 2,000 rounds, and they were still shooting sub-MOA [minute of angle] with over 2,000 rounds. So that becomes a big factor, since you’re not constantly swapping out barrels. You know, if it takes 150 rounds to break in a good barrel, what does that leave me? In some cases that may only leave me a thousand rounds plus or minus. So that was a big one.” Javins emphasized the bullet weight flexibility of the .300 PRC design, citing the ability to load it anywhere from a lighter weight .30-caliber bullet all the way up to the 250 grain Hornady A-TIP bullet.

“Actually, the 250 grain A-TIP out of the .300 PRC is actually even more efficient than our .338 with the 285 [grain bullet] in it,” he stated. “That gives you the ability to truly fine-tune it according to what you want to do with it. When you compare it against things like the [.300] Norma [Magnum], for example, with the 215 [grain bullet], because I think that’s the selected round right now, even though the Norma is starting out 150-200 feet [per second] faster, that velocity actually burns off. That’s because it’s all about the bullet. So if you compare it against the 225 [grain], at about 400 yards plus or minus, depending on starting velocities of both cartridges, the .300 PRC will overtake it, because the [ballistic coefficient] is that much higher with the 225 than with the 215.” In addition to the weapon designs and bullet caliber options, another area of growing USSOCOM interest over the past few years has been ammunition weight reduction through the introduction of so-called “polymer” cartridges. One of the companies highlighting their efforts in this arena at SHOT 2020 was Texas-based True Velocity. “We refer to the cartridge case as composite,” explained Patrick Hogan, chief marketing officer for True Velocity. “There is a polymer component to that, but it’s not the only thing. It’s a proprietary blend of materials that we use to build our cartridge case. And that material and its behavior is what allows us to withstand the significant chamber pressures you need, not only in 5.56 but all the way up to .50-cal.” Noting that the company’s “chief ballistician” is Jimmie Sloan, designer of both the .300 NM and .338 NM cartridges, Hogan said that the .338 NM is “a focal point for the company right now,” with ongoing efforts to support both the GD-OTS Lightweight Medium Machine Gun and a new prototype .338 minigun unveiled at SHOT Show by Dillon Aero (see below). Returning to the technology behind their ammunition, Hogan noted, “When you look at the way that a traditional brass cartridge works, you’ve got to crimp it in order to get the neck tension to make the bullet do what you want. But we’re not necessarily bound by that constraint. That’s why we’re able to remove that bottleneck configuration and utilize our proprietary manufacturing technology to build a case that’s more efficient, while capable of withstanding significant chamber pressure. We can generate optimal velocity while maintaining a low chamber pressure. That’s really what’s key here.” In his message for warfighters, he began by saying that the company’s overall goal is to make life easier for them while simultaneously making them more operationally effective.

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t True Velocity’s composite-cased ammunition.

SCOTT GOURLEY PHOTO

TARGET ENGAGEMENT SPOTLIGHT

“The narrative for True Velocity so far has really surrounded weight reduction,” he said. “And obviously that’s a critical component of our product, where a loaded cartridge case, depending on caliber, is on average 30- to 32-percent lighter than a comparable loaded brass cartridge. The empty case itself is more like 50 percent lighter than a brass case. So weight reduction is key.” Converting that to a tactical scenario, he continued, “You look at a basic combat load of 210 rounds of 5.56mm – seven 30-round magazines. With this ammunition, you could keep that basic combat load weight the same and allow your Army or Marine infantryman to carry 90 additional rounds. Or they can keep the same amount of firepower and reduce the weight by 30 percent.” He observed that the same type of weight savings could also be applied to special operations air platforms like the AH-6 series “Little Birds.” “The Little Birds are typically outfitted with two M134 machine guns and carrying 6,000 rounds of 7.62mm brass ammunition. If you trade in that brass for our composite case, you reduce the weight of that ammo payload by almost 100 pounds. Take that weight savings, put it in the fuel tank, and all of a sudden that bird can fly for 30 additional minutes. Talk to the guys on the ground who rely on that air support: If you give them an additional half hour, it’s a big deal,” he said. Another aspect of the True Velocity narrative involves heat transfer. “Heat is the nemesis of any weapon platform,” Hogan said. “But, where brass is a conductor of heat, our composite case is an insulator. So we’re directing that heat where we want it to go rather than allowing it to transfer to the chamber or bolt face. We reduce the heat transference to those components of the weapon, and you have less wear and tear on the weapon – hopefully to extend its life cycle.” A final benefit noted by Hogan centers on the accuracy of the company case design. “The way we build these cases is different than brass,” he explained. “You look at a brass cartridge case and the internal geometry is dictated by the external geometry. But that’s not the case with our product. We can do some proprietary things inside that case that allow us to be more efficient on powder burn and generate really

p The 5.56mm minigun design by Profense is reportedly drawing interest from elements within the SOF community.

consistent velocities – you’re talking single-digit standard deviation in muzzle velocity. And when they’re all flying at the same speed they tend to go to the same place.”

MINIGUNS As noted, one of the emerging products being supported by True Velocity is a new .338 NM minigun from Dillon Aero. The prototype for the new “experimental Gatling gun” was unveiled at SHOT Show 2020. Although not on the show floor, another minigun design was displayed in a corporate suite in a nearby hotel. According to Kyle Fagin, a product manager at Arizona-based Profense LLC, significant user interest is being directed toward the company’s “556 product,” a minigun prototype in 5.56x45mm. He noted that the company has displayed the design for the last couple of years, including at the Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting in the fall of 2018, where its mounting on a Polaris MRZR platform drew interest from both Army Special Forces (SF) and 75th Ranger Regiment attendees of that meeting. “They all commented on how they liked the idea of the 5.56 vs a 240/249 [M240/M249] solution,” he noted. “We have visited a few Ranger and SF units and there is interest. On top of that, we had a last [minute] invitation to visit with some USAF Guardian Angel folks, and they were intrigued with the concept of mounting them on their new BC Customs vehicle. Basically anyone who requires lots of firepower in a small concealable package is interested at some level.” Although there is significant interest in the 5.56mm design, he acknowledged that the company is “investigating other caliber options based on what our conversations have been with SOCOM, ‘big Army,’ and even international customers.”

U.S. MARINE CORPS PHOTO BY CPL. CODY ROWE

MARSOC

Special Operations Outlook

MARSOC INTERVIEW MARSOC Commander Maj. Gen. Daniel D. Yoo BY J.R. WILSON Although the youngest and smallest of USSOCOM’s service components, the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC) also is perhaps the fastest evolving of the four special operations forces (SOF) units. Those changes are internal to MARSOC as well as related to its role within the larger Marine Corps and SOCOM itself. Maj. Gen. Dan Yoo assumed command of MARSOC only a few months after the March 2018 release of MARSOF 2030, the command’s developmental guidebook to evolving the best unit compositions, training, equipment, concept of operations, and tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) for any deployments or conflicts it may face through the next decade. He reviewed MARSOC’s 14-year history, current status and future plans in an interview with Special Operations Outlook senior writer J.R. Wilson.

Marine Raiders with Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command give direct orders to a role player in support of a vehicle interdiction exercise during Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI) course 1-20 at K9 Village in Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, Oct. 8, 2019.

MARSOC t MARSOC Commander Maj. Gen. Daniel D. Yoo.

On recruiting, we run three assessment and selection courses a year, with approximately 200 candidates each. We’re looking to garner about 60 people per assessment selection course, as well as our two Individual Training Courses, which have a capacity of about 80 per class. Through 2019, we were able to maximize our throughput in all three to get new special operations officers and critical skill operators. The special operations capability specialist has been a little more challenging because we didn’t have the structure spaces. And across the services, certainly from the Marine Corps, there are shortfalls in some high-demand, low-density MOSes – Intel, in particular, as well as EOD [explosive ordnance disposal] and others. But we’ve done very well on recruitment. On first-term retention, people who came in for four years and stayed, the service average for FY19 was 24 percent, with MARSOC at 36 percent. For more experienced people – second term re-enlistments – the service averaged 59 percent and we’re at 80. So when you look at special operations officers – especially CSOs, who are the pacing item – we’re over 80 percent for the enlisted force this year, which is pretty good.

U.S. MARINES CORPS PHOTO

U.S. MARINES CORPS PHOTO BY SGT. JESSICA PON

Special Operations Outlook: What have been the highlights for MARSOC in the past year? Maj. Gen. Daniel D. Yoo: We’ve been consistently deployed to three combatant command AORs – Pacific Command [PACOM], Central Command [CENTCOM] and Africa Command [AFRICOM] – with roughly 400 Raiders deployed in 16 or 17 countries. From an operational perspective, we’ve had an O-6 Headquarters leading the combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Iraq headquarters, as well as a persistent O-5 headquarters. One of the most significant events was a KIA – killed in action – in support of OIR [Operation Inherent Resolve] in August 2019; that was Gunnery Sgt. Scott Koppenhafer. We’ve also had some internal initiatives related to the comprehensive review, in conjunction with SOCOM, the Corps, and the other SOF components, taking a deep look at ourselves based on direction of the NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act] and our congressional and civilian leadership p Gunnery Sgt. in OSD [Office of the Secretary of Defense]. Scott Koppenhafer. How would you assess the current status of the command? The command is very healthy. Manning is very high; retention is above and beyond what the Marine Corps is experiencing. From a SOF perspective, our recruitment and retention are higher than our counterparts, as well. From a capabilities perspective, we’ve gotten some new equipment that’s been distributed down to the tactical level, to include some additional capabilities, like improvements on the Stalker Group 2 UAS [unmanned aerial system]. From a perspective of unit cohesion, the additional manning we received was part of the program 2019 growth. Could you expand a bit on retention and recruitment? We continue at a steady state based on the structure the Marine Corps and SOCOM agreed to, which is roughly 3,500 people in the command – active duty, reservist, Navy, Army, and civilians.

Last year, you had three women scheduled to go through assessment and selection. What happened with those? One of them got deferred. One female made it through both phase one and phase two, but she was not selected based on not meeting standards, as were many men. We had a new assessment and selection class in January, with one enlisted female and one officer. The enlisted female did not meet the swim standard and a couple of other physical categories, so she was dropped before we went to phase two. Of the 28 officers we took there, we ended up selecting 18, but the second female was not one of those. She was the first female officer to make it through both phase one and phase two, but she was among 31 officers and enlisted who did not meet the standards. Altogether, we selected 73 – 18 Marine officers and 55 enlisted – in this selection class of 194 – 33 Marine officers and 161 Marine enlisted. What are MARSOC’s current and upcoming deployments? We’re on a six-month rotation in PACOM, CENTCOM, and AFRICOM, going into the same locations. There may be a couple of episodic rotations where we go into EUCOM [European Command] in support of their efforts, and in SOCEUR [Special Operations Command Europe]. We’ve supported efforts in the Philippines, but with the visiting forces agreement that’s being negotiated, I’m not sure what that’s going to hold in the future. We’ve also been going persistently into Africa, but that may change based on the baseline review discussions between [AFRICOM commander Gen. Stephen] Townsend, the SECDEF and the Congressional leadership. But wherever the Theater Special Operations Command and the geographic combatant commanders need resources, that’s where we’ll go. What’s happening with the Raider Training Center (RTC)? The Raider Training Center continues to evolve. One of the big initiatives in 2019 was approval of consolidation, moving our West Coast units – the 1st Raider Battalion and 1st Raider Support Battalion – to Camp Lejeune [North Carolina]. When MARSOC stood up in 2006, we were an amalgamation of existing units, some on the West Coast. It was all part of the

MARSOC

Have you made or are you planning any changes to training? Our seminal event is part of the certification, which we do at our level and then it gets verified by the TSOC, the Theater Special Operations Command they’re going to, then validated by the SOCOM commander before they deploy. RAVEN URX [Unit Rehearsal Exercise] is the culminating event where we certify our companies before they go forward. In those scenarios, instead of just limiting them to the CT/VEO [counterterrorism/violent extremist organization] fight, we try to expand it with the great power competition in mind and in a more denied, more contested environment. We’ve not only done it from a unilateral perspective, but we’ve expanded to make it a joint coalition, meaning we may have both conventional and other SOF organizations participating, along with interagency and allies, [especially] Canadians and Brits.

Special Operations Outlook

p Marine Raiders and Marines from 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion from 1st Marine Division conducted on-off drills during Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command’s unit readiness exercise, RAVEN, which is conducted across a 100-mile area, with the exercise operations center at the National Guard Base in Gulfport, Mississippi.

As we continue to evolve that certification process, we’ve also tried to use locations where we can do subterranean training. And we’ve done it from a live, virtual constructive, where we have units here at Camp Lejeune participating and constructive scenarios set up where you could have adjacent units trying to replicate what you’ll see down range. We also have training going on at the same time frame from a distance perspective. So we could have a unit doing a DFT [deployment for training] out in Bridgeport [California] that’s tied into the scenario, as well. What new equipment are you anticipating in the next five years? All of our innovation and R&D is tied into SOCOM and the other components. We’ve been chartered to take the lead on the Group 2 UAS; that’s the Stalker we were working on. We’ve been working on an all-weather organic precision strike we can do from an individual carrying it on his back to a mobile platform. We’re also working on increased lethality from a lightweight medium machine gun. It’s going to cut the weight by 10 pounds and double the range and accuracy. We’re also doing some subterranean reconnaissance kits, using unmanned ground vehicles [UGVs] and the ability to put some sensors on the ground so you can see before you enter the tunnel. What progress have you made toward something you mentioned last year – acquiring a more expeditionary and long-range unmmaned aerial vehicle (UAV) that doesn’t need a runway?

U.S. MARINE CORPS PHOTO BY LANCE CPL. ELIAS PIMENTEL

initial concept of employment, which was to go out on the Marine Expeditionary Units as part of the deployment methodology. At the height of what was going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, it came down to presence-for-a-purpose and protecting dwell; the original deployment and employment option no longer was valid. As a result, we have this footprint on the West Coast, and infrastructure associated with it, that is really not efficient. With the NDS [National Defense Strategy], as we’re looking for enterprise agility and reform, it is much more efficient from a cost and a manning perspective to consolidate the force at Camp Lejeune. Getting back to your question about the Raider Training Center, that will allow us a better rotation of instructors, going from operational units with relevant experience and TTPs to the RTC, without having to PCS [Permanent Change of duty Station] people. We’ve also enhanced our team commander’s course and we stood up a team chief’s course. We want to further professionalize those two touchpoints, which we think are critical to the success and cohesion of the team, not just from an ethical perspective, but from a developmental and a leadership perspective.

MARSOC We’ve been working on a VSTOL [vertical/short takeoff and landing] variant of what we’re trying to do right now. We’ve been testing it and it’s got a lot of promise; the Corps is doing the same thing. We’re looking for a vertical takeoff and landing capability for the Group 2 UAS, along with longer battery or fuel cell life to keep it airborne for long duration. That’s still in the testing and evaluation stage; we’re looking to get something here in the next two years.

U.S MARINE CORPS PHOTO BY SGT. TYLOR J. CAMFIELD

What about autonomous ground vehicles for resupply, medevac, weapons carrying, etc.? We’re interested in terms of both air and ground vehicles to support forward-deployed forces. We’re not pursuing any autonomous ground vehicles for medevac or resupply at this time, but are closely watching the Marine Corps’ efforts to develop those particular capabilities. We are using the UGV to provide us with a subterranean ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] capability. What is MARSOC’s evolving role within SOCOM? It gets back to what we’re doing in MARSOF 2030, with the Army and the Navy in particular. We provide full-spectrum SOF from both a ground and a maritime perspective. When you talk about direct and indirect competition, the most dangerous long-range threat is from China. Certainly the most dangerous short-term threat is Russia, then the asymmetric challenges we’re facing with both Iran and, potentially, North Korea, being forward deployed in the contact zone. In the competition space, it’s being able to counter China’s unrestricted warfare approach or how Russia is using psychological warfare and the [military] proxies we’re seeing right now in Africa. [Remember], MARSOC is only 5 percent of SOCOM’s structure and 2 percent of the budget, while providing up to 10 percent of the missions. In the Corps, we are less than 2 percent of the force and less than half a percent of the budget. The CT fight is the primary responsibility given to SOCOM in the NDS, but I think it’s the whole joint/coalition/interagency force that will be needed in both competition and conflict against great

powers. So when you say our evolving role in SOCOM, it’s the relevancy not just for CT but for great power competition. How is MARSOC relating to the big Marine Corps these days? I think it’s great. In the last year or two, we’ve had significant changes, internal to SOCOM, in particular, and to the Marine Corps. Gen. [David] Berger, after becoming commandant last summer, said MARSOC is here to stay and [SOCOM commander Gen. Richard] Clarke, at MARSOC’s 14th anniversary last week, reiterated the importance of the organization, which I think is pretty significant. As the SECDEF is looking to recapitalize resources for reinvestment in other areas, our value proposition is pretty good. Where do you see MARSOC going in the next five to 10 years? There may be a potential for growth. One of the things the commandant is looking for under his force design is making the Marine Corps more MARSOC-like. That means smaller teams based on the concepts of expeditionary advanced basing, potentially to counter what’s going on with our adversaries, both in competition and potentially in conflict. MARSOC is not a platform-centric organization; our strength is the individual Raider and the cohesive unit we put out there. That’s a cross-functional team which can plug in, not just from a DOD perspective, but with interagency and international partners, both the sovereign country we may be there to assist or the collective coalition applied to a challenge we may find in theater. How are you progressing on MARSOF 2030? From an organizational perspective, we’ve created an innovation directorate, making a better linkage between our strategy and q Marine Raider candidates observe and communicate with outlying elements of a training compound during a helicopter training raid at Outlying Field Atlantic, North Carolina, Oct. 31, 2019.

p A Marine Raider with Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command conducts high-value target detainment and evacuation operation during a multipurpose canine handler training course hosted by 1st Marine Raider Battalion on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, Dec. 19, 2019.

U.S. MARINE CORPS PHOTO BY LANCE CPL. ANGELA WILCOX

planning section and our resources and requirements section. We’ve also started the Griffith Group, a federated group of talent within MARSOC selected from some of the brightest we have, both from experience level as well as intellectual, regardless of grade or rank. We’ve also tied into academia and the larger services. It’s really our internal think tank. It’s not designed to replace the staff nor to be a standing OPT [operational planning team], but to help identify, characterize, and assess implications of the evolving world we live in – emergent issues, challenges, and opportunities and the potential impact, not just on MARSOC, but on SOCOM and DOD. We’ve also stood up the Cognitive Raider Symposium, bringing academia, primarily based out of the Naval Postgraduate School, to help us develop the future. We’ve looked at teaming with DARPA [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] and other national labs to work on some of the science out there, between neurostimulation and neuro-modulation, in order to increase and finetune cognitive skills to systematically increase the abilities of our operators going forward. We’re also looking into SOCOM’s role in space and how we can leverage that from the perspective of future capabilities. Could you expand on that? As the Space Force develops, what is SOCOM’s role? We’ve looked at all the functional commands out there, between SOCOM, STRATCOM [U.S. Strategic Command], SPACECOM [U.S. Space Command] and CYBERCOM [U.S. Cyber Command]. As the “Cognitive Raider” continues to evolve and we have technology supporting the individual operator on the battlefield, maybe some of the specializations we have now may not be necessary, maybe the Cognitive Raider has those capabilities. The new generation is much more technologically attuned than we are, and some of the things we think are a specialization are really a general capability the force may have. Space provides an opportunity for SOCOM to support that effort.

And you think MARSOC has a role there, as well? I think all of SOCOM does. We’ve got a pretty good relationship with our component, MARFORCYBER [Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command], and we’ve expanded that into Cyber Command itself. We also have a very strong relationship with JTF-ARES, which is their tactical formation command element that supports all the geographic combatant commands. You don’t necessarily have to own it, but you should be able to be integrated, to leverage other capabilities. Last year you said one goal was to make every Raider a cyberspecialist; how’s that coming along? We’ve got some cyber structure coming in – 11 billets that will come in here in the future. At the same time, part of our force generation process is exposing our operators to the capabilities of Cyber Command and what they can do to facilitate their employment, as well as developing their own awareness of exactly what that virtual domain has. Maybe not today, but in the future, all our operators will be able to use some of the cyber tools out there directly instead of just being supported by them. We’re creating structure in terms of the command for cyber expertise, by the specific specialty, as well as exposure and knowledge on how to support those efforts while they’re forward deployed. Anything more you’d like to add? When you talk about lethality, you talk about enabling partners – not just foreign partners, but our integration in interagency and intergovernmental leads, certainly from the diplomatic perspective, to enterprise reform and consolidation. As we continue to develop what that means on the four MARSOF 2030 Pathways – Cognitive Raider, Enterprise Agility, MARSOC as a Connector and CombinedArms for the Connected Arena – there’s decisive value transforming our force design. The future Cognitive Raider is going to be a blend of elite commando, intelligence operator, information officer, information operations officer, and understanding and integrating into a foreign service officer. It will be a blend of all those things, being able to leverage technology, both directly and indirectly, to get the effects we need in support of the larger joint force.

COMMUN L3Harris Technologiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; AN/PRC-163 Next Generation Tactical Communications (NGTC) software-defined radio continues to be rolled out across USSOCOM as well as Five Eyes partners in Canada and the U.K.

Special Operations Outlook

N ICATIONS BY ANDREW WHITE

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE U.S. ARMY 75TH RANGER REGIMENT

Critical to any special operation is communication with every member of a team, requiring simultaneous access to voice and data communications to enhance situational awareness (SA), and command and control (C2) across the battlespace. However, a rapidly evolving operating environment is demanding even more of special operations forces (SOF) operators who can be tasked with conducting the full spectrum of operations, ranging from counterterrorism and counterinsurgency missions to the support to resistance (STR) missions associated with great power competition (GPC). As a result, special operations task groups (SOTGs) operating on land, in the air, or at sea are demanding flexible, resilient and secure communications solutions throughout operational theaters. Nowhere is this more prevalent than along NATOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eastern flank in Europe, where U.S. and coalition SOTGs continue to have communications disrupted and/or intercepted by near-peer, peer, and high-capability adversaries in the form of Russian armed forces. As defense sources associated with Ukrainian SOF and armed forces attest, Russian armed forces across the border as well as proxy forces in the Donbas region continue to employ mature

electronic warfare (EW) concepts of operation, and tactics, techniques and procedures to create a command and control disrupted or denied environment (C2D2E).

TACTICAL SOLUTIONS Communications solutions available to the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) as well as international SOF partner forces around the world range from handheld software-defined radios (SDRs) capable of being upgraded in the field with new waveforms and software, to larger manpack, vehicular, and airborne radios providing greater levels in output for enhanced range. One of the largest SDR providers to USSOCOM as well as the wider international SOF community is L3Harris Technologies, which on Nov. 21 received its latest $86 million full rate production order as part of an overall $390 million indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity

Special Operations Outlook

p The DOD’s ATAK software provides operators with enhanced situational awareness (SA) and command and control (C2) in addition to the ability to control close air support and other specialist mission capabilities.

to which it connects. Uncertified equipment such as commercially available and programmable radios are not government tested for vulnerabilities such as malware introduction, spoofing, or other types of electronic threats that could compromise SOF operator safety. SOF requirements around the world are transitioning to fully resilient communications waveforms and cyber-protected hardware assets,” Kroon added. The introduction of the AN/PRC-163 NGTC provides a significant step-change in the tactical communications capability of SOF operators across USSOCOM. The dual-channel SDR is supported by the TSM-X Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) waveform, which is capable of connecting more than 200 nodes across a battlespace into a single mesh network. The SDR provides multi-channel communications and can be connected to L3Harris Technologies’ ISR video mission module to support close air support and joint fires support, for example. “In October we announced the first full-rate production order for the AN/PRC-163,” Kroon said. “We are delivering these twochannel handheld radios at an escalating pace to meet the increasing demand. As with any of our software-defined radios, the AN/ PRC-163 becomes more capable with every new firmware release,

L3HARRIS TECHNOLOGIES

CREDIT

(IDIQ) contract to supply the Tampa, Florida-based organization with an undisclosed number of Falcon IV AN/PRC-163 Next Generation Tactical Communications (NGTC) SDRs. Speaking to Special Operations Outlook, L3Harris Technologies’ Senior Director, Product Management, Tactical Communications Jeff Kroon illustrated a series of demand signals arising from the special operations communications market that led to the development and continued upgrade of the AN/PRC-163 NGTC. “Globally, SOF users rely on communications to support mission flexibility, resiliency, operational effectiveness, and safety,” Kroon observed. “The focus is shifting from counterinsurgency missions to readiness amidst near-peer threats, thus increasing the need for resilience and protection from electronic attacks of all kinds. “This shift is causing many countries to recapitalize their tactical communications solutions with the latest and greatest solutions in the market. This means new radios, new waveforms, and new levels of security. Resilience, survivability, and adaptability are key aspects to communications in modern warfare, and new requirements for cyber hardening are vital as the tactical IP network extends to the edge,” Kroon said. Specifically, L3Harris also warned how legacy IP-based waveforms and radios with inadequate security now represent a vulnerable entry point to an otherwise secure network that extends to a larger wide area network throughout the modern battlespace. “Type-1 NSA certified encryption is paramount in protecting these tactical edge networks, and, in turn, the entire wide area network

ATAK-ENABLED SMARTPHONES ARE ALREADY IN SERVICE THROUGHOUT USSOCOM AND THE WIDER INTERNATIONAL SOF COMMUNITY, PROVIDING OPERATORS WITH A “SECURE, MOBILE, INTERACTIVE GEOSPATIAL TOOL [AND] COMMON OPERATIONAL PICTURE.”

and with the introduction of new mission modules, like the ISR Generation 2 mission module, allows the rapid insertion of new capabilities into the tactical formation without the need of a separate device, additional connectors, or batteries.” AN/PRC-163 SDRs can also be networked to the Android Tactical Assault Kit (ATAK) which was designed by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) as a software solution to be viewed on end-user devices including smartphones. ATAK-enabled smartphones are already in service throughout USSOCOM and the wider international SOF community, providing operators with a “secure, mobile, interactive geospatial tool [and] common operational picture,” according to a USSOCOM spokesperson. USSOCOM personnel generally wear ATAK as a chest-mounted solution or as a standalone end user device (EUD) used to support “tactical chat; Link 16 data link connectivity; HALO/HAHO military freefall; route planning and navigation,” in addition to radio controls, the spokesperson added. According to L3Harris Technologies, traditional VHF/UHF (30-512 MHz) line of sight communications will remain the backbone of all SOF communications, on the ground and for ground-to-air coordination.

Consequently, many SOF organizations around the world are also turning to Spectra Group’s SlingShot applique kit that has been designed to convert UHF/ VHF radios into L-Band beyond line of sight (BLOS) communications devices. Speaking to Special Operations Outlook, a company source explained how SlingShot had been “conceived and designed in response to special forces requirements, offering a number of benefits for those engaged in high tempo operations, and that require reliable and robust communications on the move.” “Already deployed by several NATO countries, SlingShot has manpack, vehicle, maritime, and aviation systems, meaning that command and control of all personnel, no matter where in the world, or how they are traveling, becomes notably easier,” Kroon said. “We are seeing the convergence of ISR and tactical communications solutions into a single tactical communications ensemble on the operators. MANET [waveforms] are gaining momentum and extending tactical IP networks to the edge; every operator can be equipped with a radio and an end user device,” Kroon added. “Dual channel handhelds provide the ability to support 30-512 MHz, SATCOM [satellite communications], tactical MANETs and ISR in a single device, providing the flexibility and adaptability that the dynamic SOF operator needs for all stages of a mission while obviating the need to carry multiple legacy devices. The demand is out there for faster [frequency] hopping, faster data, and more resilience, and new waveforms are always under development by governments and industry. “As new waveforms are developed and released, the multi-channel devices are well equipped to allow the introduction of new capabilities into the tactical networks while still providing a fallback plan or interoperability with adjacent conventional forces or partner forces,” Kroon highlighted. Seeking to maintain interoperability with USSOCOM partner forces are SOF commands within NATO and the Five Eyes community. Examples include the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM), which in Q3 2019 procured an undisclosed number of AN/PRC-163 SDRs. Additionally, industry sources confirmed to Special Operations Outlook that the United Kingdom Special Forces (UKSF) directorate has also purchased “tens” of AN/PRC-163s to support an initial operational test and evaluation program that could lead to a larger procurement in the future. Meanwhile, L3Harris Technologies continues to develop the manpack variants of the AN/PRC-163 NGTC, also contracted to USSOCOM. Company officials described to Special Operations Outlook that the new dualchannel manpack was planned to be unveiled to the market at the SOF Industry Conference (SOFIC) in May 2020. However, SOFIC was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was changed to a virtual conference. It is unknown how this will affect the unveiling as this publication went to press. L3Harris was unable to provide further details regarding the capability of the manpack, but described the new technology as a “gamechanger” for USSOCOM force components. Seeking to maintain similar levels in interoperability with its USSOCOM partners is the Polish Special Operations Component Command (POL SOCC), which took delivery of four S-70i Black Hawk helicopters from Sikorsky on Dec. 20, 2019. Airframes that will be used by the Tier 1 CT unit GROM came fitted with a communications suite provided by Raytheon Company. However, industry sources associated with the POL SOCC described how the organization is seeking to upgrade the airframe’s communications solution with L3Harris SDR technology to ensure interoperability with the remainder of POL SOCC’s

SPECTRA GROUP PHOTO

communications devices, as well as U.S. and international SOF partners. According to Poland’s Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak, the procurement of the airframes will “ensure interoperability with the rapid reaction forces of NATO.” Elsewhere in the international SOF community, SOF commands continue to upgrade their communications capabilities, with examples including the Swiss Special Forces Command (KSK), which is in the process of upgrading force elements with a variety of SDR solutions. Speaking to Special Operations Outlook, Maj. Marco Dâmaso, system portfolio manager special units, Swiss Armed Forces, Armed Forces Planning, explained how one reserve SOF unit was in the process of receiving Thales’ MBITR [Multiband Inter/ Intra Team Radio] SDRs as part of a move to enhance “multifunctionality” capabilities. “The procurement is almost finished and incoming into the unit,” Dâmaso confirmed before outlining an additional requirement for 1,500 dual-channel personal role radios that would allow SOF operators to simultaneously communicate by voice and data. Additional demand signals emerging from the KSK include capability to run battle management system (BMS) software as well as capacity to support navigation in command and control denied or degraded environments. A competition will be initiated in 2021, with program completion by 2025, Dâmaso added. Finally, active-duty units within the KSK (which includes the Army Reconnaissance Detachment 10 [DRA-10] and Military Police Special Detachment Unit) are expected to evaluate MANET high data rate personal radios with the aim to “increase connectivity and allow potential new capabilities” in the future. Dâmaso also highlighted the interception and deception of tactical communications by Russian armed forces operating in Ukraine as well as demand signals to support urban operations in contested environments.

p Spectra Group’s SlingShot attachment supports special

operations training with NATO SOF entities, converting VHF/ UHF communications devices into a SATCOM capability.

“Today, there are several solutions to enable the tactical non-GNSS [Global Navigation Satellite System] navigation and localization through inertial, RF [radio frequency]-based and smartphone-based solutions,” he concluded. Finally, the threat of Low Probability of Intercept/Detection (LPI/D) by peer adversaries across the contemporary operating environment continues to drive a resurgence in high frequency (HF) throughout the SOF community. Examples include the French Special Operations Command (COS) and Germany’s Special Forces Command (KSK), which both continue to pursue requirements for such a capability that is harder to disrupt and comprises a low-cost alternative to SATCOM. “Special operations forces around the world continue to invest in HF communications,” Kroon said. “HF radios are now smaller and faster than the previous generations. With innovations in the areas of resiliency and wideband data, HF offers more flexibility to the SOF community than ever. HF can support the backhaul link as well as intel from the edge. “These new innovations, combined with modern encryption algorithms and backwards compatibility with legacy HF systems, are driving many SOF organizations to modernize their HF fleet. Concerns about SATCOM-denied environments also drive many users to HF. HF nets have no single point of failure, and that’s the flexibility that SOF communicators require,” he concluded. As USSOCOM and international SOF partners continue to urgently predict and equip for an uncertain future operating environment, the importance of secure, resilient, and flexible tactical communications looks set to remain a priority for commanders moving forward – especially so given that they are a “gateway” to the enabling of nextgeneration capabilities, including augmented reality and artificial intelligence/machine learning-assisted decision-making.

IN THE HEADLIGHTS OF NSW MODERNIZATION BY SCOTT R. GOURLEY

Special Operations Outlook

U.S. NAVY PHOTO BY MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 1ST CLASS SEAN FUREY

NSWC q Personnel from Naval Special Warfare Command (NSWC) test the night-time capabilities of a Ghost Robotics robotic dog. NSWC is committed to its sailors and the deliberate development of tactical excellence, ethics, and leadership as the nation’s premier maritime special operations force supporting the National Defense Strategy.

Special Warfare Command (NSWC) is among the DOD’s q Naval top warfighting forces working to develop a robust defense against the advances and aggressive actions of America’s adversaries in the fight to counter violent extremists organizations and great power competition. To that end, NSWC established a new department within its headquarters structure – the N9 Future Concepts and Innovation directorate. This small and empowered team serves as the community’s headlights, searching in the often unexplored spaces of horizon technologies and accelerating technology sectors to identify and capitalize on transformational and exponentially disruptive opportunities, which will increase precision, speed, and lethality on the battlefield while also reducing risk to mission and force, and costs. Special Operations Outlook recently had the unique opportunity to discuss the new organization with Director Capt. Christian Dunbar, and Deputy Director Dr. Bruce Morris, who explained that, overall, the N9 acts as the Naval Special Warfare Command’s Strategic Innovation element, and is NSWC’s mechanism/vehicle to conceptualize and develop future and transformational operational concepts within the context of strategic guidance, new and challenging security environments, and revolutionary commercial technologies. Asked about the thinking behind the creation of the new directorate, Dunbar indicated it came about as a result of NSWC leadership identifying it had a potential pathfinder role to play in supporting the DOD’s efforts to deter future threats and maintain U.S. technological superiority. Introduced in 2014, the Third Offset Strategy was an initiation of DOD’s Defense Innovation Initiative. “Innovation, as a deliberate line of effort in the force, was directed by Vice Adm. [Tim] Szymanski during NSWC’s recent ‘Force Optimization’ holistic future force analysis,” Dunbar said. “In the ideation process, we began by looking at industry, applying some of its best innovation practices and then molding them with what already existed inside of the Department of Defense. That was between 2017-2018. Vice Adm. Szymanski, as the commander of Naval Special Warfare Command, stood up the N9 as part of Force Optimization, and our current commander, Rear Adm. Collin Green, has expanded on it.” The N9 charter is to explore and develop transformational and disruptive or 10x concepts in the areas of technology, process, and organization, and synchronize its efforts with both the assistant chief of staff for plans, assessments, and strategy (N5), and the assistant chief of staff for resources, requirements, and assessments (N8). Collectively, their goal is to inform and help balance future NSW strategy and capabilities between countering violent extremist organizations and addressing great power competition. As such, the N9 directorate clearly supports NSW’s Vision 2030 “call to action” along the paths to strengthen, compete and reform the force [see Special Operations Outlook 2019-2020].

COLLECTIVELY, THEIR GOAL IS TO INFORM AND HELP BALANCE FUTURE NSW STRATEGY AND CAPABILITIES BETWEEN COUNTERING VIOLENT EXTREMIST ORGANIZATIONS AND ADDRESSING GREAT POWER COMPETITION. 63

U.S. NAVY PHOTO BY MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 1ST CLASS WILL GASKILL

NSWC

Dunbar said that the team is currently structured with “about five individuals.” In addition to himself and Morris, the team also includes a technically savvy senior enlisted adviser, an operations officer, and additional operational subject matter experts (SMEs). “We occasionally increase by one or two individuals with reservists that we bring on board,” he said, noting that the Reserve talent enables the team to “flow industry and technical expertise in and out as we ‘surge to ideas’ using those resources.” Outlining some of the N9 directorate’s current efforts in support of NSWC’s Vision 2030, Dunbar explained, “Vision 2030 has three lines of effort: strengthen; compete; and reform, and it echoes a great deal of what the U.S. Navy, USSOCOM [U.S. Special Operations Command], and the NDS [National Defense Strategy] were charging us to do in the rapid innovation space. Directly, we [N9] are given specified tasks to expand innovation across the community, increasing synergy and processes. Half of our work is focused on five-to-15-year technology horizons, and the other half focused on the possibilities of right now.” He offered the example of the directorate’s exploration of agile acquisition tied to Vision 2030’s “reform” line of effort. “One of the things we worked on right away was an exploration of what agile acquisition really meant and with whom we might want to partner,” he said. “We did a lot of exploration into SBIRs [Small Business Innovative Research], AFWERX, SOFWERX, DIU [Defense Innovation Unit - DOD], U.S. Army Futures Command, the Secretary of Defense’s Close Combat Lethality Task Force, and other transactional authorities. We really got a good handful of lessons learned that we’re now in the process of applying within our organization.” Morris elaborated, “I would highlight the process of applying it within the organization and add that, as any ‘innovation’ team would attest, beyond the initial antibodies and the frozen middle, most organizations don’t have an innovation challenge; they have an innovation onboarding challenge. This is our team’s top priority: to ensure that lasting processes and rhythms are established within our first years of operating.” “Our charter is [to] act like a set of headlights, maybe even with high beams, for the community,” Dunbar added. “That allows us to

p Special Operator 1st Class Brad Denn demonstrates innovative virtual reality joint tactical air controller (JTAC) training equipment at Naval Special Warfare Command (NSWC). NSWC has developed this realistic and effective training gear to save costs and risks in the NSW training pipeline, allowing for increased readiness of the NSW force.

see where the accelerating technology sectors are moving, project how that’s going to change our operating environment and our adversaries’ capabilities, and then explore concepts that change the way we will fight – transformational innovation. Then we need to figure out what else we need to do to onboard it.” Within those accelerating technology sectors, Dunbar and Morris both highlighted areas where the evolution of multiple technologies opened the door to the introduction of disruptive concepts. Dunbar started by clarifying differences between transformational and disruptive concepts. “We used business and academic theory to discern the differentiation between transformational and disruptive innovation. One is completely transforming the way we do business to have different offerings, different value propositions, different ways to solve a customer’s need or a market’s need,” he said. “By contrast, disruption, as adapted for our use, is really more akin to exponential disruption to our current offerings. How do we get a 10X result, or 10 times result, out of an application of technology for our advantage and before our competition?” He referenced the frequently cited industry example of Blockbuster Video being disrupted by Netflix, noting, “If you were Blockbuster, you got disrupted by someone using a new digital model and completely changing the way you should have been doing business. You were too focused on sustaining innovation of your core operations and efficiencies and missed an outside use of technology applied to your core business.” “So we’re doing the same thing, somewhat like mobilizing a corporate venture capital model for strategic innovation,” he said. “Instead of corporate venture capital as a financial investment trying to make money for the organization, our model is being out there exploring to see where the technology is that can then be adapted to our core business with a disruptive return on investment.”

NSWC

Special Operations Outlook

p Personnel from Naval Special Warfare Command (NSWC) test the capabilities of Shield AI’s Nova class of artificially intelligent unmanned aerial systems.

data. In our world of robotic autonomous systems, which is the DOD’s vernacular, the strategies probably haven’t really collapsed into all of these enabling technologies in the systems engineering approach. You have to ask things like, ‘Where’s my data? Where’s it stored? Where’s my compute-on-the-edge? Where’s my tactical cloud? Can I communicate without latency? What are the things that need zero latency or can absorb some latency?’ All of those pieces have to get brought to bear. So, ultimately, a team like ours can say, ‘Okay, I’m watching these technology horizons. I see a convergence of about six or seven of these, and that convergence now enables this new concept.’” He noted that the process also advises DOD research and development investments, “because our team is watching the way the commercial market is accelerating the technology and developing feasible and viable concepts to be developed.” Morris expanded on the example, highlighting a visit to SOFWERX in Tampa, Florida. The visit had been designed to examine how special reconnaissance might be performed in the year 2030, based on projections of USSOCOM’s future operating environment. “That future environment might include things like denied comms or denied GPS,” he said. “But it was really where we were

U.S. NAVY PHOTO BY MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 1ST CLASS SEAN FUREY

Morris offered the example of the N9 directorate focus on autonomous mobile robotics (AMR), describing it as “an accelerating commercial technology sector being applied to our mission. “In the DOD, robotic autonomous systems [RAS] only has pockets of thought leaders, let alone technological excellence and investment relative to the commercial sector,” he said. “Industry’s ability to endorse, develop, and integrate AMR into their core offerings and value proposition is on an exponential up-curve. What we have done is taken a deep dive into all of the core and supporting technologies for applying AMR/RAS and their increasing levels of autonomy applied toward the NSW mission set.” He continued, “Our team is confident that AMR/RAS, using higher levels of autonomy and less reliance on remote operation by humans, is one of the most promising and transformational opportunities in warfare. This is very intriguing in an organization that is human capacity-limited. Combine full movement and taskoriented autonomy with a holistic computer vision suite on organic sensors, precision-guided munitions, low-to-no-latency command and control supported by a 5G backbone and unlimited compute on the machine or the tactical cloud, and now you have a convergence of technologies that disrupts the maneuver battlefield. Machine learning algorithms to support maneuver on the battlefield is truly a game-changing capability for increasing precision, capacity, speed, and lethality, while significantly reducing risk to SOF personnel.” “There are a lot of things that go into AMR,” Dunbar added. “It’s job analysis. It’s communication. It’s operational data. It’s task

NSWC

U.S. NAVY PHOTO BY MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 1ST CLASS WILL GASKILL

p Special Operator 1st Class Brad Denn demonstrates innovative virtual reality joint tactical air controller (JTAC) training equipment at Naval Special Warfare Command (NSWC).

trying to solve that 2030 problem for special reconnaissance where operational concepts for autonomous mobile robotics fell out. In fact, it was only after we came back to Coronado and thought about it for a while that we realized that this is really going to apply to a lot more things than just special reconnaissance, because it was more than just the robot. In fact, it was more than just an intelligent robot with artificial intelligence and machine learning on it. We realized that by allowing lots of robots to work together and allowing for human-machine teaming of that larger mix, utilizing 5G technology and not necessarily moving lots of data around on the battlefield like we do today, but instead doing a lot of ‘compute on device’ on the robots themselves and on the operator, and on the edge – we would need to bring our own network forward with us to be able to do this – we really came out with a very disruptive, concept. And we call that the Artificial Intelligence [AI] for Small Unit Maneuver [AI/SUM] transformational concept.” Dunbar and Morris characterized AI/SUM as representing the convergence of ubiquitous operationally relevant data, 5G connectivity, unlimited compute-on-the-edge, computer vision libraries, and autonomy in mobile robotics, all integrated into SOF operational concepts to create dilemmas, disruption, and overmatch for adversaries across the competition continuum. As envisioned, the future of AI/SUM involves NSW’s tactical maneuver elements teamed with swarms of cooperatively intelligent autonomous mobile robots to gain, maintain, and extend access in contested and complex environments, providing decision advantage and the precise application of effects.

Another early accomplishment for the N9 directorate has involved the establishment and expansion of NSW’s “Blue Network,” a “crowd and community” concept that draws support from NSW personnel assigned to other locations and billets. “This initiative really reflects the guidance provided by the NDS, which calls for outreach to academia and industry. “At the time, in our shop we were reading a book called Exponential Organizations,” he said. “And part of that book explored crowd and community as a method for innovation generation and development. We ideated on how we could energize our [NSW’s] crowd and community, to find all of the ways that we can get into academia and industry. Our initial map found that we’ve got more than 70 NSW personnel assigned or located in academic institutions or at places like DIU, with unique access to industry. Further, we turned to focused targeted industries, and we discovered that our Reserves represented a significant piece as well. “After we mapped it and identified the concept, it was formalized by Rear Adm. Green under the moniker of the Blue Network,” he said, “And at that point, it was just a matter of networking teammates and putting people to work.” Current N9 activities involve working across elements of the Blue Network to explore transformational and disruptive concepts and opportunities and ensure they are developed and assessed in a rigorous, repeatable, and recognized process informing the strategy and future with confidence. In parallel with continuing efforts focused on tying clusters of NSW personnel into collaborative ecosystems, N9 has also been conducting a highly successful pilot program to reach targeted industries through its Reserve Force. In support of this program, NSW Group 11 has recently established a specialized Naval Reserve unit specifically for NSW’s innovation support, finding and harnessing reservist talent for their “day job” expertise. That Reserve unit has grown from five to 10 members over the last 18 months, and is projected to grow to 20 in FY 21. “It’s not just SEALs and SWCCs [Special Warfare Combatant Craft Crewmen] who are out there in

NSWC

U.S. NAVY PHOTO BY MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 1ST CLASS SEAN FUREY

t Personnel from Naval Special Warfare Command (NSWC) test the room-clearing capabilities of Shield AI’s Nova class of artificially intelligent unmanned aerial systems.

the Reserve community, but also those who are in industries of interest like AI and data,” Dunbar said. “If we find other experts in the Reserve Force or industry experts we could facilitate entering the Reserves, we can bring them into those spots for drilling reservists. They are essentially attached to our team in the N9, working on these transformational concepts with a real understanding of the technology. They are essentially serving as advisers on the staff. One of our highlights is we’ve got an industry chief data scientist working at a multibillion-dollar corporation. He’s a reservist now, part of our network, and advising us as we’re trying to build out our strategy for digital modernization and transformation.” Asked where the greatest innovation challenges exist today, Dunbar chose his words carefully. “I think that we still don’t have a common understanding of the word ‘innovation’ in the DOD,” he said. “Everybody thinks it’s theirs. And I would say that everybody is right. Our big challenge is organizing it.” He continued, “The fact is that innovation is everywhere in NSW and the DOD. We see successful innovation in all of our major capability portfolios. We see it working well in responding to tactical challenges from the grass roots. Our challenge is to decide how much to invest and how rapidly to respond based on impact and scale. However, as an organization, we would assess ourselves as relatively successful in this horizon of sustaining innovation with some room for improvement. “We have also seen a significant change and focus in the DOD to conduct adjacent innovation,” he added. “This horizon of innovation is marked by a significant National Defense Strategy shift to great power competition. The NDS shift is a great catalyst for significant innovation efforts, and we see the leadership across the department creating the environment to enable these efforts that may not have traditionally been present. Our challenge will be to take stock of all of our efforts inside of NSW, identify where we best enable the rapidly innovating joint force … as well as other elements of national power, and also identify where we have a unique value proposition that was previously untapped.” “The third horizon of transformative [and disruptive] innovation is certainly where the majority of innovation challenges lie,” Dunbar continued. “Like many organizations, we are not a digital company at the core. As such, we struggle to comprehensively

understand the whole of implications of innovating in the digital space and prioritizing resources and talent toward that end. Essentially, digital modernization and transformation is viewed as ‘new start’ for the DOD and competes against other warfighting resources instead of getting the benefit of being viewed as an entire strategy shift requiring new investments. We’re seeing that ship swinging now, but it will take significant time to swing that ship. It will be a journey. “Over the past decade, commercial industries have designed, architected, and demonstrated the ability to release the full potential of digital networks, data, algorithms, and AI. NSW and SOF can continue to learn from industry and design our own ability to optimize the impact of digitization. Digital transformation enables a greater potential for NSW to embed learning, iteration, and innovation in its operating model at pace and scale to enable greater speed for creating new value propositions to compete, strengthen, and reform, to be the NSW our nation needs,” he said. Morris concurred, highlighting the fact that leadership understands this and is pointing to the need to “bring the necessary talent on board.” “We’re just going to have to work hard on more than just speeding it up,” he said. “Everyone knows by going digital we can make increases in our understanding 1,000 times faster. But we’ve got to get the technical leadership and engineering talent on board. We can’t take existing people and then just give them a new job title. We actually have to bring these experts from the outside in. So the challenge is how to do that and how to do that quickly. And I think everyone’s struggling with that competition for talent.” He added, “To [USSOCOM Commander] Gen. [Richard] Clarke’s credit, he’s recognized the challenge. And he’s tasked his Chief Data Officer Dave Spirk, who is an HQE [highly qualified expert] hire brought on as the chief data officer, to help him shape that. We often have conversations with Dave where we talk about this. It’s just that it’s new, and sometimes new things just take a little bit longer to onboard.” “We’ve also got many senior leaders in NSW that have embraced this,” Dunbar said. “NSW is in the process of finalizing our search process for an HQE in our own headquarters to be our force technology officer. That’s a good step forward. “So we’re doing it. And we need people to apply. Ultimately the team will fill out with software experts and data science experts over time. While we have some initial nascent movement, I think we are poised to establish a larger investment in targeting talent from the commercial sector to help our digital modernization and transformation plans,” he said. “The leadership has identified this [NSW modernization and transformation] as being imperative to achieving Vision 2030. It’s just that it’s new and it’s complex. So it’s important to have a team that can go out, independent of the daily battle rhythm of ‘man, train, organize, and equip’, and explore horizons and opportunities for our community. We, as headlights, can search around in the often unexplored spaces of horizon technologies and accelerating technology sectors, bring that back, and ideate and generate impactful applications to our mission, and package some of the complex technologies found there in tangible military concepts to ensure our competitive advantage and lethality overmatch for the future.”

NSCV

NON-STANDARD COMMERCIAL VEHICLES one of the higher global demand signals within the Family qWith of Special Operations Vehicles (FOSOV), the Non-Standard Commercial Vehicle (NSCV) fleet is based on commercial vehicle platforms that are enhanced with mission-specific modifications to increase protection, mobility performance, and durability. Battelle Memorial Institute is currently providing several different models of the modified vehicles under a seven-year indefinite delivery/ indefinite quantity contract that began in July 2016.

ENGINEERING EXPERTISE According to program manager Jim LaBine, the NSCV concept is not really new for Battelle, with the institute having provided a

Special Operations Outlook

range of modified and up-armored vehicles to various customers for several years. “We started a long time ago doing ‘Humvees,’” he explained during a tour of one of Battelle’s manufacturing facilities. “We also did the Polaris RZR before Polaris realized that we were selling their RZRs with modification. In fact, we donated one of ours to the Navy SEAL Museum.” LaBine said that the original vehicle armoring was done with composites, with the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) contract representing the institute’s first all-steel solution. “We had been doing ‘NSCV-type vehicles’ for years, not for SOCOM, but for other clients,” he said. “But SOCOM was a large contract, and we decided to take the lessons learned from some

BATTELLE PHOTO

BY SCOTT R. GOURLEY

NSCV of our earlier clients and apply them to the SOCOM solution. That’s kind of where our ‘bolted solution’ comes from, because in the beginning, we couldn’t weld composite, so we bolted everything into the vehicle. So when we went to steel, we maintained that philosophy and bolted our steel into the vehicle. We bolt armor to armor and then armor to the OEM [original equipment manufacturer] steel, so it’s all integrated tightly.” Adding that the bolt-on approach eliminates the amount of welding done on the armor, he observed, “When you weld armor, it gets soft and it leaves vulnerability lines where the weld is. Sometimes people tried to minimize that by not putting as much heat on the armor. They’ll weld a stitch, then go somewhere else and then come back to weld another stitch. I guess they do that to make it less of a vulnerable area. We eliminate that with our bolt-on design.” For its armor, LaBine said that Battelle purchases the raw material and then forms and cuts the panels. “We’ll do armor searches,” he acknowledged. “We go to the different armor manufacturers. Some are steel manufacturers. Some are composite manufacturers. And then we say, ‘Here’s our threat. Do you have a solution?’ We bring in all that data. Then we look at the weight and cost per square foot, that kind of stuff. And we actually validate it. We’ll test it in the lab to make sure

q A converted Non-Standard Commercial Vehicle (NSCV).

that its stated performance is true. We found that a lot of them don’t perform as advertised. But some do. And then we go to the client with that cost, weight savings, or extra weight, whatever it might be. And we address ‘the triangle’ of protection, weight, and cost. Of course, the customer always wants the lightest weight, lowest cost, and highest-level ballistic protection. And we have to say, ‘Well, this is what’s real and this is what we can actually do. Is cost important to you? Is protection important to you? Is weight important to you?’ And then we’ll work through that with our client.” He continued, “Our strength is in our engineering. We’re not vertically integrated. We don’t buy all the tools and machinery to cut armor and do all that kind of stuff. We tend to use local suppliers, which reduces shipping costs and tends to just be more convenient. But with our recent increase in production, we are starting to ‘move outward,’ because we need more suppliers.” LaBine offered several examples to illustrate Battelle’s engineering expertise on NSCV. The first involved an infrared (IR) light used on the NSCV. The light was originally purchased from a small manufacturer. However, when that manufacturer went out of business, they could not find another source for the IR lights. As a result, Battelle engineers built their own design and began installing them on the vehicles. “We put that on the vehicle until Baja Designs came up to speed and started producing IR lights,” he said. “The client tried them out and liked them. They were less expensive too, because the new manufacturer was building them for everybody in the off-road world. So we just stopped building that light. The customer said they wanted Baja, so we put Baja in there. But we’ll fill the need if it’s necessary.” In another example, he pointed to Battelle’s development of a high output alternator for the NSCV. “American Power [Systems Inc.] was also doing alternators for the State Department,” he said. “We tested ours versus theirs and theirs actually performed a little bit better at high temperatures. So we acknowledged theirs was better and we just stopped making ours.” In another area of the facility he pointed to the design of both front and rear window lifts for the heavier protective glass windows, explaining that the original design involved an electric window coupled with a very fine worm gear that provided the necessary mechanical advantage. However, customer concern about potentially lost power and the possible need for emergency egress led to the elimination of the electric motor.

“SO WHEN WE WENT TO STEEL, WE MAINTAINED THAT PHILOSOPHY AND BOLTED OUR STEEL INTO THE VEHICLE. WE BOLT ARMOR TO ARMOR AND THEN ARMOR TO THE OEM [ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURER] STEEL, SO IT’S ALL INTEGRATED TIGHTLY.” 71

“We thought about just changing it to a hand crank, but with the hand crank, it was about 70 turns to get the window down,” LaBine said. “Not surprisingly, the customer said they couldn’t do that. They wanted it to be like in a car. So we put in a more aggressive gear and got the design to somewhere around 15 to 19 turns to get the window down.”

PRODUCTION NSCV modifications occur at multiple discrete locations in the United States. The site tour offered considerable evidence of NSCV user popularity that has resulted in recent program expansion. “We started out in this facility and we were doing around 20 to 30 vehicles a year,” offered a factory representative, whose name is withheld by request. “Although that’s been gradually growing, we typically don’t have a multi-year backlog. Instead, our backlogs have been around five months. That’s made it a little difficult to grow and to change, but it is why we started ‘the other facility,’ just because we grew out of this one recently. This area in front of you was all material, but as a result of the most recent order for a couple of hundred vehicles, we just did not have the space and the ability to handle that amount of material here.” With the new production facilities and configuration, they said that the NSCV conversion time for a commercial vehicle is “somewhere between five and six weeks,” elaborating, “We’ve done some at four, but there is variation based on the type of vehicle, the amount of modifications to the vehicle, and the content within the vehicle. There’s a long list of CLINs [Contract Line Item Numbers], and they just pick from it. Some could have no C4. Some could have C4. We build for all of the SOCOM groups, and they all want the vehicles their own certain way.” In addition to the vehicles for USSOCOM elements, they highlighted a recent Foreign Military Sale, stating, “It was an urgent need, so they [the U.S. government] came to us through our contract for the

Special Operations Outlook

p Newly converted NSCVs prepared for receipt inspection.

lines that were up and running. And what we did is ‘decontent’ that vehicle down. It’s not identical to the SOCOM vehicle. I would just call it a decontented one. We kept it as simple as we possibly could, assuming that the operator might not have the SOCOM operator or maintenance training.” One of the first challenges is obtaining the right vehicle for modification. “It’s typically a challenge to get the colors that we want in the quantities that we want in the vehicle type that we want,” they said. “So we spend a lot of time working with our importer to get a specific model with specific options. And if it comes in with something else, it just jams us up.” They related an early experience where they were unable to get the specific vehicle models that they wanted, but they could get one model “up” from that. The problem was that the higher-level models had sun roofs and some other features. “But we knew we could get them right away, so we decided that we would just figure it out,” they said. “At the end, we ended up having to build a metal sunroof that would sit in place of the original. We will never do that again.” Once the new vehicles arrive from the importer, they begin NSCV conversion by going through “a strip process,” where many parts are removed for one of three possible outcomes: It is thrown away, it is modified and installed back in the vehicle, or it is reinstalled “as is” later in the conversion process. The stripped vehicles are moved through the subassembly line and eventually lined up at the armor “station build” area, with the armor kit placed beside each truck. “They have to forklift the armor in to each vehicle, and this gives them room to work from the front, so that they don’t interfere with each other,” they said. “I think we can do five or six vehicles in the armor station at any given time.”

SCOTT R. GOURLEY PHOTO

GENERAL DYNAMICS OTS PHOTO

NSCV

They pointed to two company demonstrator vehicles – a Toyota HiLux and LC200 luxury Land Cruiser – being moved through the line, stating that they “presented an opportunity to see what was happening behind the skin.” “LC200s are great vehicles because the engines are so large,” they said. “We’ve got a twin-turbo V-8 engine in there, and I don’t have to do anything to make it move with the armor and those types of things. But it is more complex on the computer side for things like blackout lighting and other electronics. It’s like a high-end vehicle, so there are some challenges to modifying it. But we’re working on that. We’ve got some people at our cyber group that are looking to try to ‘dummy down’ some of the computers and make it operate a little bit better.” They related early experiences where engineers were rerouting wires and putting in ground signals, which caused the computer to generate error codes. In response, the engineers reset the codes and turned the vehicle off. Unfortunately, it would not start again, so they kept repeating the process without success. Finally, they realized that the vehicle was on the line without doors. Since the electronics did not “see” the doors open and close, they assumed that someone had broken a window and was trying to steal the car – a high-end OEM feature. Once that change was finally implemented, they discovered that the headlights weren’t going off, again, because the lack of doors meant that the computer didn’t “see” the driver getting out. Another difference in Battelle’s NSCV design is limiting the armor at the seat pillar, a feature that saves approximately 400 pounds on some vehicle models. Other vehicles feature a door in the armor, which can be folded down to allow the design to meet the user requirement to carry a litter. Other minor design features that have changed due to user comments include things like door latches that were changed from downward to upward release, reflecting the fact that user gear stowage was interfering with downward handle movement. Pneumatically

p A newly arrived vehicle being stripped for NSCV conversion.

assisted door opening designs also facilitate egress in specific situations. Noting a number of engine modifications that served to double the vehicle horsepower, they said, “By doubling the horsepower in a hot environment, it actually was boiling our oil. They are operating in heat. They are carrying extra weight. And they are going up hills. The radiator couldn’t handle it, so we had to add an additional oil cooler. So we run oil through there, along with the radiator that’s cooling the engine block. It’s just things like that that make sure it operates efficiently in operating environments.”

NSCV FUTURE? Some of the modifications outlined above are representative of a range of NSCV design and producibility enhancements that Battelle engineers have introduced over the last few years. Along with these lessons learned and user feedback improvements, USSOCOM FOSOV briefings have identified several areas of interest for fleet planners. Not surprisingly, these include lightweight armor materials, a lighter weight vehicle, C4ISR integration cost reductions, suspension technology enhancements, and life-cycle improvements. One emerging solution to the life-cycle improvements involves a so-called “Purpose Built NSCV” vehicle that would be a replacement to the current NSCV, where, instead of modifying and armoring an OEM chassis, the new NSCV design will be based on a militarized chassis that could then be visually modified to look like a wide range of commercial vehicles. The concept offers benefits in terms of a heavier suspension for up-armoring as well as a platform that could go through depot reset during an extended service life.

5TH SFG(A) PHOTO BY STAFF SGT. JACOB CONNOR

SCOTT R. GOURLEY PHOTO

BEHIND THE SKIN

USASOC

INTERVIEW USASOC Commander Lt. Gen. Francis M. Beaudette BY SCOTT R. GOURLEY

Lt. Gen. Francis M. Beaudette assumed command, June 8, 2018, of U.S. Army Special Operations Command. Prior to commanding USASOC, Beaudette was commanding general of 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne), Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Beaudette was commissioned in 1989 as a military intelligence officer. In his first assignment, he served as a battalion assistant S-2, M1A1 crewmember, and armor platoon leader in Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. He went on to complete Special Forces training in 1995. His first assignment was to the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), where he commanded two Special Forces detachments, commanded the group headquarters company, and served as the group assistant S-3. He then served as the aide-de-camp to the commanding general of the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, and went on to serve as aide-de-camp

Special Operations Outlook

USASOC

U.S. ARMY PHOTO

A U.S. Army special operator sets up communications during an exercise.

to the deputy commanding general of Kosovo Forces. He commanded a Special Forces company at Fort Carson, Colorado, and in Kosovo, as well as served as a battalion executive officer and group operations officer for the 10th SFG (A), both at Fort Carson and in Iraq. Following a tour on the Joint Staff in the J3 Deputy Directorate for Special Operations, Beaudette commanded 1st Battalion, 10th SFG (A) in Germany and Special Operations Task Force 10 in Afghanistan. He then served as the G3 and chief of staff for the U.S. Army Special Forces Command (Airborne) prior to commanding the 1st SFG (A) and the Joint Special Operations Task Force â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Philippines. Beaudette then served as the executive officer to the commander, United States Special Operations Command. Beaudette served as the deputy commanding general, 1st Armored Division and director of CENTCOM Forward (Jordan). He then served with Joint Special Operations Command as the assistant commanding general. Beaudetteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s previous assignment was with 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne), where he served as the commanding general. Beaudette is a graduate of the Citadel, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Army War College.

USASOC Operations Outlook: How is U.S. Army Special q Special Operations Command looking at the future of conflict?

PHOTO BY JOSEPH BARKER, U.S. ARMY RECRUITING COMMAND

Lt. Gen. Francis Beaudette: The National Defense Strategy warns “we face an ever more lethal and disruptive battlefield, combined across domains, and conducted at increasing speed and reach.” In tomorrow’s fight, our men and women will operate in a complex, multi-dimensional world, where information and technology are weaponized at speed against us. Our adversaries will jam our communications and spoof our signals. To stay ahead of the enemy, we must increase our advantage by providing the latest technology to our teams, unencumbered by expensive legacy systems and slow processes. We cannot expect success fighting tomorrow’s wars with yesterday’s technology. Every single day the men and women of Army Special Operations demonstrate the power of innovation. Bottom-up problem-solving is what we do, and what we principally assess and select our soldiers for. Our people have always been, and will remain, our competitive advantage. What has U.S. Army Special Operations Command done to modernize for tomorrow’s battlefield? The Department of Defense and the Army have aggressively leaned forward in preparing the force for tomorrow’s battlefield. We’re closely partnered with the U.S. Army Futures Command (AFC) to evaluate and test emerging technologies and gear that AFC can efficiently scale up for the larger Army formations. U.S. Special Operations Command Acquisition Technology & Logistics, J6, and Data Office continue to assist and empower our efforts. Together, we’re driving the development of a modern cloud network in support of multi-domain operations to enhance our ability to collect data, rapidly pass it to the appropriate decision-makers, and apply those resources to the tactical edge. Made possible by advances in artificial intelligence applications, we’re using data to sharpen our effectiveness and get those tools where we need them – in the hands of our soldiers on the objective. Ultimately, our charge is to ensure Army special operations forces are ready to answer the nation’s call. To meet our mission, we completed a significant restructuring of the command. The U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) Force Modernization Center incorporated the USASOC G8, G9, and Force Modernization directorates to optimize our modernization efforts. At the same time, our tactical innovation hubs remain our ranges, classrooms, training centers, and in the live laboratories of the 80 countries where Army special operations forces are deployed every day. This is how we drive innovation – dream it, test it, break it, refine it, and apply it on the battlefield. In November each year, we bring the finest military practitioners, interagency teammates, academic scholars, and industry partners to Fort Bragg for the Modern Warfare Symposium. The importance of continuous education to our special operations forces cannot be overstated. We endeavor to challenge our assumptions and advance our craft, whether it is in policy, strategy, or technology. Success on future battlefields demands seamless integration with the Army and the joint force – we will be the force’s eyes and ears in the deep fight during large-scale combat operations, and we’re shaping that victory now with our allies and partners in competition. We hope to see you at this year’s Modern Warfare Symposium to further explore the “SOF Operator of Tomorrow” on Fort Bragg from Nov. 18-20, 2020. How will you focus your efforts over the next year? Our nation’s enemies have not relented. With that in mind, we owe our men and women every possible advantage on the modern battlefield. We want every fight to be unfair, and we will relentlessly pursue this objective, no matter how far it is or how long it will take

p Lt. Gen. Francis M. Beaudette, U.S. Army Special Operations Command commanding general, briefs members of the Special Operations Recruiting Battalion during their annual training conference Nov. 4, 2019.

us. It’s clear that our near-peer competitors are making significant investments in technology, and are aggressively employing it right now to erode America’s military superiority. As a force heavily engaged in combat and competition, Army special operations forces (ARSOF) are ready, agile, and lethal. We will, as we always have, continue to deliver under conditions of ambiguity with precision, because that’s what the nation demands of us – but we must be prepared to do more than survive: We must continue to thrive in contested and denied areas. Our competitive advantage has been, and will remain, our people. Congress generously supports our efforts to keep our soldiers in the fight. USASOC Human Performance & Wellness integrates and leverages SOCOM’s Preservation of the Force and Families and the Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness programs to empower our command teams to understand, resource, and enable the holistic performance and wellness of soldiers and families, tailored to the specific requirements unique to their ARSOF roles. Teams of highly qualified professionals within our units are connected to our ARSOF soldiers and their families. We will continue to evaluate and optimize human performance and sustain holistic wellness to ensure our soldiers and their loved ones are prepared and empowered for a more sustainable and satisfying life in Army special operations. This level of care, provided throughout the career of an Army special operator, is critical to sustaining our readiness, our combat effectiveness, and the resilience of our soldiers and their families.

USSOCOM AI

USSOCOM EMBRACES NEW TECHNOLOGIES BY SCOTT R. GOURLEY

the U.S. Department of Defense, descriptions of future qAcross concepts and capabilities are frequently accompanied by a laundry list of technologies that could be embraced, from 3D visualization to artificial intelligence (AI) to artificial reality (AR) to mixed reality (MR) to machine learning (ML) to virtual reality (VR). U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) representatives have also pointed to many of these technologies for their potential application to special operations forces (SOF) operations. Significantly, as with many USSOCOM efforts, the command has moved quickly beyond the talking phase and is accelerating the application and exploitation of the identified technologies. A case in point surfaced in early December 2019, when USSOCOM representatives used the annual Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), held in Orlando, Florida, and widely recognized as the world’s largest modeling, simulation, and training event, to highlight the application of emerging technologies against unique SOF mission sets. Titled “AI Game Theory: Game Changing or Game Over? 3D and AI Technologies Changing the Game,” the USSOCOM presentation was part of a SOF Simulation Technologies Capability Assessment Event (CAE) “prize challenge” conducted in collaboration with SOFWERX. As described in the original SOFWERX announcement, the goal of the CAE was to allow USSOCOM and other government stakeholders to “assess new, novel and provocative solutions for incorporating advanced technologies into SOF planning, preview, training, exercise, rehearsal, execution, after action review and analysis capabilities.” “Emerging simulation technologies will be assessed for their technology maturity and risk while providing insight for deciding next steps, such as experimentation, assessment and investment in rapid prototyping to tailor for training and operational use,” it stated. Identified topic areas of specific interest included: virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality that flow seamlessly across training, operational, live, virtual, synthetic and constructive environments; fused intel and ops capabilities that can be shared with partner forces; AI-enabled workflows that extend and accelerate human capabilities; standards-based solutions that enable machineto-machine automation; and objective metrics for quantitative analysis of team and individual performance.

Special Operations Outlook

USSOCOM AI “The ultimate goal is to support the commander of USSOCOM mission, which is to develop and employ fully capable special operation forces to conduct global special operations and activities as part of the joint force,” said the I/ITSEC event moderator, Randy Jackson, chief of mission preparation, J3 Training and Education, USSOCOM. Jackson explained that the prize challenge announcement had originally resulted in responses from 112 companies. An initial review pared that down to 40 contenders with a second evaluation of those written submissions reducing the candidates to eight companies that were invited to showcase their capabilities during I/ITSEC. Each of the companies was provided with six minutes to brief their technologies and solutions, followed by a brief question and answer opportunity. Briefing companies included: Shield AI, Fraym, General Dynamics Mission Systems, Vertex Solutions, NeuroFlow, Battlespace Simulations, Havik Corporation, and a combined team of Entegra Systems and Immersive Wisdom. Jackson said that the company presentations would help provide the USSOCOM subject matter experts with benefits that include knowledge of commercially developed capabilities, driving SOF components to better interoperability, and consideration of transformative technologies to optimize decision-making and tactical mission planning, and aggregate, analyze, and federate data all to reduce the risk to mission and forces. Additionally, based on recommendations from USSOCOM subject matter experts, two of the companies would be selected for prize awards and for participation in at least two 2020 SOF warfighter exercise and experimentation events. Along with Jackson and several command subject matter experts present for the briefings, panelists included Maj. Gen. Robert Karmazin, U.S. Army, director, J-7/9, USSOCOM, and Dr. Lisa Costa, J6/chief information officer, USSOCOM. “SOCOM is focused on addressing defense and security threats and challenges from emerging great power competitors as well as terrorists and violent extremist organizations, as has been identified in the 2018 National Defense Strategy,” Karmazin began. “To help enable our objectives, SOCOM needs to expand the use of transformative technologies,” he said. “For mission preparedness, virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, AI ML capabilities are absolutely paramount.” Costa echoed some of the opening panel comments about USSOCOM readiness requirements to continue both the fight against violent extremist organizations (VEOs) as well as conducting operations against competitive nation states, cautioning that those competitive nation states also could use violent extremist organizations as potential proxies. As a result, she identified a need for what she dubbed “twofers,” or solutions that could be used in both operational environments.

“EMERGING SIMULATION TECHNOLOGIES WILL BE ASSESSED FOR THEIR TECHNOLOGY MATURITY AND RISK WHILE PROVIDING INSIGHT FOR DECIDING NEXT STEPS, SUCH AS EXPERIMENTATION, ASSESSMENT AND INVESTMENT IN RAPID PROTOTYPING TO TAILOR FOR TRAINING AND OPERATIONAL USE.” 79

U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO BY MASTER SGT. BARRY LOO

USSOCOM AI Offering a historic technology example, she said, “SOCOM, by the way, was the impetus behind the first digital cameras. I don’t know if a lot of people know that history, but SOCOM invested very heavily in digital camera technology and that is why you’d have cameras on your phone systems today.” Continuing to trace a strong pedigree of technology support and adoption, she shifted her talk to a notional future SOF scenario where USSOCOM representatives anticipate that technologies like AI or ML might be employed. She offered the example of a helicopter mission, where one of the helicopters might have experienced mechanical problems that left individuals on the ground in an operational environment. “Imagine the ability to be able to say that the sentiment in that area where they went down is trending highly nationalistic, so the chances of them being able to walk up to a farmhouse and say, ‘I need help,’ would probably result in their deaths or their imprisonment,” she said. Instead, she outlined a notional ability to “call in fires” – not the kinetic type of fires from counter-VEO operations, but rather “information fires” that could be used to support local sentiments trending in a more positive direction. She said that it was all about “digital intimacy,” with the “ability to develop an effective message within hours” driven in large part by AI and ML. Following the opening remarks by Karmazin and Costa, Jackson set the stage for the industry briefings by identifying four identified focus challenge areas: cyber security information assurance; data management and federation; distributed simulation; and artificial intelligence and machine learning. The subsequent industry presentations drew many specific questions and requests for elaboration by USSOCOM subject matter experts in the room. Following the presentations, the CAE resulted in prize awards that were presented to Shield AI and the Entegra Systems/Immersive Wisdom team. In Shield AI’s early December presentation at I/ITSEC, Brandon Tseng, co-founder and chief operating officer, described his company as a rapidly growing 130-person business built from the ground up to operate AI to protect service members and civilians. “Our team is a unique mix of experts in artificial intelligence, software engineering, and battlefield operations,” he said, noting that efforts to date have been directed toward autonomous mobile robotics, with the current result being a robot that can explore singlestory structures autonomously. Applying the company’s AI algorithms toward SOF simulation, the company briefing asserted that it could “run a simulation of a SOF assault millions of times under different conditions, different scenarios, and recommend the best course of action to operators. The AI can learn how operators maneuver through spaces, and also learn how [an] enemy force sets up defenses – then pit the two opposing AIs against each other and simulate this repeatedly.” The net result of this cross-validation of AI algorithms would be a valuable learning tool to enhance the survivability of human operators. The I/ITSEC Entegra briefing was presented along with partner Immersive Wisdom, and focused on the two companies’ 3D geospatial real-time collaboration tools and capabilities. “It allows for collaboration anywhere in the world with a connection,” explained Brian Behling, vice president of government programs at Immersive Wisdom. Identified as the Dynamic Collaborative Virtual Planning Tool, a team quad-chart description indicates that the concept is based on the commercial off-the-shelf Immersive Wisdom VR/AR/ MR/desktop real-time collaboration product, which provides a

p Brandon Tseng (co-founder and chief operating officer of Shield AI), commands an autonomous drone during the ThunderDrone Tech Expo at SOFWERX in Tampa, Florida, Sept. 5, 2017. The expo provided an opportunity for industry, national laboratories, and academia to discuss and promote new and innovative drone technology with the special operations community.

geospatially aware environment that allows users to visualize the multi-domain battlespace and leverage multiple integrated, datarich, immersive collaborative workspaces that weave together Multi-INT data, enabling deeper insight and understanding for more efficient and intelligent multi-domain operations, mission planning, execution, and diagnostics. Behling summarized, “We have the ability to visualize the operating environment, bring in real data, and then synthesize that with terrain data and virtual data, creating a virtual sand table that will allow for pre-mission planning, iteration of the actual mission rehearsal, and then taking that connectivity into mission execution.” Immediately following the eight presentations at I/ITSEC, Jackson enthused, “I will tell you, I’m very impressed. I was impressed when I read [the written submissions]. I was even more impressed when I heard [the six-minute briefings]. They have all demonstrated significant innovation and dynamics with their capabilities. I wish we could select eight winners out of this, but there will only be two.” “The use of advanced technologies should help prepare SOF for what lies ahead,” Jackson concluded. “They will increase cognition, optimize human materiel performance, reduce operational risk, and better enable SOF adaptation for a variety of situations. We must harness these ideas, leverage capability, share information, capture the good, smell the bad, navigate data, transfer knowledge, fuse networks, bolster cyber security, and increase interoperability – again to reduce risk, save time, increase cognitive learning, and truly change the way we do business.”

COURTESY OF DANISH SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND

INTERNATIONAL SOF

INTERNATIONAL SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES COOPERATION BY ANDREW WHITE

the face of ongoing financial constraints, special operations q Incommands across Europe are pooling resources in order to remain best prepared to engage across both contemporary and future operating environments. Such a focus includes focused preparations to engage with so-called near-peer and high-capability adversaries from China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea in the great power competition (GPC). However, efforts now stretch far beyond multilateral training and operational opportunities currently being witnessed in the Middle East, where European, NATO, and non-NATO entity special operations task groups (SOTGs) cooperate under Special Operations Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (SOJTF-OIR) to enhance the capabilities of special mission units from Iraq and Syria. In Europe, special operations entities continue to establish joint operational commands and training facilities to optimize levels in interoperability and collaboration with partner-nation forces both at home and abroad. These concepts were first illustrated in February 2017, when defense ministers from Belgium, Denmark, and the Netherlands signed a letter of intent to create the Composite Special Operations Component Command (C-SOCC) – a tri-national special operations command that would, according to NATO, “participate in the NATO Response Force and support NATO operations as well as other multinational missions.” Following the signing of a memorandum of understanding signed the following year, the C-SOCC continues to be developed as it builds up to reaching a full operational capability (FOC) in 2021.

t Danish special operations forces (SOF) are contributing to the C-SOCC with partner forces from Belgium and the Netherlands.

According to NATO’s former Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller (who left the post in October 2019), the move served as an “important reminder that special operations forces today increasingly operate in a multinational context.” C-SOCC force components include Belgium’s Special Operations Regiment (SOR) which includes the Special Forces Group (SFG); Denmark’s Jaeger and Frogman Corps; and the Netherlands’s Maritime SOF (NL-MARSOF) and Korps Commandotroepen (KCT) regiment. On Feb. 13, 2019, another four nations in Europe signed their own letter of intent to establish the similar Regional Special Operations Component Command (R-SOCC), capable of combining existing force elements into a deployable component to conduct “small joint operations.” SOF components from Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Slovenia agreed to contribute force elements to the R-SOCC, with Austria expected to support the concept in the future. Led by Hungarian SOF (HUNSOF), development of the R-SOCC will “dramatically increase the ability of [the] five nations to effectively employ their special operations forces [through] the non-permanent structure of the R-SOCC [which] enables each participant to use its own contributions separately, while benefitting from the integrated R-SOCC structure once activated for a deployment,” an official statement published by NATO reads. According to Gottemoeller, the establishment of the R-SOCC also represented “a significant step forward in strengthening special operation forces capacities in the region, and towards a fully integrated multinational regional command element.” Similar to the C-SOCC, the R-SOCC will be developed “in line” with NATO standards and in particular, the NATO Special Operations Headquarters (NSHQ) in Mons, Belgium, with a view to supporting

INTERNATIONAL SOF

Special Operations Outlook

p European SOF operators supported Flintlock in West Africa over the course of February 2020.

Conducted between Sept. 3-30, 2019, the exercise partnered about 100 multinational SOF from Bulgaria and the U.S, and conventional armed forces including the Lithuanian National Defense Volunteer Force (KASP). Designed to imitate operations associated with the GPC, namely resistance operations following annexation by an overpowering enemy force, the exercise featured the U.S. Army’s 10th Special Forces Group and focused on SOF capabilities to support “larger combined maneuver” operations. SOTGs supported joint forcible entries; multinational airborne operations to seize critical terrain; and operations “in enemy-occupied territory to enable the multinational conventional joint force,” exercise officials explained. Similarly, both the C-SOCC and R-SOCC are likely to support multinational operations around the world. Examples could include the contribution of SOTGs to a European Union Battlegroup, similar to one that remains on standby to support EU and United Nations operations throughout 2020 and beyond. The current battlegroup includes force components from Czech, Irish, Croatian, German, and Dutch SOF units as well as conventional units, with potential areas of operation including the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). Operational duties could include long-range patrols to find and fix high-value targets and enemy combatants of violent extremist organizations (VEOs), as well as military assistance (MA) operations designed to enhance small unit tactics, techniques, and procedures of indigenous special mission units.

US ARMY PHOTO BY SGT. CONNER DOUGLAS

NATO and European Union operations as well as other multilateral missions, exercises, and training opportunities. SOF components to be associated with the R-SOCC concept include Croatia’s Special Forces Command (ZSS), which includes a pair of Special Forces Groups; HUNSOF’s 2nd “Vitez Bertalan Arpad”Special Forces Regiment (MH 2 KRE) and 88th Special Operations Helicopter Force (SOHF) Slovakia’s 5th Special Forces Regiment (SFR); Slovenia’s Special Operations Unit (SOU); and finally, Austria’s Jagdkommando regiment. On Oct. 25, 2019, defense ministers from the four countries (excluding Austria) signed a memorandum of understanding to create the R-SOCC, ahead of a planned initial operating capability in January 2021 and full operating capability by the end of 2024. At the signing NATO’s new Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana highlighted its potential role in engaging with near-peer adversaries across the GPC, particularly in Europe. “As special operational forces constitute a highly versatile tool in modern conflict, this signing ceremony takes an important step towards strengthening special forces in the region and increasing cooperation and interoperability within the Alliance,” he explained. Elsewhere, SOF commands across the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania also continue to consider the establishment of a joint organization similar to the R-SOCC, particularly as these countries share a border with an increasingly aggressive Russian Federation. The C-SOCC and R-SOCC are also likely to support multilateral exercises across Europe, with examples including Exercise Saber Junction, organized by the U.S. Special Operations Command Europe (SOCEUR) and featuring SOF partner forces from 15 nations including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Italy, Kosovo, Lithuanian, the Republic of Northern Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine, and the U.S.

PHOTO BY MASTER SGT. DONALD SPARKS, PUBLIC AFFAIRS NCOIC, U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND EUROPE

INTERNATIONAL SOF

Similar MA operations were supported by European SOF during the most recent “Flintlock” exercise, which featured directing staff from SOF partners in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom. This coalition of European and international SOF are tasked with training special mission units from across West Africa, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cabo Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo. The ability to conduct airborne special operations across the contemporary operating environment (COE) and GPC also continues to emerge as a critical requirement for European SOF components. On Oct. 4, 2018, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, and Slovenia signed a memorandum of understanding to create the Multinational Special Aviation Program (MSAP), including a “new training center … established in Zadar, Croatia, dedicated exclusively to training air crews, who will conduct the insertion and extraction of special operations forces,” according to NATO. Highlighting the role of the MSAP in assisting the development of less capable SOF units in light of the emerging GPC, NATO officials explained: “As the world changes, NATO must continue to adapt to meet evolving security threats. And special forces have proven to be a highly valuable and versatile tool for effectively responding to these challenges.” “This cooperative arrangement is emblematic of the innovative approach NATO Allies and partners are taking as we enhance our collective defense capabilities,” according to NATO. “This new aviation program will be established in a gradual, step-by-step manner, expanding the training opportunities offered over time. In the process, it will create an important and unique new asset within NATO,” Alliance officials added.

p The MSAP training center will assist in the development of special operations air task units in Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, and Slovenia.

The MSAP training center was officially opened on Dec. 11, 2019, by Croatia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Damir Krsti evi , with NATO officials confirming theoretical training would be conducted in 2020 ahead of physical flight tests beginning in 2021. Also supported by the NSHQ, the MSAP will support the training of special operations aviation crews across “various geographic settings – including in the mountains, at sea and on islands,” NATO sources added, while disclosing how additional countries could join the MSAP in the future. The center will be used by SOF units from the four participating nations, including Bulgaria’s 68th Special Forces Brigade; Croatian SFGs; Hungary’s MH 2 KRE; and Slovenia’s SOU. Speaking to Special Operations Outlook, Director of the MSAP training center Lt. Col. Tomislav Pušnik explained how the program will provide the relevant training capacities required to create and sustain special operations air task units (SOATUs) in efficient ways and to increase interoperability among participants. “Helicopters are one of the most useful assets to support special operations,” Pušnik stated, before confirming each participating nation will provide its own “nationally declared helicopters” to the SOATU. Airframes include Croatian Mi-171Sh and UH-60M helicopters and Slovenian and Bulgarian Eurocopter AS532AL Cougars declared by each nation to SOATU. Hungarian trainees will start flight training on Eurocopter H145M and Airbus H225M helicopters. “Depending on national decisions, the equipment on the helicopters will be different, but all in accordance with NATO standards and

INTERNATIONAL SOF adapted for the implementation and support [of] special operations. All helicopters will be armed and equipped with active and passive self-defense systems,” Pušnik said. “With the continuous technological improvements, the usage of more sophisticated assets and systems with characteristics of precision, speed, and proper command and control procedures will be certainly seen as an advantage in highly demanding and contested environments.” Academic courses open to special operations aviation crews in 2020 include the MSAP Special Operations Aviation Planning Course (MSAP SOAPC), which will be followed by the MSAP Crew Resource Management Course (MSAP CRMC) and MSAP Operational Risk Management Course (MSAP ORMC). All these courses will be organized twice a year, Pušnik confirmed to Special Operations Outlook. “Airmen who finish all the courses [as well as] additional courses (NATO SOF Air Mission Commanders Course and NATO SOF Air Mission Challenge Course), which will be organized by NSHQ in Belgium, will meet the prerequisites to start with flight training. “The flight training will be organized in two phases. Both phases consist of several modules that allow reaching the required flight skills to conduct missions in different environmental and different weather conditions. Upon completion of Phase 1, trainees will receive ‘Basic Mission Qualification’ and upon completion of Phase 2, ‘Full Mission Qualification.’ All trainees who successfully pass all the courses and flight training will be ready for national evaluation, which will be the last step in the training process to achieve SOATU capabilities,” Pušnik added. Looking to the future, Pušnik described the MSAP training center’s intention to launch additional SOF-specific courses including personnel recovery; special operations air land integration (SOALI); and SOF orientation; as well as multiple “other courses dependent upon the demand signals of participating nations.” “We plan to work in close relationship with NSHQ, SOCEUR and other countries which achieved special operations air task units capabilities in the past,” Pušnik said. Despite being focused on the establishment of SOATUs in support of Bulgarian, Croatian, Hungarian, and Slovenian SOF units, the MSAP training center will also be open to accommodating thirdparty nations. “The primary mission for MSAP is to provide training capacities required to create and sustain special aviation units, to deliver those training capacities in the most efficient and cost-effective way, and at the same time to increase interoperability amongst these four MSAP nations. “Once we achieve full operational capability (FOC), MSAP will be open for all NATO nations who want to join as full members or on a temporary basis for some training solutions or exercises. Our long term ambition in the future is to become [the] NATO center of excellence for special air operations,” Pušnik stated. “At this moment, several countries show interest to join MSAP as full members. I’m talking about countries who achieved SOATU capabilities in the past. If these countries do join us this year, it will be beneficial for MSAP. In that case, we would get additional transfer of knowledge, which will be very helpful for creating flight training programs, flight documentation, standard operating procedures, and other publications and manuals which are essential for conducting flight training in accordance with NATO standards and for daily work,” he added. Pušnik also highlighted MSAP nations’ interest in acquiring the expertise to operate not only rotary-wing assets but also tilt-rotor aircraft by the start of 2025, particularly in terms of supporting a personnel recovery capability.

Special Operations Outlook

p An Estonian special operations forces operator prepares to

be hoisted up to a U.S. Air Force CV-22 Osprey, assigned to the 352nd Special Operations Wing, during Fast Rope Insertion and Extraction System training near Amari, Estonia, Sep. 3, 2019.

“The MSAP training center is the means to help them on their way to achieve that goal,” Pušnik suggested. “But for the time being we are focused on providing training solutions for rotary-wing only.” The importance of conducting tilt-rotor training in support of special operations was highlighted by Estonian SOF (ESTSOF) between Sept. 3-9, 2019, during joint training with the U.S. Air Force’s 352nd Special Operations Wing in Tallinn, focused on the conduct of “a multitude of air operations” with U.S. and Estonian SOF and CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotors. The exercise focused on infiltration, exfiltration, and resupply of special operations forces “throughout the European theater” using CV-22s, which the Air Force described as a “premier SOF vertical lift assault platform.” “U.S. and Estonian partners spent the week focused on three mission objectives that could be applied to any part of the world,

U.S. ARMY PHOTO BY STAFF SGT. ELIZABETH PENA

INTERNATIONAL SOF

any time, any place: Fast Rope Insertion and Extraction System [FRIES] familiarization, casualty evacuation, and rapidly loading and off-loading a tactical vehicle onto the aircraft,” according to a 352nd SOW news release. “During the FRIES training, U.S. and Estonian service members practiced fast-roping from the Osprey from twilight and into the night. This added capability allows forces to be inserted into small or condensed areas where landings are impractical,” according to the release. “Ideally, with any platform you want to do an air-land, it’s the safest and quickest way to get troops off the aircraft for infiltration. If the target area is too small or it’s a rooftop, then you have to kick out a rope and then do FRIES,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Clay Freeman, the 352nd SOW mission commander. The program also provided ESTSOF with the opportunity to load up CV-22s with all-terrain vehicles, including Polaris Government and Defense MRZRs, used to support “fly and drive” operations. “If the ‘infil’ is to an offset, the troops can utilize the Osprey cabin space to load ATV’s, MRZR’s and dirt bikes to then get to the objective area quickly, rather than having to hike,” Freeman added.

Considering the wider mix of airborne solutions (rotary- and fixedwing as well as tilt-rotor) demanded across airborne operations, MSAP’s Pušnik added: “When we talk about special air operations, we should consider complex military operation, and it is hard to imagine that only rotary-wing assets would be involved in the operation. “Our training will be focused on realistic combat-focused training, which means that the units will be trained in the same way and under the same or similar conditions (when we talk about adversary, environment, and weather conditions) in which they would fight and conduct real special air operations,” Pušnik said. “Therefore, during conducting advanced phase of flight training and/or complex military exercises at MSAP training center, and in order to enable realistic and combat-focused training, we intend to use conventional fixed-wing units to support us, which is the practice in NATO in cases of smaller special air units with a rotarywing component only.” Pušnik was unable to confirm which airframes would be utilized to support such a requirement, although defense sources associated with the program suggested it could include a spread of special operations aircraft, including C-130 Hercules, A400M, and C295 platforms. “By achieving full independence in conducting the whole training process (theoretical and flight training) in the organization and implementation of MSAP training center, conditions to achieve FOC will be met. The deadline for achieving that capability is the end of 2021, and after that, MSAP training center will conduct all training on its own,” Pušnik confirmed. “I would like to use this opportunity to emphasize that in this whole process of achieving IOC, we have had huge support from NSHQ, SOCEUR, U.S. Army, Poland, and Italy in providing the necessary support to establish the intended high-quality training and exercises program. And we hope to have the same support in the future too, on our way to achieve FOC. “When talking about MSAP, I can say with certainty that this is the example of the unique organization within the NATO Alliance focused on preparation, organization, and implementation of the training for conducting special air operations. The aim of the training within MSAP is to provide training solutions required to create and sustain special aviation units; to optimize the cost of training for helicopter aircrews of the four NATO countries; and to unify their preparation according to NATO standards. “Through this program, we are building new capabilities which are important for MSAP countries and NATO, and at the same time we are building our future together with the partners and allies. Establishment of the MSAP and its further development set the cornerstone for strengthening international military cooperation in special air operations at the regional level within the NATO Alliance, which creates the preconditions for establishing, organizing, and implementing regional military cooperation in other military areas too. “MSAP TC [training center] is an excellent example which shows that nations are capable to achieve more together than each nation ever could individually, through a multinational approach,” Pušnik concluded.

Conclusion As the contemporary operating environment continues to evolve, particularly in response to emerging demand signals from across the GPC, European SOF’s ability to collaborate with partner forces across NATO and in particular USSOCOM will remain a critical component to the planning, preparation, and execution of contingency operations around the world.

THE SON TAY RAID 50 YEARS November 21, 1970 BY DAVID ISBY

1970: Air reconnaissance photographs of the North Vietnamese town qMay of Son Tay, about 35 kilometers west of Hanoi, had revealed the location of a secret camp for U.S. prisoners of war (POWs). Under the eyes of North Vietnamese guards, the POWs signaled their presence by drying laundry and treading out escape-and-evasion symbols in the dirt. The intelligence evidence was that there were about 60 prisoners at Son Tay.

PREPARATION The Son Tay photographs – and the proposals for a raid to free the prisoners – were brought by the Air Force to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) through U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Donald D. Blackburn, special assistant for counterinsurgency and special activities (SACSA). Blackburn, one of the Army’s original special operators, commanded Filipino guerrillas from 1942 to 1945. When asked how many battalions the raid would require, he told the JCS, “I had no intention of going in there with a battalion. I was going to go in there with a small group of men and helicopters and lift the POWs out.” Blackburn was given the go-ahead to carry out a feasibility study for a raid. Planning for a raid was approved by the JCS on July 19. In the absence of a joint special operations headquarters, it would become the first-ever operation under direct JCS control. Blackburn appointed Brig. Gen. Leroy Manor, a combat veteran fighter pilot commanding the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Group at Eglin Air Force Base (AFB), Florida, as mission commander. His deputy was Col. Arthur D. “Bull” Simons, already a legend in the U.S. Army’s special operations forces, with World War II service as well as more recent combat in Southeast Asia. Blackburn knew his reputation: “When Bull Simons undertook an operation … the research and planning behind it were meticulous.”

Special Operations Outlook

SON TAY RAIDERS ASSOCIATION/NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE U.S. AIR FORCE

THE SON TAY RAID

U.S. ARMY PHOTO/NATIONAL ARCHIVES

USAF/NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Simons’ choice for ground force commander was Lt. Col. Elliott “Bud” Sydnor, another veteran special operations leader. To lead the assault team that would liberate the prisoners, Simons selected Special Forces Capt. Dick Meadows, who had operated under his command in Laos. Manor selected Lt. Col. Benjamin Kraljev as chief of operations (J-3) in charge of overall planning and Lt. Col. Warner A. Britton to be the helicopter element leader. Together, starting in late July, they organized the Joint Contingency Task Group (JCTG) code-named Ivory Coast. Manor said, “We had practically a blank check. … It is the only time in my 36 years of active duty that somebody gave me a job, simply stated, and the resources with which to do it, and let me go do it.”

THE PLAN

p Top: This print of the painting “The Raid, Blue Boy Element” by Michael Nikiporenko, exhibited in the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, is inscribed by several of the raiders. It shows the Sikorsky HH-3E Banana 1 that intentionally crash-landed inside the POW compound carrying Capt. Dick Meadows and the Blueboy team. p Above: A 1970 air reconnaissance photo of the POW compound. u Right: Brig. Gen. Donald Blackburn, who obtained Joint Chiefs of Staff approval for his plan for the Son Tay raid.

An estimated 12,000 North Vietnamese troops were near the 140-foot by 185-foot prison compound, close to the swampy Song Con River, covered by Hanoi’s powerful air defenses. Behind 10-foot walls and concertina wire were barracks, a guardroom, and 40-foot-high trees surrounding a small courtyard. Outside were guard barracks, headquarters, and support facilities. The largest, designated “the secondary school” – also walled – was some 200 feet to the south of the prison compound, separated by a canal. Roads connected the area to the nearby town of Son Tay and a bridge over the river. A surprise heliborne assault would overpower the guards and lift out the prisoners before reinforcements could arrive. The raid would be mounted from a U.S. airbase in Thailand. Six U.S. Air Force rescue helicopters – one Sikorsky HH-3 and five larger Sikorsky HH-53 Jolly Green Giants – would carry the raiders and extract them and any liberated prisoners. Providing close air support heavy firepower would be five U.S. Air Force piston-engine Douglas A-1 Skyraider fighter-bombers; three would carry QRC-128 jammers to

USAF/NATIONAL ARCHIVES

THE SON TAY RAID

PHOTO BY STAFF SGT. GEORGE HOLLAND USAF/NATIONAL ARCHIVES

p Above: The Barbara model, built by the CIA, presents a view of the fields that would be used for the landing zone and, at the top on the banks of the river, the POW compound. u Right: A U.S. Air Force A-1E Skyraider rolls in on a target in daylight.

disrupt VHF radio communications. Providing in-flight refueling for the helicopters were two Air Force Lockheed HC-130P Hercules tankers. Navigation and communications for the formation would be handled by two Lockheed MC-130E Combat Talon special operations aircraft, one each leading the helicopters and the A-1s. The MC-130s would also join helicopters in dropping flares to illuminate the prison compound. The planners divided the Army raiders into three groups, each carried in a single helicopter. The mission could be carried out with any one of the three groups of raiders missing. At the objective, the HH-3 – call sign Banana 1 – would crash-land inside the small courtyard – which was surrounded by high trees – within the prison compound. The raiders on this helicopter – the 14-man assault group led by Meadows and reinforced by the helicopter crew – would release prisoners from their cells while preempting any last-minute massacre by their guards. The 23-man support group in HH-53 Apple 1 and the 20-man command group in HH-53 Apple 2 would land outside the walls of the prison, secure the landing zone, then hold it. Ambush positions would block reinforcements from reaching the prison. After blowing a hole in the wall of the prison compound, the liberated prisoners and the assault force were to be loaded aboard within 30 minutes.

TRAINING AND PREPARATION The Army and Air Force components of the JCTG started repeated rehearsals and training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Eglin AFB by Aug. 20. A mock-up of the Son Tay camp was constructed (and concealed from Soviet reconnaissance satellites). A detailed scale

THE SON TAY RAID

Special Operations Outlook

DEPLOYMENT After a final briefing directly to President Richard Nixon, a coded go-ahead message was sent to Manor to carry out what was now designated Operation Kingpin. The raiders received the go-ahead to deploy to Thailand from Eglin, starting on Nov. 12 and arriving by Nov. 17. Nixon gave the final go-ahead on Nov. 20: “How could anyone not approve this?” Simons pared down his force in Thailand, selecting 56 men to go on the raid from the 100 that had trained and deployed. Simons gave the final briefing at the Takhli air base theater at mid-afternoon on Nov. 20, revealing the identity of the target. Simons told them, “This is something American prisoners have a right to expect from their fellow soldiers.”

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE USAF PHOTO

model – codenamed Barbara – was constructed and used by the command staff to war-game out alternative approaches to the raid. On Sept. 28 – the day after the final plan for the raid had been briefed to the president and approved in principle – the training shifted from separate efforts at Eglin and Bragg to joint operations. There were two all-night, full-profile mission rehearsals carried out with JCS observers. Both Air Force and Army components exercised together, with live fire, culminating in a full-scale rehearsal on Oct. 6. The ground phase of the operation was carried out in 25 minutes. The air elements of the force had flown 268 sorties and logged more than 1,000 hours over 77 days. By November, the raiders had practiced their actions on the ground 170 times. Grady Vines, a Special Forces NCO, recalled, “We had live-fire exercises, raided a mock stockade; trained around the clock, no breaks, no let-up. Our wives or families were told we were testing new equipment.” Repeated out-of-season typhoons moved through the region. Rivers near Son Tay were rising, fed by rainfall from U.S. cloud seeding and weather modification efforts intended to slow the flow of North Vietnamese resupply to their forces in South Vietnam. The Son Tay planners were not aware of these weather-modification efforts or their potential impact on the raid, both being highly classified and compartmented. Unbeknownst to the Ivory Coast task force, imagery of the Son Tay compound was showing a decrease in activity. Reconnaissance photos from Oct. 3 brought back showed no sign of occupation, while other imagery showed continued occupation of the site, by someone. U.S. prisoners of war held at Son Tay had also sent out coded messages in letters home as to when they were to be moved. This information was not made available to the raiders.

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF US AIR FORCE

p Above: An HH-3E, the same type of helicopter as Banana 1, being refueled by an HC-130 tanker. u Right: An illustration of the six helicopters approaching Son Tay, led by an MC-130E.

THE SON TAY RAID

U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTOGRAPH

p Above: In daylight, a CH-53C approaches an HC-130P tanker to refuel. In the Son Tay raid, this challenging maneuver was done at night and at low altitude, in radio silence and without lights. t Left: Blueboy raiders on the way to Son Tay inside HH-3 Banana 1. Sitting on the left from front: Capt. Dick Meadows, Master Sgt. Galen Kittleson, Sgt. John Lippert. On the right from front: Sgt. Patrick St. Clair, Capt. Dan McKinney, Staff Sgt. Kenneth McMullen, Staff Sgt. Charles Erickson, Sgt. 1st Class William Tapley, and Capt. Thomas Jaeger.

USAF/NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Later that day, the raiders boarded transports for the flight to Udorn air base, where the helicopters and tankers were waiting. Three carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin prepared to launch 59 Navy aircraft for a diversion to focus North Vietnamese attention on the Haiphong area.

PENETRATION The helicopters, the MC-130E Cherry 1 – carrying Maj. John Gargus, lead navigator for the whole operation – and the two HC-130P tankers, Lime 1 and 2, started to take off at 2256 from

Udorn, where the raiders had arrived from Takhli earlier that evening. The five A-1s, call signs Peach 1-5, and their MC-130E Cherry 2 lead ship had earlier left their base at Nakhon Phanom. Once airborne, the package operated in total radio silence, as they had trained. This proved critical when an unknown aircraft flew through and disrupted the helicopter formation soon after takeoff. The helicopters went through their rehearsed silent rejoin procedure after evading potential collision. The force was able to stay together despite the differences in cruising speeds. The HH-3, slower than the rest of the formation, had to cruise with “everything open but the toolbox,” with its maximum speed only just above the HC-130’s stalling speed. It had to ride the slipstream of the HC-130 in an attempt to get some more range and knots. Maj. Bill Kornitzer, aircraft commander of the HC-130, recalled, “The HH-3 stayed close behind our left wing in order to maintain the speed required by the rest of the formation.” The low-level refueling of the helicopters from the HC-130s over Laos – in rough air conditions, at night, and under radio silence – was

U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO

THE SON TAY RAID

p Above: The remains of Banana 1, destroyed by the raiders as they departed the prison camp. u Right: Map of movements during the Son Tay assault.

carried out successfully. The A-1s then joined up with the helicopters to make the final leg to the prison. The HC-130s broke away to refuel at Udorn to be ready to support the helicopters on the way home. The two MC-130s (modified with high-technology forward-looking infrared night vision equipment) took over the lead of the formation for the final approach to the target.

Over Son Tay at 0218, Cherry 1, the lead MC-130 navigating the helicopters, gave a final vector then climbed up to 1,500 feet and dropped flares and a pyrotechnic simulator on the “secondary school” (to make any troops there believe that they were under attack), followed by a pallet of napalm to create a flaming barrier. Cherry 2 came in, leading the A-1s, and dropped a napalm marker for their ground reference. Two HH-53s – Apple 4 and 5, ready to drop flares or pick up liberated prisoners – and three A-1s pulled up and away into holding patterns. The remaining three HH-53s, the HH-3, and two A-1Es headed for the prison compound. Apple 3, flown by Maj. Frederic “Marty” Donohue, was the lead HH-53. Acting as a gunship, it was swinging into position for its firing run on the prison guard towers when, at the last minute, the crew realized they were lining up on the wrong target. It broke off the attack, and, followed by the HH-3, made a firing run against the actual prison compound, which the crew spotted several hundred meters to the north. Apple 3 swept low over the prison compound between the high trees, its door gunners using GAU-2B 7.62mm

Special Operations Outlook

MAP FROM LEAVE NO MAN BEHIND, COPYRIGHT DAVID ISBY

OBJECTIVE REACHED

USAF/NATIONAL ARCHIVES

p Air reconnaissance photo of the Son Tay POW compound area immediately after the raid, showing damage.

miniguns to eliminate the two prison guard towers and spray the guard barracks. One of the A-1E pilots watched the attack from his holding pattern: “The towers either blew apart or caught fire, as did the guard quarters.” Apple 3 broke away and into a holding pattern, awaiting the order to return and pick up liberated prisoners. Banana 1, the HH-3, flown by Maj. Herbert Kalen and Lt. Col. Herbert Zehnder, opened fire with three miniguns and then went into its spiral, slicing through trees and obstacles, into a controlled crash landing. Meadows and his 13-man Blueboy assault group stormed

into the prison buildings. The helicopter crew guarded the flanks against North Vietnamese reinforcements or prepared to assist liberated prisoners. Meadows announced impending liberation through a bullhorn. Search parties fanned out through the compound. A few of the estimated 55 North Vietnamese soldiers in the compound resisted. About a dozen were quickly gunned down. Most retreated into the darkness. Apple 1 – flown by Britton and carrying Simons and the support group, call sign Greenleaf – landed not outside the prison, as briefed, but outside the “secondary school” compound. This had been the compound Apple 3 had originally lined up to strafe. As the raiders jumped out, Apple 1 quickly lifted off to join a holding pattern. Capt. Eric Nelson, commanding the support group, soon realized they were

THE SON TAY RAID

on the ground, alone, and in the wrong piece of North Vietnam: “I had memorized the aerial photographs and the kill boxes. I knew we were 400 meters south of the target and at the ‘secondary school.’” Apple 2 – flown by Lt. Col. John Allison and carrying Sydnor and the command and security group, call sign Redwine – was on final approach to the same landing zone (LZ) when its crew realized that it was in the wrong place. It flew on north to the prison compound, its gunners engaging the remaining guard towers before landing in the planned LZ about 100 meters from the prison compound’s south wall. Redwine moved swiftly to secure the LZ, seizing and securing the buildings that could be used to bring direct fire on it. Security elements moved out to secure the area. A pathfinder set up a beacon for pickup in the LZ. The well-rehearsed teams encountered surprised North Vietnamese. Apple 1 was not on the LZ. Sydnor used the radio to signal that Plan Green was in effect. This was an alternate plan that had been rehearsed many times – for Redwine to secure the outside of the prison compound and the LZ without Greenleaf. Sydnor called up two A-1s that attacked a nearby bridge, further isolating the prison, before taking up an orbit around the napalm marker, waiting for any further call from the raiders. While Sydnor was securing the LZ south of the prison wall, Simons found the “secondary school” was actually a barracks full of troops, now grabbing AK-47s. The raiders misidentified them as Chinese from lines of communications and air defense units recently in the area; they were probably troops of the North Vietnamese 305th Airborne Brigade. Simons led Greenleaf into an attack on the compound. The element of surprise was with the raiders. Accurate M79 40mm grenade launcher fire through the windows suppressed fire from the buildings. An M60 light machine gun was used to silence firing from the west side of the compound. Large numbers of North Vietnamese fell. More than 40 were killed. One raider was wounded; Sgt. 1st Class Joe Murray recalled, “I felt my leg convulse forward and burn as the bullet hit me. … There was no time to stop. We went in and cleared the building of everyone inside.” Within six minutes of its initial landing, Apple 1, recalled from its holding pattern, picked Simons and his group up from outside the “secondary school” compound. Some nine minutes after H-Hour, after a short helicopter flight, Simons linked up with Sydnor in the LZ outside the prison walls. There was a brief exchange of fire between the two groups of raiders as they linked up, quickly deconflicted without any casualties. The security perimeter around the LZ saw a North Vietnamese convoy heading for the prison, apparently unaware of the situation. The lead trucks drove into an ambush; 66mm light antitank weapons (LAWs) knocked out the lead vehicles. Meadows and his force searched the prison compound. It was empty. Once he confirmed this, at H+10 minutes, Meadows dropped his bullhorn and radioed to Simons, “negative items.” Pausing only long enough to destroy the HH-3, Meadows rejoined Simons and Sydnor, the raiders exiting through a hole blown by demolition charges in the southwest wall of the prison compound at H+18.

EXFILTRATION The helicopters were called in to pick up the raiders at H+17 minutes. Apple 1, 2, and 3 landed at H+23 and within five minutes had loaded all the raiders. The total time on the ground had been 28 minutes. Meadows said, “I don’t think the world has ever seen, and

Special Operations Outlook

maybe still hasn’t seen, so much air-planning and flying expertise gathered under one command.” North Vietnamese air defenses were now fully alerted. Some 36 SA-2 surface-to-air missiles were fired as the force withdrew. A full-scale air-to-surface battle with U.S. fighters ensued. At the recovery base, Air Force and Army raiders sat together on the ramp. “We all just sat mumbling to each other. No stories were being told. We had all just done it, seen it, or heard it and knew what had happened,” an A-1 pilot recalled. “The intelligence was absolutely superb. On an operation like this, the person that is doing the planning and directing has got to have access to the highest levels in the intelligence agencies of the government and – fortunately – I did,” Blackburn said. Even with hindsight, there was no way intelligence could have been certain Son Tay was empty. The raid had failed in its primary objective of freeing prisoners; most of the prisoners had been taken out of Son Tay on July 24, and the remainder followed over the next two months. The prisoners would not be liberated until a peace settlement almost three years after the raid. Wes Schierman was a prisoner for five years at the time of the raid, 18 months of that spent at Son Tay: “We got some information from the outside that there had been a raid to rescue prisoners. We were ecstatic, of course, knowing that. … The Son Tay raiders are our heroes, for sure.” The improvised yet thorough planning and training that the raid demonstrated were only possible because the United States could draw on experienced leaders with special operations expertise. But once the Son Tay force dissolved, there was no attempt to preserve the capability to give the national command authority the capability for high-value operations. It would require years of incremental change, including the lessons from the failure of the Iran raid in 1980 and setbacks in Grenada in 1983, before the establishment of U.S. Special Operations Command would provide an enduring capability to plan, train for, and execute joint special operations worldwide.

US ARMY PHOTO/NATIONAL ARCHIVES

u Col. Arthur “Bull” Simons receives the Legion of Merit at Fort Bragg after the raid from Lt. Gen. John Hay.

Special Operations Outlook 2020 Edition

Articles inside

THE SON TAY RAID 50 YEARS: November 21, 1970

INTERNATIONAL SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES COOPERATION

USSOCOM EMBRACES NEW TECHNOLOGIES

USASOC INTERVIEW USASOC Commander Lt. Gen. Francis M. Beaudette

NON-STANDARD COMMERCIAL VEHICLES

IN THE HEADLIGHTS OF NAVAL SPECIAL WARFARE COMMAND MODERNIZATION

COMMUNICATIONS

MARINE SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND (MARSOC)

TARGET ENGAGEMENT SPOTLIGHT

AIR FORCE SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND (AFSOC)

TRANS-REGIONAL RESISTANCE WORKING GROUP

U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND (SOCOM)