INTERNATIONAL SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES

BY ANDREW WHITE

As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, the international special operations forces (SOF) community can reflect upon another busy year, both in terms of operational tempo and multilateral training opportunities.

The rapidly changing security situation in Ukraine and eastern Europe has topped the agenda since the first quarter of 2022 as NATO and its partners provide military aid to the Ukrainian armed forces, including NATO-trained and -accredited SOF units.

August 2021 also saw one of the largest deployments of international SOF as NATO and international partners played a critical role in the non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO) of national citizens and Afghan partners from Kabul following the rapid fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.

Ukrainian special operations forces (UASOF) and U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers assigned to 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) move across an objective during Exercise Combined Resolve XI at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, Dec. 10, 2018.

U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND EUROPE PHOTO BY 1ST LT. BENJAMIN HAULENBEEK INTERNATIONAL SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES

Elsewhere, a rapidly changing security picture in Mali threatens any future deployments of international SOF to West Africa to counter violent extremist organizations (VEOs). And finally, bilateral and multilateral training opportunities are back in full swing following COVID-19 constraints as international SOF seek to expand levels in cooperation and interoperability with partner forces around the world.

NSHQ’S OUTLOOK

According to the NATO Special Operations Headquarters (NSHQ) – the Belgium-based command responsible for directing the policy, doctrine, capabilities, standards, training, education, and coordination of 30 NATO and non-NATO partner SOF organizations – the contemporary operating environment for international SOF comprises a series of emerging threats, particularly in the Euro-Atlantic area.

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Speaking exclusively to Special Operations Outlook, an NSHQ military official explained: “Our mission in Afghanistan has ended. We face increasing competition from Russia and China and a continuing threat from terror groups and cyber actors.

“We are responsible to our nations and the Alliance to anticipate dangers and sense opportunities against this shifting backdrop. As we assess our capabilities, we need to ensure nations recalibrate to have the right capabilities, posture, and readiness to address challenges and threats posed by state actors at home and abroad, such as Russia, as well as those threatening stability further away that have impacts on their security at home, such as terrorist groups.

“For the past 20 years, the Alliance has focused on operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. For NSHQ, this was predominately land-focused. However, in today’s complex security environment, we need to ensure allied SOF have a 360-degree approach to security. As a result, one effort NSHQ is focused on is the continued development of maritime and aviation SOF to provide standardized sets of skills that are transferable and harmonized across allied SOF,” the military official added.

UKRAINE

Nowhere is this type of cooperation more apparent than in eastern Europe, where Ukrainian armed forces SOF (UASOF) remain heavily engaged against Russian armed forces as Special Operations Outlook goes to press.

UASOF have benefited from years of support from NATO SOF units operating as part of the Multinational SOF Advisory Team (MSAT), which is tasked with the development of partner SOF capabilities in support of national defense and security reforms.

U.S. Navy SEALs acting as opposing forces ambush a joint raid exercise between Ukrainian special forces and U.S. Navy SEALs during Exercise Sea Breeze 21 on Pervomays’kyy Island, Ukraine, July 2, 2021. Exercise Sea Breeze 21 was a U.S. and Ukraine co-hosted multinational maritime exercise held in the Black Sea designed to enhance interoperability of participating nations and strengthen maritime security within the region.

Such cooperation already resulted in two UASOF NATO-accredited Special Operations Land Task Groups (SOLTGs) with additional units undertaking certification as Russia invaded on Feb. 24, 2022.

Since then, UASOF has been deployed across the country to find, fix, and destroy Russian forces, often publishing mission successes on social media as part of an information war.

Consequently, UASOF is now the first SOF organization to have participated in full combat operations against a “peer” adversary in the contemporary operating environment, and the wider, international SOF community will be keen to learn lessons from their experiences as soon as possible.

AFGHAN DRAWDOWN

The NEO of personnel from the Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) in Kabul, comprised a “who’s who” of the international SOF community, as units from around the world convened in Afghanistan’s capital city to recover national citizens and their Afghan partners.

The mass evacuation followed the rapid fall of the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIROA) to the Taliban – a move which appeared almost inevitable once NATO and the United States had confirmed their exit from the country earlier in the year.

The fall of GIROA also signaled the dissolution of the country’s NATO-backed SOF capability, which included the National Mission Brigade; Afghan National Army Special Operations Corps; Afghan Air Force’s Special Mission Wing; General Directorate Special Police Unit; and National Directorate of Security.

Above and below: Special operations forces from Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the United States participate in Exercise Black Swan 21 in Szolnok, Hungary, May 12, 2021.

Operating in the glare of the world’s media, international SOF played a critical role in the recovery of more than 120,000 non-combatants from the city.

SOF units participating in the operation came from a wide spread of countries, including Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Heavily dependent upon national caveats, SOF were deployed across HKIA and the city of Kabul to identify embassy staff and local partners and recover them back to the airport for flights out of the country.

SOF were tasked with identifying noncombatants with correct paperwork for extraction from a throbbing crowd of desperate Afghans at the gates to HKIA, and in some cases, special operations task groups deployed across the city using 4x4 utility trucks and helicopters to find, fix, and recover non-combatants farther afield.

MALI

International SOF involvement in Mali also appears to be drawing down in 2022, following calls from Mali’s new regime for SOF to leave the West African country.

In June 2021, the French government confirmed its decision to end Operation Barkhane in the Sahel, although French President Emmanuel Macron did stipulate at the time that he would maintain a counterterrorism “pillar” capability comprising “several hundred” personnel from the Special Operations Command.

It remains to be seen whether European SOF will continue to support United Nations operations in Mali.

Despite Mali’s demands to expel international SOF from the country, multilateral training did resume in West Africa following the cancellation of U.S. Africa Command’s Exercise Flintlock in 2021 due to the pandemic.

Conducted over the course of February across multiple training sites in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, Flintlock saw special mission units from the host nations plus Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Chad, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, and Tunisia trained in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency tactics, techniques, and procedures.

Instruction was provided by SOF directing staff from Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Ghana special operations forces soldiers conduct closequarter battle training near base camp Loumbila, in Côte d’Ivoire on Feb. 16, 2022, during Exercise Flintlock 2022. Flintlock helps strengthen the ability of allies and partners to counter violent extremism and provide security for their people.

Exercise Flintlock remains one of the most influential SOF training programs in West Africa, designed to “strengthen the ability of key partner nations in the region to counter violent extremist organizations, protect their borders, and provide security for their people,” according to U.S. Africa Command sources.

In the Indo-Pacific, multilateral training programs, including the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) Exercise are set to return in July/August 2022. The biannual exercise did go ahead in 2020, although training serials were restricted to “at-sea” scenarios.

A special operations component featuring SOF from across the Indo-Pacific is expected to take part in RIMPAC 2022. Coordinated by the U.S. Special Operations Command Pacific (SOCPAC), the exercise could feature participants from Brazil, India, Peru, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and others.

In Latin America, the annual Fuerzas Comando competition also returns in 2022, having been cancelled the previous year.

Due to be hosted by Honduras in the city of Tegucigalpa between June 10-24, the competition will see multiple SOF units from across Latin America rehearsing small unit tactics, techniques, and procedures associated with counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, and counternarcotics mission sets.

NATO SOF

Within the NATO Alliance, member nations continue to ramp up their capabilities in line with emerging threats, particularly across eastern Europe.

Following Exercise Black Swan, held in Croatia and Hungary in May 2021, the Regional Special Operations Component Command (R-SOCC) achieved initial operating capability (IOC) less than two years after being formalized.

Following the establishment of the Composite-Special Operations Command (which features SOF components from Belgium, Denmark, and the Netherlands) in 2017, the R-SOCC is responsible for the unified command and control of Austrian, Croatian, Hungarian, Slovakian, and Slovenian SOF units during “small scale NATO operations.”

The R-SOCC will continue to be developed under the guidance of the NSHQ as it prepares to support the NATO Response Force in 2024 and beyond.

Exercise Black Swan successfully validated air, land, and maritime special operations capabilities of R-SOCC force elements, all under the command of rapidly deployable Hungarian command and control elements.

With specific training serials including close-quarter battle sequences; vehicle interdiction missions; insertion and extraction by fast rope; and special reconnaissance, Exercise Black Swan was designed to illustrate “peer to peer deterrence and resiliency of alliances and partnerships in Europe,” exercise officials confirmed to Special Operations Outlook. R-SOCC force elements were certified during the exercise by U.S. Army Special Forces and U.S. Navy SEALs.

NSHQ’s military official also described to Special Operations Outlook how such cooperation across the Alliance and beyond would remain critical to countering emerging threats today and in the future.

“The NATO SOF Coordination Center [NSCC] was founded in 2006 at the NATO Riga Summit to provide strategic SOF advice to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe [SACEUR] and synchronize SOF capability development across NATO,” the NSHQ military official declared, before describing how this specific demand signal had emerged from operations in Afghanistan as part of the NATO response to “9/11.”

“However, there wasn’t a shared understanding of SOF capabilities or what defines a unit able to deliver SOF-type effects across the NATO Alliance. The NSCC was intended to create a structure that would bring more coherence to the allied SOF pipeline, principally going into Afghanistan,” the official added.

“Just as the Alliance has evolved, the role of NSHQ has also evolved. NSHQ is assessing SOF activities at the strategic, operational, and tactical level, and ensuring that the capabilities we are developing and improving are providing for the deterrence and defense of the Alliance. NSHQ is a well-connected network of allied SOF that is quickly evolving to address today and tomorrow’s geopolitical environment, be it in great power competition and/or counterterrorism.”

Today, 26 NATO nations and four non-NATO nations contribute to NSHQ, which actively coordinates, advocates, and advises special operations across NATO, including areas such as intelligence, aviation, medical support, and communications, to name just a few, the official confirmed.

“This is part of the broader efforts of building an enhanced joint force capable of defending across the Alliance,” the official said, before highlighting how, over the past 12 months, NSHQ had created a Maritime Development Program (MDP), similar to the Air Development Program.

“NSOS [NATO Special Operations School] has partnered with the Maritime Development Program to develop two new courses to complement the MDP initiative. Both courses are anticipated to be delivered in the next academic year [2022-23]. For NSHQ, and ultimately the NATO Alliance, to be effective, we must be prepared to respond, deter, and defend across all domains. The role of maritime SOF is similar to every other domain – build credible, capable, ready, reliable forces to deter and defend the Alliance when called upon.”

According to NSHQ, the Air Development Program (ADP), established in 2012, continues to be the primary point of direction and coordination to develop SOF air capability and enhance interoperability for NATO special operations air/aviation forces.

“Computer-based simulation training activities allow attendees to engage in a ‘multinational and multi-domain’ environment through all phases of the special operations air mission planning process and mission execution. ADP also supports the four-nation ‘Multinational Special Aviation Program’ [MSAP], a SOF Aviation Training Center established in 2019 in Zadar, Croatia. This is an excellent example of international cooperation between Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, and Slovenia,” the official stated.

NSHQ has also “re-tooled and expanded” its concepts, exercises, training, and education in the counter-hybrid arena to extend SOF network and capability development for application in peacetime competition as it is [in] conflict.

“In line with NATO’s Article 3 focus on resilience, this effort connects the appreciation of internal national challenges with broader regional or global challenges and adversaries. Using the umbrella of ‘comprehensive defense,’ NSHQ works with nations to develop and integrate SOF capabilities in support of national resilience and emergency response programs to quickly counter hybrid activities or address scenarios that require preparation of resistance capabilities.”

U.S. Army special operations forces (SOF) jump from a U.S. Air Force MC-130J Commando II assigned to the 352nd Special Operations Wing, during a military free fall over Macedonia, May 2, 2022. The training was part of Trojan Footprint 22, the premier SOF exercise in Europe that focuses on improving the ability of SOF to counter myriad threats, increases integration with conventional forces, and enhances interoperability with NATO allies and European partners.

FUTURE

Looking to the future, the NSHQ military official stressed to Special Operations Outlook that the organization was not seeking to expand its influence, but instead coordinate and synchronize special operations efforts to “ensure the development or improvement of national SOF capabilities to provide the necessary deterrence and defense effects for the security and sovereignty of the Alliance.”

Describing how NSHQ will remain responsible for providing “sound advice” to senior political and military leaders across peacetime, crisis, and conflict, the NSHQ military official concluded: “NSHQ continues to look at ways to improve our awareness of the threat, develop capabilities to prepare and respond, and enhance engagement with partner countries and other international actors.”