By Cliff Montgomery – Mar. 29th, 2012
U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) are playing an increasing role in military operations even though their activities often are classified and thus outside public oversight, according to a recent federal review.
Below, The American Spark provides readers with telling quotes from the Congressional Research Service report published in January:
Overview
“Special Operations Forces (SOF) are elite military units with special training and equipment that can infiltrate into hostile territory through land, sea, or air to conduct a variety of operations, many of them classified.
“SOF personnel undergo rigorous selection and lengthy specialized training. The U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) oversees the training, doctrine, and equipping of all U.S. SOF units.”
“Special Operations Forces (SOF) play a significant role in U.S. military operations, and the Administration has given U.S. SOF greater responsibility for planning and conducting worldwide counter-terrorism operations.
“U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has close to 60,000 active duty, National Guard, and reserve personnel from all four services and Department of Defense (DOD) civilians assigned to its headquarters, its four components, and one sub-unified command.
“The 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) directs increases in SOF force structure, particularly in terms of increasing enabling units and rotary and fixed-wing SOF aviation assets and units.”
“USSOCOM’s FY2012 Budget Request is $10.5 billion—with $7.2 billion in the baseline budget and $3.3 billion in the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) budget, representing an increase of 7% over the FY2011 Budget Request of $9.8 billion.”
New Strategic Guidance and SOF
“On January 5, 2012, President Obama, Secretary of Defense Panetta, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dempsey publicly unveiled new strategic guidance that not only re-balances U.S. strategic posture towards Asia and the Middle East but also will result in a ‘smaller and leaner’ U.S. military.
“During this unveiling, Secretary Panetta noted the following:
As we reduce the overall defense budget, we will protect, and in some cases increase, our investments in special operations forces, in new technologies like (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance), and unmanned systems, in space—and, in particular, in cyberspace—capabilities, and also our capacity to quickly mobilize if necessary.
“While specific details on force structure cuts have not yet been made public, there has been a great deal of speculation that the Army and Marines will undergo significant downsizing over the next decade.”
“While DOD has indicated a willingness to increase its investment in SOF, there are limitations on how much SOF can expand due to the stringent standards—particularly for operators—and long training lead times required for most special operations specialties.”
“With fewer general purpose forces available and USSOCOM’s self-imposed growth limitations to preserve the quality of the force, U.S. SOF might find its operational tempo increased.
“There are also aspects of this new strategic guidance that require further explanation.
“For example, defense officials offer that a reliance on smaller teams operating in innovative ways will be a central tenet of this new strategy. This seemingly suggests an expanded role for U.S. SOF although few details have been made available.”
