PanzerKiel
MILITARY PROFESSIONAL
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REQUIREMENT FOR A SPECIAL SERVICE / OPERATIONS COMMAND FOR PAKISTAN
Special operations are missions to accomplish strategic objectives where the use of conventional forces would create unacceptable risks due to Clausewitzian friction. Overcoming these risks requires special operations forces that directly address the ultimate sources of friction through qualities that are the result of the distribution of the attributes of SOF personnel.
In practice, special operations have been defined in the context of the contemporary war. When organized into special and small units, these special men have the personal capability to overcome risk and the skills that allow them to perform strategically important tasks which conventional forces cannot.
- Cardinals of Special Ops
- Special Ops normally require operator-level planning and detailed intelligence.
- Knowledge of the culture(s) and language of the geographical area in which the mission is to be conducted.
- Rigorous training and rehearsals of the mission are integral to the success of the mission.
- They are often conducted at great distance from the supporting operational bases.
- They may employ sophisticated comm systems.
- They frequently require discriminate and precise use of force. This often requires development, acquisition, and employment of equipment not standard for other forces.
- They employ sophisticated means of insertion, support, and extraction to penetrate and successfully return from hostile, denied, or politically sensitive areas.
- Req of Special Service / Operations Command/SOF
- Special Op Forces (SOF) are unique because they provide the National Command Authority (NCA) a broad range of capabilities. The demand of SO require forces with attributes that distinguish them from conventional forces.
- SOF personal undergo careful selection processes or mission-specific training beyond basic military skills. These programs make unlikely any rapid replacement or generation of personal or capabilities.
- SOF personal maintain a high level of competency in more than one military specialty. Selected SOF are regionally oriented for employment; cross cultural communications skills are a routine part of training. (Under most circumstances, SOF are not a substitute for conventional forces, but a necessary adjunct to existing conventional capabilities.)
- SOF operations are frequently clandestine in nature to ensure mission success. Much of the equipment used by SOF has been designed or modified to meet specific operational requirement. As such, SOF equipment is often delivered in small quantities and is difficult and costly to repair and replace.
- SOF maintain a very high level of pre-conflict readiness, and are often in the first echelon of any commitment of Pak Army. This emphasized the importance of joint, collective comd at tri svc lvl tailored to achieve and maintain mission capabilities.
- Operational Characteristics of SOF
In an attempt to summarize the wide range of current and future capabilities in war and operations other than war, the individual attributes, SOF organization and capabilities, and the fundamental qualities of SOF can be integrated as characteristics of SOF that distinguish them from conventional forces. Other characteristics of SOF includes:- Relative superiority which is the ability of small special operations units to gain a temporary decisive advantage, even over a larger or well-defended enemy force.
- Certain access is the ability to rapidly and securely transport, insert, and extract SOF, typically undetected, allowing operations in areas where or when conventional military operations are not possible.
- Unconventional operations is the ability to directly alter the way in which the tension between threatening and avoiding destruction is managed to conduct operations (for example, operating autonomously and independently, establishing and utilizing the capabilities of foreign military and paramilitary forces, sabotage, and subversion.)
- Integrated operations is the ability to address transnational and asymmetric threats by integrating elements of national power and operating with other military forces and nonmilitary agencies.
- Strategic initiative is the ability to create and maintain initiative against an enemy at the strategic level by an orchestrated campaign of engaging carefully selected objectives that are unavailable to conventional forces.
- Cultural Caps/Proficiency of Spec Op Forces
Cultural capability is considered the most important consideration in the process of assessment and selection of future Special Forces Soldiers. This is composed of four modalities as: Interpersonal Skills, Nonverbal Communication Skills, Language Proficiency, and Regional Orientation.- Interpersonal Skills: Interpersonal skills are critical to Special Forces operations. They require the ability to listen with understanding, the ability to maintain an open mind, and the sensitivity to observe and grasp the essential components of a given situation. Special Forces Soldiers use their interpersonal skills to obtain and maintain appropriate relationships with partner nation counterparts.
- Nonverbal Communication Skills: Nonverbal communications are wordless messages; the way people communicate by sending and receiving signals. Similar to verbal communications, nonverbal communications differ across cultures. Special Forces Soldiers learn to communicate nonverbally without acquiring a foreign language through a good understanding of a population’s nonverbal communication systems.
- Language Proficiency: Language proficiency is considered a key component in cross cultural communications. Each prospective Special Forces Soldier is tested for his language ability through Language tests and thus possess varying levels of language ability in one or more foreign languages.
- Regional Orientation: Special Forces units are regionally oriented to ensure they have the resident skills and knowledge of the belief, religion, morals, law, custom, and habits of a specific community to allow them to influence their counterparts. This understanding of the envmt extends into the political, military, economic, social, infrastructure, information, and physical domains within that region.
Contemporary Model (USA)
- The United States Special Operations Command
USSOCOM or SOCOM is the unified combatant command charged with overseeing the various Special operations component of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force of the United States armed forces. The command is part of the department of Defense and is the only Unified Combatant Command legislated by U.S Congress. USSOCOM conducts several covert and clandestine missions, such as direct action, special reconnaissance, counter terrorism, foreign internal defense, unconventional warfare, psychological warfare, civil affairs, and counter narcotics operations. Each branch has a Special Operations Command that is unique and capable of running its own operations, but when the different special operations forces need to work together for an operation, USSOCOM becomes the joint component command of the operation.
- Subordinates Comds
- Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC): It is a component Command of the USSOCOM and is charged to study special operations requirement and techniques to ensure interoperability and equipment standardization, plan and conduct special operations exercises and training, and develop joint Special Operations tactics. Its primary mission was to train conventional and SOF commanders and their staffs, supports USSOCOM international engagement, trg requirement and supports implementation of capability solution in order to improve strategic and operational War fighting readiness and joint interoperability.
- Army (USASOC): On 1 December 1989 the United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) activated as the 16th major Army command. These special operations forces have been America’s spearhead for unconventional warfare for more than 40 years. USASOC commands well know special Forces “the Rangers”, psychological operations Groups (PSYOP) and a civil Affairs Brigade (CA). These are one of the USSOCOM’s main weapons for waging unconventional warfare and counter-insurgency. The significance of these units is emphasized as conventional conflicts are becoming less prevalent with increase in insurgent and guerrilla tactics.
- Marine Corps: As a service component of USSOCOM, United States Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC) is tasked to train, organize, equip, and deploy responsive U.S Marine Corps special operations forces worldwide, in support of combatant commanders and other agencies. MARSOC has been directed to conduct foreign internal defense, direct action and special reconnaissance in addition to develop a capability in unconventional warfare, counter-terrorism and information operations.
- Navy: Naval Special warfare command provides vision leadership, doctrinal guidance, resources and oversight to ensure component special operation forces are ready to meet the operational requirement of combatant commanders. Today, SEAL teams and special boat teams comprise the elite combat units of Naval Special Warfare. These teams are organized, trained, and equipped to conduct a variety of mission to include direct action, special reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, foreign internal defense, unconventional warfare and support psychological and civil affairs operation. Their highly trained operators are deployed worldwide in support of national Command Authority objectives, conducting operations with other conventional and special operations forces.
- Air Force: Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) provides forces for worldwide deployment and assignment to regional unified commands. The command’s SOF are composed of highly trained, rapidly deployed airman, conducting global special operations mission ranging from precision application of firepower via airstrikes or close air support, to infiltration, exfiltration, resupply and refueling of SOF operational elements. AFSOC’s unique capabilities include airborne radio and television broadcast for psychological operations, as well aviation foreign internal defense instructors to provide other governments military expertise for their internal development. The command’s core mission includes battlefield air development. The command’s core mission includes battlefields air operations; agile combat support; aviation foreign internal defense; information operations; precision aerospace fires; psychological operations; specialized air mobility; specialized refueling and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
Contemporary Model (Russia)
The Russian Ministry of Defense defines the term "Special Operations" as methods and ways of fighting the changing characteristics of conventional forces, like reconnaissance and sabotage, subversion and sedition, counter-terrorism, counter-sabotage, counterintelligence, guerrilla, counter-guerrilla and other activities.
The Special Operations Forces of Russia are strategic level special forces under the Special Operations Force Command known as KSSO (Komandovaniye Sil Spetsialnykh Operatsiy). According to Gerasimov, the primary missions of KSSO would be foreign interventions, including sabotage and anti-terrorism operations. Russia's SOF are manned exclusively by professional personnel hired on contract, of which all are regular servicemen.
The first units KSSO were transferred, were from the GRU (Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravleniye) which was the Main Intelligence Directorate. In the formative period of the KSSO from 2009 till 2012, the General Staff leadership extensively studied the development, training and methods used by the special forces of the world’s leading military powers. Finally, The Special Operations Forces Command (KSSO) was announced in March 2013 and subordinated directly to Chief of General Staff.
The KSSO consists of the Command for Special Forces Operations, the Center for Special Purposes, the Center for Special Operations Forces, Center for Training Specialists and the 561st Emergency Rescue Center. The KSSO functions across three main areas i.e. special operations, special operations in a maritime context, and counter-terrorism operations.
The spec op force Command comprises of 2,000 to 2,500 personnel in addition to supporting elements, that provide combat support and combat service support functions. Furthermore, the Command has a dedicated special aviation brigade that directly controls combat aviation assets and a squadron of transport aircraft.
Contemporary Model (India)
The Special forces of India refer to those Special forces units which are serving the Republic of India and are specifically organized, trained, and are equipped to conduct and support special operations. The three branches of the Indian Armed Forces have separate special forces units, namely the Para SF of Indian Army, MARCOS of Indian Navy and the Garud Commando Force of Indian Air Force. However, small groups from these units are recently deputed in the Armed Forces Special Operations Division (AFSOD), which is a tri-service command of the Indian Armed Forces and has a unified command and control structure.
Org / Role: The AFSOD will function under the Integrated Defence Staff. Units from all the three special forces of the Indian Armed Forces will be stationed in the division. The AFSOD is expected to serve as the main org responsible for carrying out special operations within and outside India. They are expected to carry out missions such as targeting high-value installations and degrading the war fighting capabilities of hostile nations. The rationale behind the creation of this division is to pool the special abilities of each of the special forces’ units of the Armed Forces and enable them to operate together. The division will also help in reducing operational costs, since it will enable each of the special warfare units to utilize common equipment.
The division is expected to have around 3,000 soldiers. The main components of the AFSOD are: -
- Para Special Forces: The Para SF is the special warfare branch of the Indian Army created in 1966. It comprised volunteers of the then-disbanded Meghdoot Force and other infantry units from North India under Maj Megh Singh however, due to Para troop trg, the unit was transferred to the Parachute Regiment. 9th Battalion, the Parachute Commando Regiment was the first special operations unit.
- MARCOS:The MARCOS is the special warfare branch of the Indian Navy created in 1987. The MARCOS are capable of undertaking operations in all types of terrain, but are specialized in maritime operations. The force has undertaken numerous joint exercises with special forces from around the world. Some of the responsibilities of MARCOS includes: -
- Providing support to Amphibious operations.
- Special surveillance and reconnaissance operations.
- Clandestine operations inside hostile territory, including diving operations and raids.
- Counter-terrorism operations.
- Garud Commando Force: The Garud Commando Force is the special warfare branch of the Indian Air Force. They are tasked to undertake missions in support of air operations, deployed at air force bases and conduct search and rescue missions during wartime. Some advanced Garud units are trained like Army Para Commandos and the Naval MARCOS to undertake missions deep behind enemy lines.
Considering the ‘Future Operating Environment, the special operations will be characterized by “peer, near-peer, and non-state competitors, with technologically advanced threats, ubiquitous surveillance, artificial intelligence (AI) enabled battle networks, globally scaled and interconnected information, and the increasing relevance of people and populations in competition and conflict.
Future SOF will be more lethal, trans-regionally integrated, and effective in contested domains with overmatch technologies and tactics. Technology areas of interest for SOF range from lethality and survivability through to the connectivity and mobility of small unit teams and operators with SOF commanders around the World thus demanding disruptive technologies in the future. Examples include AI; emerging biotechnologies; advanced information and communications technologies; as well as optimized 3D printing.
New strategies require new capabilities, but for SOF; amidst new tools and technologies; the importance of the individual operator can be lost. If the force is to operate in denied areas with new technologies, it is going to need more languages, deeper local knowledge, and greater technical skills. Thus finding the right people with those skills in order to build a future effective special operations force means continuing to attract the best talent even from some unusual places.
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