Terri Moon Cronk at the DoD
News offers the below piece:
WASHINGTON, April 11, 2018 —
U.S. special operations forces are relevant against all the nation’s security
priorities, the vice commander of U.S. Special Operations Command told a Senate
Armed Services Committee panel today.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Scott A.
Howell (seen in the above photo), representing Socom commander Army Gen. Raymond A. Thomas III, told the
committee’s emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee that the nearly
3,000 special operations forces members are deployed in more than 90 countries,
and are postured, ready and relentlessly focused on winning today’s fights.
Also testifying on efforts to
transform the force for future security challenges were Air Force Lt. Gen.
Marshall B. Webb, commander of Air Force Special Operations Command; Army Lt.
Gen. Kenneth E. Tovo, commanding general of Army Special Operations Command;
Navy Rear Adm. Timothy G. Szymanski, commander of Naval Special Warfare
Command; and Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Carl E. Mundy III, commander of Marine
Corps Forces Special Operations Command.
Rapidly Changing Environment
“From countering violent
extremism to countering weapons of mass destruction from rogue regimes and
near-peer adversaries, special operations forces continue to provide the
geographic combatant commanders options to protect our nation, our allies and
our interests worldwide,” Howell said. “However, as the National Defense
Strategy outlines, the global security environment is rapidly changing,” he
added.
Correspondingly, Socom is
transforming at an ever increasing pace, Howell noted.
“Comprising just 2 percent of
the defense budget and 3 percent of the manpower, special operations forces
play a critical role in addressing the nation's priorities, security challenges
and provide an extraordinary return on investment,” he said.
Air Force
“As the United States Special
Operations Command’s air component, we continuously strive to hone capabilities
and evolve our force to remain ready, relevant and resilient,” Webb told the
panel. He also expressed gratitude for the resources projected in the fiscal
year 2019 budget, which he said will fully fund existing requirements and help
the service “turn a strategic corner as we engage in great powers competition.”
For 17 years, AFSOC has been
laser-focused on counterterrorism operations, he noted, adding it has
accelerated the operations tempo and “drawn reference toward the low end” of
the conflict spectrum. “We realize these efforts are predominately long-term
engagements, in which cumulative tactical effects lead to long term strategic
impact,” he said, “[and] to make such engagements successful, [we] must lower
the resource and opportunity costs of conducting persistent counterterrorism
operations.”
Conversely, AFSOC operations
on the high end predominantly deliver strategic impact in a short amount of
time, he said, adding the command must be capable and flexible to confront
competitors across a range of potential conflicts and area.
“We must develop a force that
is more lethal and resilient in contested environments,” Webb said. “This
brings me to [the command’s] first priority, readiness: AFSOC must build
full-spectrum readiness while ensuring that we are postured the fight tonight.”
Air Force special operations
forces remain postured to deter, compete and win against strategic competitors,
Webb said. “Our second priority, relevance, [is] to meet the challenges
enumerated in the National Defense Strategy, [and] AFSOC must cultivate a
balanced force for high-end and low-end conflict by investing in new
capabilities while leveraging current capabilities in innovative ways,” he told
the Senate panel. That strategy aims to balance and expand the command’s
relevance across the spectrum of conflict to deter, and if necessary, defeat
America's adversaries, he said.
AFSOC embraces the process of
innovation from within its formation, striving toward a balance of incremental
and transformational efforts that are cost-effective and extend strategic
purpose, Webb emphasized.
The third priority is
resilience. “What defines AFSOC is not technology or platforms,” the Air Force
commander said. “Rather, we are defined by our people -- active duty, Guard,
reserves and civilians alike -- and their relentless application of our ethos and
strategic values.”
Army
Tovo addressed the existing
and emerging range of threats the nation faces, telling the senators that from
macro levels, the nation’s threats can be put into two categories.
“First, violent extremist
organizations that threaten the homeland and other strategic interests, and
second, those peer-and-near adversaries who seek to undermine our global
influence and overturn the current international order that preserves our
prosperity,” he explained.
“The counter-VEO fight has
monopolized our global efforts for over 16 years; however, it is clear that
competing nations such as Russia, China, North Korea and Iran will continue to
challenge the current international security order to see greater regional --
and in some cases, global -- influence,” Tovo said.
Army Special Operations
Command is sustaining the fight to counter violent extremist organizations
while building readiness for peer-and-near threats by investing in three major
efforts, the general said.
“First, we are in the midst
of a multiyear effort to restore balance to the force with the aim of improving
the health of the force, and providing additional time to train against a
broader set of tasks that must be mastered to address peer adversaries,” he
said.
“Second, we have made
significant investments in the intellectual space to ensure that we understand
the implications of changes in the security environment, and that we find ways
to maintain an enduring competitive advantage over our nation’s adversaries,”
Tovo noted.
“Third, the command published
strategic guidance using [required to move ASOC from the force of today to the
force that the nation will need in the future,” he said.
Navy
Szymanski told the senators
that the first special operations forces truth -- that humans are more
important than hardware -- remains their guiding principle.
“We have the best weapons and
technology, but our primary weapon systems are now, and always have been, our
operators,” he said. “We select and train to sustain men and women of character
who are mature, highly skilled, culturally attuned and entrusted to execute our
nation's most sensitive missions. It’s precisely because of what we ask our
people to do, operation after operation, that we never lose focus on their
long-term health.”
Following nearly 17 years of
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the admiral said, the United States is
focused on strengthening Naval Special Warfare Command capabilities as the
maritime component to special operations. “We are making progress modernizing
our maritime mobility platforms that can operate effectively in contested
environments,” he added.
Marine Corps
While the Marine Corps’
special operations tempo is high, it is manageable, Mundy told the panel. “We
continue to benefit from [the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command’s]
Preservation of Force and Families Program as a critical tool to maintain the
health of our force.”
People, not technology or any
other particular capability, represent the Marine Corps’ special operations
force’s most precious resource, he said, and that is something the Corps must
preserve and cultivate as its forces look to the future.
Mundy said his four
priorities reflect commitment to the command’s people and to the requirement to
develop for the future; to provide an integrated full-spectrum special
operations force, to better integrate the special operations capabilities with
the Marine Corps’ air-ground teams, to develop the command’s future force, and
to preserve the force and their families
Note:
In the top Air Force photo taken by Senior Airman John Linzmeier four Air
Force MC-130J Commando IIs from the 17th Special Operations Squadron execute a
simultaneous
No comments:
Post a Comment