Taking “De Oppresso Liber†to the Streets: Why the US Army’s Special Forces Qualification Course Needs to Become More Urban
Sandor Fabian | October 7, 2020
There are two thousand years of experience to tell us that the only thing harder than getting a new idea into the military mind is to get an old idea out.
— B. H. Liddell Hart
The old military maxim, “train as you fight,†remains as relevant as ever. And yet, at least in one particular and important way, it is not being followed in the current US Army Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC).
Unconventional warfare has been the foundation of the SFQC from its beginnings and although historically its curriculum has always been updated to reflect the characteristics of actual conflicts, the training requirements generated by the emergence of urban warfare as the primary way of conflict do not seem to have gained appropriate attention in the US Army’s Special Forces training. If the SF community wants to maintain its strategic relevance—specifically, its ability to enable local resistance forces—it must understand that such future resistance will increasingly be conducted in major urban centers. The US Army must acknowledge this reality, and the educational and training implications associated with it, and realign the curriculum of the SFQC toward combat skills that enable future SF operators to effectively conduct their operations in complex, built-up areas.
https://mwi.usma.edu/taking-de-oppresso-liber-to-the-streets-why-the-us-armys-special-forces-qualification-course-needs-to-become-more-urban/
