A Permanent Detachment of SOF in the American High North to Answer Near-Peer Adversaries’ Modernization and Deployments
Zachary Lavengood | 06.10.21
Editor’s note: The Modern War Institute’s Project 6633 and the US Army’s 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) recently hosted an essay contest aimed at generating new ideas and expanding the community of interest for special operations in the polar regions. Participants were asked to address the following prompt: How can American special operations forces compete with near-peer adversaries in the polar regions? This essay, by Zachary Lavengood, was selected as one of two runner-up entries.
The Modern War Institute and Project 6633 thank Colonel Brian Rauen, commander of the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), and the essay contest team of Major Jessica Caddell, Lieutenant Colonel George Johnson III, Dr. Max Margulies, Major Philip Swintek, and Major Zachary Griffiths for leading this effort.
In the decades following the collapse of the Soviet Union the Arctic was largely a strategic and geopolitical afterthought. Too remote and environmentally hostile for anything but fishing, resource extraction, and indigenous economics, conventional military threats in the theater were improbable. In fact, Canadian General Walter Natynczyk told the Canadian Senate Committee on National Security and Defense in 2010 that, were the Canadian Arctic to be invaded, his “first challenge is search and rescue to help them out.”
In the decade since those comments, permafrost melted into swamps and the ice pack receded. Simultaneously, Russia refurbished and revitalized military infrastructure in the Arctic alongside combined economic investments with China. Unanswered, these Russian developments could shift the balance of power in the Arctic.
Unfortunately, US special operations forces lack the expertise to meet near-peer adversaries in the Arctic. While special operations forces continue investing in Arctic capability, current adaptations will not close the gap between US forces and their adversaries. With ice-free summers projected to begin by 2030 and Arctic shipping seasons projected to swell into the late spring and late autumn in the same decade, Arctic-trained and Arctic-ready special operations forces are no longer just nice, but necessary.
https://mwi.usma.edu/a-permanent-detachment-of-sof-in-the-american-high-north-to-answer-near-peer-adversaries-modernization-and-deployments/
