Special Operations News Update – Monday, June 14, 2021
June 14, 2021 SOF News Update 0
1st SFG(A) Jungle Warfare Exercise
Curated news, analysis, and commentary about special operations, national security, and conflicts around the world. Topics include RSM Cdr, women and AFSOC, SF in the Arctic, Marine Raider trial, critical race theory, armed overwatch program, UK’s E Squadron, SOF history, OTH CT operations, border crisis, and more.
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SOF News
Women and AFSOCs Ground Combat Assignments. In 2013 the Department of Defense began the process of opening up ground combat assignments in the military to women. These jobs included the Air Force’s special tactics officers, combat rescue officers, special reconnaissance airmen, combat controllers, TACP airmen, and pararescuemen. Of the over 5,600 special warfare billets only four are filled by women. Colonel Allison Black, the vice commander of the 24th Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field, Florida, explains that it will be a slow process to recruit and train women for these special warfare billets. “For women, battlefield airmen jobs remain a distant target five years after integration”, Air Force Times, June 7, 2021.
SF and the Arctic Region. Colonel Kevin Stringer provides a look at how US Army Special Forces can better compete with near-peer adversaries in the polar regions by concentrating on regular engagement with indigenous peoples and focusing on special reconnaissance. “Competing in the Arctic Through Indigenous Group Engagement and Special Reconnaissance Activities”, Modern War Institute at West Point, June 8, 2021. Zachary Lavengood believes that US special operations forces must establish a permanent detachment in Alaska to answer near-peer adversaries’ modernization and deployments. (Modern War Institute at West Point, Jun 10, 2021). In other news, the Department of Defense has announced the establishment of the Arctic Regional Center.
https://sof.news/update/20210614/
