Special ops turn to data, space tech to gain ‘decisive advantage’
By Todd South
May 9, 12:32 PM
TAMPA, Fla. — U.S. Special Operations Command is increasingly using cyber, space and data-based technology to support its missions, gauge equipment readiness and maintain its end strength, according to the organization’s leader.
Gen. Bryan Fenton told attendees of SOF Week, a special operations force-focused event taking place May 8-11 in Florida, that recruiting for positions such as data scientists, data stewards, cyber and space experts, and technologists is nonnegotiable.
“Data — not to be too trite here — data is the oil, the oxygen we all need to have a decisive advantage,” Fenton said Tuesday.
The command is “harnessing data like never before,” Fenton added. As an example, he said that in a recent mission targeting a senior leader of the Islamic State group, special operations teams navigated “near-peer air defense” and integrated cyber defense capabilities.
“Unfamiliar to us in the past, but becoming the norm in the future,” he explained.
https://www.militarytimes.com/smr/sofic/2023/05/09/special-ops-turn-to-data-space-tech-to-gain-decisive-advantage/
