JUST IN: SOCOM Needs New Tech, Old Approaches, Senior Leader Says
8/25/2023
By Sean Carberry
Defense Dept. photo
AUSTIN, Texas — While Special Operations Forces have spent most of this century countering terrorists and violent extremists, those missions are now taking a backseat to a new imperative: integrated deterrence, which requires updated technologies and a return to pre-Global War on Terrorism force roles, said the vice commander of Special Operations Command.
“That ship, the GWOT ship, has sailed,” Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Francis Donovan, said Aug. 24 at the Fed Supernova conference in Austin. “That's important, because we want to leverage what we learned in those 20 years and some amazing abilities to fuse operations for very distinct effects on the battlefield, and … take what we learned and move forward because times are changing.”
Today, 20 percent of the SOF mission is counterterrorism, which is now more challenging as it requires flying through air defense systems to get to the target, he said. Countering violent extremist groups is down from 80 percent of the SOF mission to 20 percent.
Sixty percent of the SOF focus is now integrated deterrence he said. “That term right now is really hard to put your arms around — what exactly does that mean?”
https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2023/8/25/socom-needs-new-tech-old-approaches-vice-commander-says
