CIA, SOCOM gearing up for rapid capability assessment with an eye toward ‘field-forward’ ops
Focus areas include advanced analytics, mapping building infrastructure, novel energy sources, data communications and exfiltration, and edge device optimization.
By
Jon Harper
February 10, 2026
CIA personnel and American special operations forces are preparing for a collaboration event with members of industry and other subject matter experts in pursuit of new capabilities that could support so-called “field-forward” operations.
The spy agency and SOF community are known to have worked closely together during the Global War on Terror. Today, with the proliferation of emerging technologies, these secretive arms of the U.S. government are trying to prepare for future ops in more “data-dense” environments.
U.S. Special Operations Command’s Science and Technology Directorate and the CIA’s S&T organization are collaborating with the SOFWERX and ICWERX innovation hubs to host the upcoming “Rapid Capability Assessment” in Chantilly, Virginia, which is slated for April, according to a special notice posted online.
The gathering is a follow-up to an Innovation Foundry event that was held last year.
In the special notice, officials described field-forward ops as “the real-time or near real-time collection, processing, analysis, and dissemination of intelligence information in the field or at the source to support mission planning and tactical decision making,” noting that these types of efforts often depend on advanced tech such as diverse sensors, smart systems, distributed networks, communication platforms, and AI tools — which create opportunities and vulnerabilities for special operators and intel specialists.
https://defensescoop.com/2026/02/10/cia-military-special-operations-forces-capability-assessment/
