This has proven to be an invaluable ability over the past decade, as SOF JTF commanders have proven to be among the most talented and imaginative in the U. This Title 10 line of funding has been used for all variety of SOF-specific procurement and services, from nuclear submarine conversions to services contracts for support at SOCOM Headquarters. There is a replacement program for ASDS, but it is some years from actual procurement.
Completely re-engineered with digital flight systems, new engines, transmissions, and propellers, and a reduced three-man crew, the J was exactly the aircraft needed around which AFSOC could build its fleet of large airframes in the early 21st century.
This visionary plan has begun to come to fruition during , with Lockheed completing the first new MCJ Combat Shadow for rollout and testing in Dragon Spear is derived from a similar package developed for use on Marine Corps KC tankers, and is composed of a modular package consisting of sensors, a sideways-firing 30 mm Mk.
On Dragon Spear, these are fired out the rear loading hatch anywhere in the degree hemisphere underneath the aircraft. It is expected that the new-build ACJs will likely carry a derivative of the Dragon Spear package. Marines with U. Marines who are basic parachutists and beyond must complete annual jump requirements in order to maintain their jump status and proficiency.
Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Kyle McNally. Osprey production is moving along nicely, with virtually every aircraft delivered moving into immediate use downrange. Back in , the entire campaign in northern Afghanistan hinged on just six MHE airframes, which were able to get over the mountains into places like Bagram and Mazar-e Sharif.
Another new area of interest is SOF-specific space assets in low-earth orbit LEO to directly support warfighters on the ground downrange. What they have not done previously is to develop and procure space assets, which provide specific services and capabilities to ground-based SOF teams and personnel. That has been changing rapidly over the last several years. Easily deployed and concealed, and composed of various kinds of lightweight sensors thermal imagers, motion detectors, seismic monitors, etc.
The problem for operators, however, has been covertly collecting all the data collected by the UGBSNs, so that intelligence analysts can use it to formulate militarily useful information like targeting points and estimates of enemy strength. Enter the NanoSatellite. The NanoSatellite then downlinked the data packets to a small data terminal in Colorado Springs, Colo. In the case of organizations like AFSOC, they had suffered for decades under a gradual erosion of aircraft and billets, thanks in part to their own service attempting to marginalize their efforts.
A quarter century and several wars later, things are finally coming around for U. In particular, the growth of SOF schoolhouses around the United States is now turning out a steady stream of personnel, fully trained and ready to enter the fight when they reach their new units.
A planned Roles and Missions Study by DoD will hopefully note these problems and begin the long bureaucratic process of resolving these issues in the coming decade. Downrange: Out with the Component Commands Operationally, SOCOM has been heavily tasked during , with a full schedule of combat operations, deployments, training, and exercises.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, Haiti demanded much of its available strength in early , with AFSOC and civil affairs CA activities dominating the work there.
Clearly, throughout , some of the most heavily booked resources have been the ECJ Commando Solo aircraft of the rd SOW, which operated everywhere from the Caribbean to Afghanistan. The rd has also been a major player in Operation Odyssey Dawn in Libya in early , where its broadcasts are a key component of the U.
If there is anything good SOF warriors love, it is the chance to go downrange and practice their craft. While SOCOM has been fully committed for the past decade, it is also taking time for more exercises and training evolutions where possible. In particular, chances to exercise and train with foreign SOF units and personnel have been taken up whenever real-world contingencies allow.
And had some interesting SOF activities going on beyond the battlefields. Army photo by Sgt. Jason Carter Army. In both Iraq and Afghanistan, U. SOF personnel are staying busy training up special operations warriors for both those nations. Camp Moorehead, outside of Kabul, has become a center for training the new Afghan National Army commandos, which are rapidly becoming SOF professionals in their own right. On Oct. Miller was killed during a vicious firefight in Kunar province in Afghanistan on Jan.
During that firefight, Miller charged a series of Taliban positions on a mountainside, taking the fight to the enemy while protecting his team, calling out enemy locations to his team and exposing himself to enemy fire. Eventually, Miller was wounded and killed, but not before saving the lives of his team and their Afghan partners on the patrol. He was the first SF soldier to receive the decoration since the s.
SOCOM began as it did helping mitigate the effects of a terrible disaster on a population that was stunned, hurt, and is still suffering.
The magnitude 9. Airmen from the rd Special Operations Wing helped open a pair of key runways in northern Japan to help fly in critical relief supplies, equipment, and personnel. And so it goes. John D. This year also marks the 75th anniversary of the U.
Army Rangers. William O. Finally, this year is the first time the publication will be produced without consulting editor John D.
Gresham at the helm. He is missed. The Year in Special Operations will go on in the capable hands of veteran military writer and editor Scott R. Gourley , who has been a linchpin of Faircount publications for nearly two decades. A former U.
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