Defining Army Special Ops' role for the next century

Q: What was the underlying force structure premise for the Army After Next winter war games?

A: We think some of the characteristics of the Army of the future will be similar to special operations today. In testing this, the concept was that the Army is going to be smaller and more lethal, and have smaller units that are able to do independent actions over longer periods of time, having more skills, more flexibility and more ability to act quickly on their own, using their own intelligence. And that's exactly what Special Forces A-detachments do today.

Q: What were the critical special operations findings?

A: We were critical players in the pre-conflict, helping the National Command Authorities understand what is going on in the world, and in the post-conflict. In the resolution of the conflicts, these forces of the future in very high intensity were very effective. Battles quickly were determined. We played a very important part in the post-conflict with civil affairs, working with the NGOs [nongovernmental organizations], PVOs [private volunteer organizations], other humanitarian assistance agencies and our own interagency working groups to help stand up the state functions that were torn down.

Q: Don't you fill those roles today?

A: We do those things today, but in the future we will be a unique force to do them. The [indications] that we got from the winter war games were that we will also be the unique element that works with the other militaries-the country teams-enhancing the Army's ability to work with other groups and serving as the glue of coalitions. We have seen all that before, but in the future those functions will be more important because our smaller, more lethal Army will not have the extra [force structure] to go off and work with coalitions. We are going to have to be more attuned to niches and be able to have many functions. Special operations will be in that niche of working with other militaries.

Q: What were some of the critical roles identified thus far for special operations forces?

A: First is the concept of being "global scouts." Special operations in the future will have forward presence with minimum forward bases-forward present because of all our training missions. Those small groups can collect a lot of knowledge about their areas...and relay information that can give regional CINCs [commanders in chief] and National Command Authorities a real feel for what is going on in that area. Second, we will be the pathfinders for the strategy of engagement in the [next] century. Until we come up against a peer competitor in the future or a group of peer competitors, we think the idea of engagement and enlargementengagement with other nations to enlarge democracy and competitive markets-will be an important part of what we do. Our soldiers will be doing that because of their cultural understanding, and we see in the future that will be more of our niche, even more than today. We also have a highly specialized direct-action capability, and those forces will remain force multipliers. Should we go from engagement and enlargement [to] conflict, then we make that very easy transition into doing direct action. For early forced entry, our forces will be the choice.

We will be key "enablers" for our coalitions, providing for early integration into plans and operations and building mutual trust.

Our role will also be to serve as providers for peacekeeping and stability transitions. We can't do it all. The special operations force is relatively small, so we are still going to need large forces for peacekeeping and stability-brigades of soldiers to do that-but the soldiers who will enable it to happen and be the ones who make the transition easy for the standard conventional commander will be psychological operations [PSYOP], civil affairs and Special Forces soldiers.

Q: Concerning PSYOP, is its application envisioned to increase?

A: PSYOP will be ever more important because it is now integrated in information operations, but with the unique twist of going people to people. Much of information operations now is high-tech-computers and air defense systems, for example-whereas in PSYOP we focus on influencing people, leaders, enemy soldiers on the battlefield and the civilian population.

PSYOP and civil affairs will play a big role in the preand post-conflict. They will be part of the global scouts because they are the soldiers who are out there continuing to update what the country looks like and what is the best way to influence the people, so their studies will be very important.

Q: What is the next step?

A: These were our initial impressions, but the ideas, I think, are very important. Special operations will have a direct action capability for highly specialized [missions] that the government might want to undertake-a national capability-and we see that as being needed in the future. More and more, the Army of the future will have those specialized characteristics, so the special operations direct action community has to be ever more surgical-leveraging technology and at the edge of what is possible. Special operations, then, will have a direct action element that remains more surgical than the large masses of forces. The big element that we bring to the future is the understanding of other nations and how to work with other militaries.

The things that we are doing today we will be doing in the future, but at an increased level. We want our soldiers to spend time getting better at their languages and getting better at their intercultural communications so they understand the subtle meaning of negotiations wherever they are.

Q: How does Army XXI affect special operations?

A: We are just like the rest of the Army. Force XXI and Army XXI are focused on getting the Army digitized and taking advantage of the information opportunity that we have right now. We in special operations are hot to get the right systems and get completely technologically integrated with the Army. We are going to be helped by the equipment and the digitization, certainly, but basically what we do is going to be very similar. Our information and our intelligence systems will be enhanced, but we will not act very much differently because our focus is on intercultural communications and working with foreign nations. A lot of those are Third World countries that are not particularly high-tech. Our soldiers need to be integrated in what the Army is doing so that we are fully interoperable in our contingency [role], but their day-to-day deployments will remain primarily in the low-tech Third World.

Q: So you are talking about two ends of the communications scale-taking information gathered by low-tech, personal means and communicating it through high-tech means to the rest of the force?

A: Yes, in case we have some sort of contingency in that region. Special operations soldiers then can enhance what a CINC is able to do because he knows what is happening on the ground, and he has soldiers there who can work the people-to-people issues.

Q: What else have you found significant to note for the future of special operations forces?

A: The TRADOC [U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command] relationship that we have right now is very important, and we in special operations are glad that TRADOC included us in the winter war games. One of the problems we had when the special operations community was created in 1986 was that we then focused on USSOCOM [U.S. Special Operations Command] and made sure our relations were correct with USSOCOM. We have found that relationship remains important...but we also have found that we cannot break ourselves from our Army roots, being embedded in the Army's functions-how the Army works and develops concepts that become materiel and new doctrine, and the way we train leaders and organize ourselves. I think the big thing that we have learned is that we have to be completely integrated with the Army and the Army systems, particularly with TRADOC.

Col. Hayward S. Florer Jr., director, Training and Doctrine, U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, N.C., was the U.S. Army Special Operations Command representative to this year's Army After Next winter war games. During the winter war games, a series of high-level strategic simulations tested preliminary concepts to be used to shape the Army force of the "deep future"-the force for the year 2020 and beyond. Col. Florer talked about the winter war games findings and the Army's special operations forces in the future.

Copyright Association of the United States Army Apr 1997
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