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SF presence may grow in combat areas

The expected drawdown of conventional forces in Iraq will not initially be matched by a reduction in the number of U.S. special operations forces, which may even increase in number, according to several senior special operations officials.

However, when Afghanistan and Iraq are finally stabilized, U.S. special operations forces will shift their focus away from U.S. Central Command’s area of operations and toward east and southeast Asia, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations Capabilities Kalev Sepp told the National Defense Industrial Association’s special operations and low-intensity conflict symposium in Washington Feb. 14.

“As the Iraq situation evolves, more indirect means will be needed to support operations there,” said Sepp, referring to the anticipated need to train and advise Iraqi security forces. “There will be a continuing commitment to Iraq and U.S. interests there. This means that there will be more special operations forces needed in Iraq.”

When a reporter asked after his speech whether he meant that the number of U.S. special operations forces would increase as the U.S. conventional forces drew down, Sepp replied: “It’s possible.”

He said that what his boss, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict and Interdependent Capabilities Michael Vickers, “wants understood is that if and when conventional forces … begin to draw down, that does not mean that special [operations] forces will draw down at the same rate; that they will more likely remain at at least their current level of commitment.”

Sepp’s message echoed that of Adm. Eric Olson, head of U.S. Special Operations Command, who the previous day had told the same audience that he does not anticipate any reduction in the demand for special operations forces in Iraq as conventional forces draw down.

There are currently about 5,500 special operations troops in Iraq, according to U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman Army Lt. Col. Hans Bush.

Those forces are mainly grouped into two combined joint special operations task forces:

• Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Arabian Peninsula, a “white,” or unclassified, special operations task force that is always organized around the headquarters of 5th Special Forces Group or 10th Special Forces Group.

• A Joint Special Operations Command task force led by JSOC commander Lt. Gen. Stan McChrystal, whose principal mission is to hunt down leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq.

The two Special Forces groups focused on Iraq deploy for seven-month rotations. In a Feb. 13 interview, Army Special Operations Command chief Lt. Gen. Robert Wagner said that he anticipated that 5th and 10th Groups would continue to be focused on Iraq for “a fairly long duration.” Asked to be more specific, Wagner demurred, other than to say, “I would imagine that my successor will do it throughout the full length of his command tour, and probably into the next one, as well.”

He said one reason was the need to be able to share the burden of leading CJSOTF-AP between two Special Forces group headquarters. “It’s kind of hard to break that down and take one of those groups away and let somebody else do it,” he said. “So you could say, ‘Okay, 5th Group is the permanent headquarters.’ To me, that would be very hard to sustain” because of the operating tempo it would impose on the headquarters personnel.

“We would prefer to have units be fully ready when they go there, being able to operate at a high level of tempo and mental awareness, and then replace them with somebody else who is equally sharp,” Wagner said. “So I think we can maintain a high edge by the way we rotate the force.”

However, he said, while there were advantages to having two SF group headquarters focused on Iraq, “maybe over time the numbers of battalions that need to be there could be reduced somewhat, or the number of [Operational Detachments-Alpha, or Special Forces A-teams] that are required.”

Realignment of forces

Each of the five active-duty Special Forces groups is focused on a particular region of the world, meaning that the SF soldiers are schooled in that region’s languages and culture.

Because both Afghanistan and Iraq fall in 5th Group’s area, it means that the other three groups operating in those countries (10th Group in Iraq, 3rd and 7th Groups in Afghanistan) are currently heavily deployed outside their regions of particular expertise (Latin America for 7th Group, West Africa for 3rd Group, Europe for 10th Group).

Wagner said that when the Special Forces groups are able to reduce their commitment to Iraq and Afghanistan, they will be able to return to regional engagement, which he described as a “core competency” of Special Forces.

However, according to Sepp, some of those SF troops might find that their battalion’s specified area of expertise has changed.

“There are five Special Forces groups … but there are seven regions of the world to cover,” Sepp told the symposium. “Each of these regions is different, so in preparing for the future we have to consider a realignment … After the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are quelled, we anticipate shifting SOF from North Africa and the Middle East to Southeast Asia and the East Asian littoral.”

The shift would be “institutionalized, with language and regional orientation,” Sepp said. There would continue to be a demand for Special Forces in Latin America and Africa, he acknowledged, but suggested the number of SF units committed to those areas might fall.

“We have to ask questions of those groups, like, could 7th Special Forces Group cover Latin America … with just two battalions?” he said, noting that Special Forces is in the early stages of an expansion that will give each group a fourth battalion.

Asked why, even if violence subsided in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Defense Department would look to shift special operations away from the Central Command area, which includes Iran, Syria and the massive oil reserves under the sands of Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, Sepp said that while the department recognized there would be a continuing need for SOF in the Middle East, “it’s over-weighted right now, because of the requirements of the wars.”

Pushing forces forward

In his speech, Sepp also indicated that there has been a rethinking of SOCOM’s plans to bring most of its units that are permanently stationed abroad back to the U.S. and organize its units into expeditionary task forces that deployed forward on a rotational basis. That plan was outlined in SOCOM’s 2006 Capstone Concept for Special Operations, which was developed during the tenure of the previous SOCOM commander, Army Gen. Bryan Brown.

“Re-posturing the preponderance of SOF to the United States will enhance oversight, planning, prioritization and, most importantly, synchronization, of the employment of Joint SOF assets for the [Global War on Terrorism],” the Capstone document states. “By consolidating most Joint SOF in [the continental United States], Commander, USSOCOM can more effectively and efficiently fulfill his role as both synchronizer and manager of Joint SOF.”

But Sepp struck a different tone in his speech, indicating that in Vickers’ office there is now a desire to keep some SOF forces stationed forward.

“There is some use for rotational forces … there needs to be a balance in that regard,” he said. “But with some assurance I can say now that what’s not going to happen is special operations forces are not going to be consolidated inside the United States to be farmed out based on requests for forces from the geographic combatant commanders. The developing policy is to push these forces out.”

In the interview, Sepp stressed that these were still “policy proposals” that had not yet been fully staffed, and he cautioned not to read too much into them.

“Obviously this doesn’t mean that all five Special Forces groups are now going to be deployed overseas,” he said. “There’s going to be a balance between these forward forces and rotational forces, there’ll just be a slight adjustment to forward forces.”

DICUSS: Use of special forces in combat arenas