NSW actively works to advance maritime interoperability and integration with the Navy in ways that best support our revised Maritime Strategy, “A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower: Forward, Engaged, Ready,” as well as key operating concepts like the “Air and Sea Battle Concept.” As a part of the Navy, NSW has an innate orientation to leverage advanced technology, and finds incredible support and enablement from fleet-sourced Sailors with critical technical ratings. These Sailors comprise 56 percent of the NSW force and give as much back to the fleet as they bring to NSW after their special operations tours.

Resourcing Efficiently

USSOCOM shares resource sponsorship of NSW with the U.S. Navy. While NSW represents a comparatively small portion of the Navy budget, we fit well in “A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower: Forward, Engaged, Ready.” NSW operates forward as a core tenet, well-positioned in both the maritime and human domains to generate and preserve global maritime access. NSW stays deeply engaged with foreign Navy and SOF counterparts as a cornerstone of our operational approach, networking with partners to generate and maintain a level of readiness to respond to a range of crises quickly and effectively. Ensuring both SOF-unique and service-unique requirements are aligned and complementary to operational requirements is the coin of the realm in NSW resourcing.

Surface platforms, subsurface platforms, sea basing, and host platforms are required for NSW to operate in the full range of physical and political environments in the maritime domain. The development and fielding of these advanced platforms as well as adaption of host platforms must account for a range of mobility and access requirements, with signatures and capabilities suitable to anticipated operating environments. NSW’s SEAL/SDV operators and Combatant Craft Crewmen receive in-depth training and certification to operate these platforms worldwide. The Navy has steadily advanced fleet interoperability training to ensure NSW forces can embark in and operate from Navy ships and submarines with maximum effectiveness in support of ongoing operations and where crises and contingencies emerge. By advancing interoperability with the fleet, the force benefits from enhanced operational flexibility and responsiveness while reinforcing the Secretary of Defense’s emphasis on efficiency.

Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities are vital to enhancing awareness and understanding of operational environments and to synergizing partner capacity and capability development. NSW airborne ISR utilizes comparatively inexpensive tactical systems with operational-level capabilities. These small footprint and low signature platforms feature sensor suites that leverage miniaturization and form factors that are adaptable to airborne, land-based, and maritime environments and platforms. The relative ease of maintenance and low system cost make these platforms available to many partners. The evolution of Naval Small Craft Instruction and Technical Training School (NAVSCIATTS) into a Navy/NSW/SOF security force assistance center of excellence is an initiative that radically advances our ability to build partnerships and partner capacity. NAVSCIATTS has already begun pilot courses on unmanned aerial system operations, intelligence fusion, and operations integration to generate capabilities critical to today’s security challenges.

By continuing to draw training facilities closer to home, NSW is preserving PERSTEMPO for operations and mitigating the inefficiencies of deploying to train.

Over recent years, NSW has sought training areas closer to our basing areas to generate and sustain our force while meeting personnel and operational tempo (time away from home) constraints. Key initiatives have centered on Fort Story, Virginia, and La Posta, California, and have been effective in augmenting force generation requirements. Still, the NSW enterprise on the West Coast meets only 42 percent of Basic Facilities Requirements (BFR), a third of which is from the World War II era. NSW’s Coastal Campus project in San Diego, resourced by both the Navy and USSOCOM and positively supported by the local community, is the single most important effort impacting the current and future operational readiness of the NSW force. This project will replace aging, outdated facilities with the infrastructure necessary to meet the requirements and size of today’s force. By continuing to draw training facilities closer to home, NSW is preserving PERSTEMPO for operations and mitigating the inefficiencies of deploying to train.

Conclusion

Addressing dynamic global security issues and protecting America’s interests remains a challenge. Ironically, as we seek greater levels of security and stability in the world, the one constant that we can count on is that of constant change. The root drivers of insecurity and instability that precipitated 9/11 have not been resolved or sufficiently mitigated. USSOCOM’s SOF pillars and the Navy’s Maritime Strategy recognize that they are likely to remain unresolved for some time.

The uncertain environment in which we operate presents opportunities. Many nations are willing to engage and partner with us, and this highlights the core of our operational approach: to engage with our interagency counterparts and country teams to be part of an integrated effort; to win the trust and confidence and build the capacities and interoperability with our coalition, regional, and host-nation military counterparts; to engage with and coordinate humanitarian support for local civil populations that are vulnerable to the influences of violent extremism; and to maintain the readiness posture to respond to crises, contingencies, and in the worst case, major theater war. NSW assesses and selects the very best personnel suited to meeting these diverse requirements. Rapidly adapting to change and cultivating the tremendous talent that exists across the Naval Special Warfare enterprise for the long term gives USSOCOM, the U.S. Navy, the Combatant Commanders, and the nation the edge needed to meet current and emerging security challenges.