NATO: Ready for Coalition Combat

In Afghanistan, at its height, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had 2,200 NATO SOF personnel alone, including those from Canada, Australia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, plus others from nations including New Zealand, the Republic of Korea (ROK), and the United Arab Emirates (trained by the ROK). Some of these were from SOF communities with decades of experience, while others were only able to deploy because they had received U.S. training and aid money. On Jan. 1, 2013, a unitary SOF Joint Task Force (JTF) headquarters for Afghanistan achieved its full operational capability under U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Tony Thomas. Since the United States has exited combat operations in Iraq and is planning to exit conventional combat in Afghanistan, how SOF will carry on its missions there and counterterrorism throughout the world is critically important. In any case, working with or through coalition partners has proven to always provide valuable capabilities and capacity for future operations across the operational spectrum of roles and missions.

To ensure that effective coalition SOF efforts are repeatable and institutionalized, the NATO Special Operations Headquarters (NSHQ) was established at Mons, Belgium, in 2010. For a generation, NATO standards have provided a framework for air, land, and sea interoperability; they are now being applied to special operations. The establishment of NSHQ reflected decisions made at the 2006 Riga Summit to set up the NATO Special Operations Forces Transformation Initiative (NSTI). These were motivated by combat lessons from Afghanistan and years of frustration in real-world operational situations. These included both trying to use SOF in NATO operations in the former Yugoslavia as well as trying to provide a contingency capability for security for the 2008 Athens Olympics. Since 2009, coordinating and developing operational and equipment standards, NSHQ has established a baseline of training and capabilities for SOF deploying for NATO operations. Furthermore, NSHQ functions as an operational headquarters when directed by the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). Just three years after its establishment, NSHQ had grown to include 26 NATO and three non-NATO countries.

Israel has increasingly emphasized the importance of its SOF during the “war between the wars,” when conventional land and air forces are constrained. In addition, Israel’s electronic attack capability – possibly including the highly publicized Stuxnet worm used in Iran – is integrated with their SOF as a non-kinetic but still powerful capability.

The United States is using NSHQ as a model for regional security coordination centers, which will institutionalize its outreach to other SOF communities around the globe. This is especially true at U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), covering Central and South America. These can help make permanent the relationships built at U.S. SOF conferences, either long established, like the annual Pacific Command (PACOM) SOF meeting in Hawaii, or new, like the East Africa SOF 2013 meeting.

 

Worldwide SOF: Changing Forces

While the dramatic kinetic action of direct action (DA) missions dominates press coverage of SOF, in reality, special reconnaissance (SR) has been, and remains, a primary mission worldwide. There is often no substitute for a pair of trained SOF eyes on the ground to provide persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), along with precision terminal guidance of air strikes and artillery. This was how U.S. SOF units rolled up the Taliban and al Qaeda in just 49 days in Afghanistan in late 2001, and it is still an extremely effective tactic.

The proliferation of UAVs has changed how SOF carry out this mission in many countries. In Israel, UAVs and SOF have been integrated in a new “Depth Corps,” along with other sensors and long-range weapons systems, to create a capability to fuse and analyze diverse ISR data. Reliable, real-time broadband communications to tie them all together ensure that Israel’s combat-tested SOF – Sayeret Matkal (Army), Shaldag (Air Force), and Flotilla (Shayetet) 13 (Navy) – will be better operationally integrated. This new corps is commanded by recalled Maj. Gen. (Reserve) Shay Avital, a former commander of Sayeret Matkal. Israel has increasingly emphasized the importance of its SOF during the “war between the wars,” when conventional land and air forces are constrained. In addition, Israel’s electronic attack capability – possibly including the highly publicized Stuxnet worm used in Iran – is integrated with their SOF as a non-kinetic but still powerful capability.

Operational integration of diverse SOF has taken place in many countries over the past few decades, especially among top-tier nations. France’s COS (Commandement des Opérations Spéciales – Special Operations Command) is 20 years old in 2013. Canada’s Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM), operational since 2006, integrates aircraft and counter-NBC assets along with the Canadian Special Operations Regiment. Poland’s Special Forces Command (DWS, Dowództwo Wojsk Specjalnych), created in 2007, is investing in organization and training as well as equipment. “Poland is among the European leaders as far as its special forces are concerned,” Gen. Boguslaw Pacek, an adviser to the defense minister, was quoted in the Polish press. Despite the setback of the death of DWS’ Commander Maj. Gen. Włodzimierz Potasiński in the 2010 Smoleńsk plane crash, Poland aims at an expansion of SOF and integration with NATO capabilities. The significance of meeting NATO standards is evident from its announced objective to become by 2014 a “framework nation,” the level of qualification in SOF currently achieved by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, and Canada (most of which also have joint special operations commands). This means that Polish SOF officers will be able to lead NATO SOF through Combined Joint Forces Special Operations Component Command (CJFSOCC). But Poland’s plans to deploy a squadron of SOF helicopters and at least two transport aircraft have been limited by resource shortfalls. Poland has nevertheless been helping Croatia bring its SOF force (Bojna za Specijalna Djelovanja, or BSD) up to NATO standards. In addition, the Armed Forces of Ukraine plan to form special operations forces as a separate arm of service by 2017.