United States Special Operations Command will prioritize cyber warfare in response to the increasingly sophisticated technology of adversaries, military leaders told members of Congress during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on March 18 in Washington, D.C.
Derrick Anderson, U.S. assistant secretary of war for special operations and low-intensity conflict, and U.S. Navy Admiral Frank M. Bradley, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, told lawmakers that Special Operations Forces need to maintain a competitive edge in disruptive technology to succeed in the modern threat environment.
Irregular Threats Tripled Within Five Years
Special Operations Forces are tasked with using finesse, intelligence and elite military skills to complete a wide array of covert operations, including dismantling terrorist networks and working proactively to thwart hostile actions, while building strong relationships with U.S. allies and partners.
Anderson testified that Special Operation Forces comprise less than 3% of the U.S. military and have been operating on a shoestring budget since 2019 that is “roughly equivalent to the procurement cost of a single aircraft carrier,” while expected to deliver exceptional results on high-risk global missions.
“The optionality that SOF delivers requires resourcing and investments,” Anderson said. “To maintain our competitive edge, SOF needs sustained partnership, predictable resourcing and continued modernization.”
Bradley disclosed that more than 6,500 special operators are deployed around and within 80 different countries, while demands upon them to respond to threats “have been 300% increased over these past five years.”
Rising Gray Zone Warfare
Modern warfare today largely consists of hostile activities, including sabotage and collaboration between state actors and criminal networks, intended to cause harm without causing large armed conflict in a phenomenon called “gray zone” warfare.
This hybrid threat environment continues to present new challenges to the U.S. military, according to Bradley. He added that special operators can provide asymmetric advantages in counteracting these problems.
“Today’s environment rewards forces that can operate persistently and decisively often below the threshold of armed conflict, generating irregular effects by, through, and with our allies and partners in order to produce a whole effect that is much greater than the sum of its parts,” he said.
Bradley said his priorities as SOCOM commander include maintaining readiness to respond to crises, maintaining ability to project force into high-risk and contested environments, and harnessing the cyber domain and autonomous systems.
Cyber Domain As The New Frontier
The nature of modern warfare is rapidly changing beyond the development of autonomous systems, Bradley observed. He explained that adversaries are seeking to undermine U.S. relationships with allies and wield open source information in the cyber domain for surveillance and intelligence gathering for hostile purposes.
“The cyber and the virtual domain are critical maneuver spaces that we must take advantage of,” Bradley stated.
“We probably all know that more and more of the world spends more and more of its time in the virtual domain,” he said. “You only have to look at your screen time indicator on your cell phones to be able to recognize that that is in fact the case.”
Bradley said that U.S. Special Operations Forces can and will take advantage of all capabilities available to adversaries.
“Many people see it as a threat,” Bradley said of the cyber domain. “It certainly is, but it’s also an advantage and an opportunity that we could leverage.”
Seeking “Thinkers Who Can Fight”
To meet changing military needs, Special Operations Command is expanding its capabilities with new technology including unmanned systems, which Bradley stated his forces would wield with the “element of surprise.”
Despite the new emphasis on technology, he stressed that Special Operations Command will always prioritize human beings as its most important element.
“We are looking for critical thinkers who can fight,” Bradley said.
Special warfare units, known for their elite training and extreme demands they meet, have no plans to trade manpower in favor of autonomy. Instead they will continue to do what they do best – armed with array of new technological tools.
