U.S.
Army Special Forces
THE GREEN BERETS
Missions
SOF
TRADITIONAL MISSIONS
Special Forces soldiers are
trained to perform the following missions:
Unconventional
Warfare (UW):
A
broad spectrum of military and paramilitary operations
conducted in enemy-held, enemy-controlled or politically
sensitive territory. UW includes, but is not limited
to, the interrelated fields of guerilla warfare, evasion
and escape, subversion, sabotage, and other operations
of a low visibility, covert or clandestine nature.
Conduct a broad spectrum of military and paramilitary
operations.
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Long-duration,
indirect activities including guerrilla warfare
and other offensive, low visibility, or clandestine
operations.
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Mostly
conducted by indigenous forces organized, trained,
equipped, supported, and directed in varying
degrees by special operations forces.
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Direct
Action (DA):
Either
overt or covert action against an enemy force. Seize,
damage, or destroy a target; capture or recover personnel
or material in support of strategic/operational objectives
or conventional forces.
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Short-duration,
small-scale offensive actions.
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May require
raids, ambushes, direct assault tactics; emplace
mines and other munitions; conduct standoff
attacks by firing from air, ground, or maritime
platforms; designate or illuminate targets for
precision-guided munitions; support for cover
and deception operations; or conduct independent
sabotage normally inside enemy-held territory.
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Special
Reconnaissance (SR):
Special
Forces teams are infiltrated behind enemy lines to
provide the theater commander with intelligence on
the enemy or to gather information on the terrain,
local populace, etc. of an area. Verify, through observation
or other collection methods, information concerning
enemy capabilities, intentions, and activities in
support of strategic/operational objectives or conventional
forces.
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Reconnaissance
and surveillance actions conducted at strategic
or operational levels to complement national
and theater-level collection efforts.
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Collect
meteorological, hydrographic, geographic, and
demographic data; provide target acquisition,
area assessment, and post-strike reconnaissance
data.
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Foreign
Internal Defense (FID):
FID
operations are designed to help friendly developing
nations by working with host country military and
police forces to improve their technical skills, understanding
of human rights issues, and to help with humanitarian
and civic action projects. FID missions assist another
government in any action program taken to free and
protect its society from subversion, lawlessness,
and insurgency.
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U.S. government
interagency activity to foster internal development
of economic, social, political, and military
segments of a nations structure.
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Train,
advise, and assist host-nation military and
paramilitary forces.
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Counter
terrorism (CT):
Offensive
measures taken to prevent, deter, and respond to terrorism.
Preempt or resolve terrorist incidents. Interagency
activity using highly specialized capabilities.
Psychological
Operations (PSYOP):
Induce
or reinforce foreign attitudes and behavior favorable
to U.S. objectives. Influence emotions, motives, and
behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups,
and individuals.
Civil
Affairs (CA):
Establish,
maintain, influence, or exploit relations among military
forces, civil authorities, and civilian populations
to facilitate military operations.
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May be
conducted as stand-alone operations or in support
of a larger force.
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May include
military forces assuming functions normally
the responsibility of the local
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government.
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Coalition
Warfare/Support:
Ensures
the ability of a wide variety of foreign troops to
work together effectively, in a wide variety of military
exercises or operations such as Operation Desert Storm.
Draws upon the SOF soldier's maturity, military skills,
language skills and cultural awareness.
Humanitarian
and Civic Action (HCA):
SOF
soldiers' diversified military skills, language capabilities
and cultural training make them a natural choice for
supporting humanitarian and civic action Operations.
OTHER
INDIVIDUAL MISSIONS
Besides
the individual skills of operations and intelligence,
communications, medical aid, engineering and weapons,
each Special Forces soldier is taught to train, advise,
and assist host-nation military or paramilitary forces.
Special Forces soldiers are highly skilled operators,
trainers, and teachers. Area-oriented, these soldiers
are specially trained in their area's native language
and culture.
OTHER
SPECIAL OPERATIONS MISSIONS
In
addition to the above specialized missions, the various
Special Operations Commands must:
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Prepare
assigned forces to carry out special operations
missions as required and, if directed by the
president or secretary of defense, plan for
and conduct special operations.
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Develop
doctrine, tactics, techniques and procedures
for special operations forces.
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Conduct
specialized courses of instruction for all special
operations forces.
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Train assigned
forces and ensure inter-operability of equipment
and forces.
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Monitor
the preparedness of special operations forces
assigned to other unified commands.
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Develop
and acquire unique special operations forces
equipment, material, supplies and services.
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Consolidate
and submit program and budget proposals for
Major Force Program II.
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Monitor
the promotion, assignments, retention, training
and professional development of all special
operations forces personnel.
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