20250226: FC: ISO Hearing: The Role of Special Operations in Great Power Competition
House Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations
2025-02-26
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Source: Congress.gov
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Unknown (SPEAKER_01)
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Unknown (SPEAKER_01)
We have a few members that aren't here yet, but one of the things about this committee going forward is we're gonna start on time, so we're starting on time. Today we will hear from our witnesses on the role of special operations forces in great power competition. The United States is facing a dramatically different geopolitical environment now than in any other time in recent decades. While this century has been dominated by our efforts in the global war on terrorism, the new era of great power competition presents strategic challenges from revisionist states in China and Russia and their rogue state allies in Iran and North Korea. Over the past several years, as our nation has confronted the evolving landscape of great power competition, our Special Operators have adapted to meet the challenges posed by our adversaries while continuing to combat the continuous and evolving threats posed by violent extremist organizations military proxies and non-state actors u.s special operations forces are ideally suited and organized for great power competition the core activities of our special operations units from working with our partners around the world to help bolster their defenses and unconventional warfare capabilities to counter proliferation and special reconnaissance is more needed today than ever before or decades in the past and offers the ability to present significant strategic and operational challenges to our adversaries while simultaneously enabling our allies and partners to resist outside aggression. The relationship our Special Operations Forces have built and sustained through decades of partnership with our allies are critical for our access and placement to counter our adversaries. The United States will continue to rely on the men and women throughout the SOF community to prepare future battle spaces, rapidly respond to contingencies in multiple theaters, and extend American influence by operating across the spectrum of competition, including below the threshold of traditional military conflict and in the gray zone. To address this continuously changing environment, ASD SOLIC and SOCOM recently released the Joint Special Operations Forces Operating Concept for Force Development and Design Guide to the SOF community and the department to ensure we develop, and I quote,
a joint special operations force that rapidly fuses all domain capabilities for tailored and simultaneous missions across the full spectrum from competition to conflict, enabled by persistent campaigning for global advantage. That sounds a little verbose and a little academic, but if you read it slowly, it makes sense. This concept will require the SOF community to be culturally literate in dynamic regions across the globe and proficient across evolving domains in the cyberspace focused on the role of special operations forces as the United States embraces an era of great power competition. The subcommittee will examine, will seek to examine the unique capabilities of the soft service components and how special operations forces core activities may complement and enable the joint force to operate against strategic adversaries. We hope to further understand how the soft components determine what the appropriate capabilities and force structure are to support and respond to the geographic combatant commander's requirements for great power competition and counter adversaries and non-state actors. Our witnesses today are the commanders of the Special Operations Service Components and have decades of experience with the Special Operations community. I want to welcome Lieutenant General Jonathan Braga, Commander of the United States Army Special Operations Command, Lieutenant General Michael Conley, Commander of the Air Force Special Operations Command, Major General Peter Huntley, U.S. Marine Corps, Commander, Marine Forces Special Operations Command, and Rear Admiral Milton Sands, Commander, Naval Special Warfare Command. In the interest of time, I'll ask the witnesses to keep your opening statements or your opening remarks to five minutes or less so that we have sufficient time for questions and answers. With that, let me thank our witnesses for appearing before us today. I now recognize Ranking Member Crow for his opening remarks.
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Unknown (SPEAKER_11)
Thank you, Dr. Jackson, and thank you to our Special Operations Forces component commanders for being here today to provide testimony on the role of U.S. Special Operations in great power competition. The global security environment is changing rapidly. Our adversaries regularly engage in malign gray zone activities intended to challenge the U.S. in the global order. As stated in the 2022 National Defense Strategy, countries like China and Russia use a broad range of diplomatic, informational, economic, and military tools to undermine our national interests. To do address and to protect our national interests and to combat these malign activities, we have to find various ways to counter these efforts. Although the authority to leverage irregular warfare is not unique to special operations, it is essential. Irregular warfare highlights core SOF activities like foreign internal defense, unconventional warfare, military information support operations, civil affairs operations, and others which are essential if we are to successfully counter our competitors in the gray zone. Indeed, our special operations forces are uniquely qualified to support the whole of government approach of integrated deterrence when it comes to great power competition. Our partners and allies remain key to addressing these challenges. The history of our Special Operations Forces is rooted in partnership.
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