As the most rapidly evolving subset of the U.S. military, Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has high demand for technically advanced, open architecture equipment for individual troops.
Army Gen. Raymond Thomas, chief of SOCOM, said Feb. 14 that special operators are aggressively persuing commercial-off-the shelf solutions to their combat need. Every high-tech piece of gear SOCOM buys also needs to be modular and accept rapid upgrades.
“All of these upgrades and desires for future capability are irretrievably linked to the need for rapid tech refresh to keep up with current technology cycles,” Thomas said at the annual Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict symposium sponsored by the National Defense Industrial Association. “Furthermore, technologies must retain open architecture, allowing for addition and upgrade to the newest technologies without having to go back to the drawing board.”
“When it comes to the ground component, we are looking at these technologies as something that can be easily transported, worn or integrated into an existing kit in order to lighten the load and improve battlefield situational awareness,” Thomas added.
SOCOM has achieved an “historic level of transformation over the last 15-plus years of the living laboratory of combat,” Thomas said. “However, we are keenly aware that much of our technical and operational advantage in our fight against violent extremist organizations is not transferable to near-peer competitors.”
Like the larger services within which the various Special Operations units operate, SOCOM finds itself finely tuned to fight low-intensity insurgent wars. Those skills are less precious now that the U.S. military is focusing on potential regional and near-peer strategic conflicts in Europe and the Asia Pacific.
SOCOM is well suited for those theaters, as well, Thomas said. Operators do have a wishlist, though they already have outsized purchasing authority for weapons and equipment. President Donald Trump, during a recent visit to SOCOM headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, said he would bestow upon SOCOM “the best equipment known to man.”
Thomas listed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and command-and-control systems to make heads or tails of reams of data as high priorities for SOCOM, given a hypothetical infusion of cash. Machine, or “deep,” learning along with automation of data analysis is necessary for both target identification and SOCOM’s mission to maintain tabs on weapons of mass destruction, Thomas said.
“We find ourselves drowning in data from our platforms and we must figure out how to exploit deep learning to mitigate the thousands of man-hours separating the wheat from the chaff,” Thomas said.
The problem is there are not enough special operators to satisfy combatant commanders’ call for support, Thomas said.
“The only complaint I get from my fellow four-stars is ‘Not enough. We want more,’” Thomas said. “I’ll take that criticism all day long. … In fact, it’s hard for us to manage. We are committed globally and trying to retain the force and regenerate it on the fly.”
“We are committed almost to the max right now, in terms of our operational flexibility,” Thomas said.