Budget cuts could threaten special operations innovation.

• Author: Beidel, Eric
• Position: Special Ops

U.S. Special Operations Command has a reputation for procuring technology out of left field and doing it fast.

So when a Navy SOCOM commander suggested that his operators could use the technology film director James Cameron employed on a historic dive to the deepest parts of the ocean, no one batted an eye.

If any part of the military is going to weather the budget storm and still be able to carry out ambitious, speedy acquisitions, experts say it will he SOCOM. But that doesn't mean austerity won't challenge the command or force it to change the way it has been doing things for the past decade.

During the National Defense Industrial Association's recent Special Operations Forces Industry Conference in Tampa, Fla., SOCOM Acquisition Executive James W. Cluck said he was worried that dwindling research-and-development funding could threaten the command's ability to maintain its fast-paced innovation cycle.

"You don't need a lot of money to be innovative," Cluck said. "But we've had a condition lately of declining R&D dollars squeezed out by the demand of operational tempo. My concern with that is we're not able to turn and deploy and test things as quickly as we might be able to do if we had a little more research-and-development dollars."

The pressure is on, because government leaders will expect a return on their heavy investment in special operations, officials said.

Additionally, tighter budgets could have an impact on an independent line of funding for acquisitions specific to special operations forces (SOF). The command has the ability to lean on the traditional military services when necessary but then go its own way to buy niche equipment and bypass lengthy procurement processes. As the defense budget decreases, the services may force SOCOM to dip more into its own funds and rely less on money directly from the military branches, said Rick "Ozzie" Nelson, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies' homeland security and counterterrorism program. The debate about what is and isn't SOF-specific gear could heat up under this scenario, he said. The competition for dollars may even threaten the strong bonds formed between general purpose and special forces during the past decade, he added.

SOCOM in recent years has mastered the art of the quick buy. Most of the command's programs are small, have short acquisition cycles and use modified commercial off-the-shelf and non-developmental items. Sometimes, it's just a matter...