How to Best Support Special Operations Forces. (NDIA POLICY POINTS)

• Date: 01 February 2025
• Author: Williams, Lorenzo
• Published date: 01 February 2025

Special operations forces are built on five recognized and published principles: humans are more important than hardware; quality is better than quantity: special operations forces cannot be mass produced; competent special operations forces cannot be created after emergencies occur; and most special operations require non-SOF support.

Advancing the level of non-SOF support through every means at the Defense Department's disposal is critical to providing the technologically superior systems commandos require at time of need.

As the conflict in Ukraine has revealed, advances in technology have dramatically changed the way modern warfare is waged. Unmanned aerial technology in particular has evolved as drones that fit in the palm of the hand up to those that weigh up to 1,000 pounds are in use, according to numerous reports.

Paul Scharre, executive vice president and director of studies at the Center for a New American Security, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in March 2024 that information technologies are likely to have the most impact on warfare within the coming decades.

These are information technologies that will drive autonomous weapons, cyber operations and electronic warfare. As the deployment of these and other disruptive technologies becomes more prevalent, the...