SOCOM creates new hub for fighting war on terror.

• Author: Kennedy, Harold
• Position: Cover Story

The U.S. Special Operations Command has reorganized its headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., in order to fulfill a new leadership role in the war on terrorism.

The core of the reorganization is the Center for Special Operations, explained SOCOM'S chief, Army Gen. Bryan D. Brown.

The center "is a joint and interagency directorate that has responsibility for all war on terrorism-related operational issues," Brown told National Defense in an e-mail interview.

"We are working toward a structure that allows SOCOM to serve as a standing joint task force headquarters, offering an in-place capability for seamless planning and execution of operations that span the spectrum of conflict," he said.

"Essentially, [the center] serves as SOCOM's 'war-fighting' hub," Brown said. "Free of administrative functions, the center's sole responsibility is for planning, supporting and executing special operations in the war on terrorism."

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld directed SOCOM take the lead in planning and leading future U.S. counter-terror operations, rather than merely supporting other combatant commands, as it has in the past.

Since 2001, special operators have played major roles, first in Afghanistan and then in Iraq.

"You hunted Scuds, pinpointed high-value targets, secured oil fields, established landing strips in the desert ... When we were unable to get our forces into Iraq From the north, special operations forces mobilized the Kurdish Peshmerga ... and helped unravel the northern front with amazing speed," Rumsfeld said at the change of command ceremony at MacDill in September, when Brown took over SOCOM.

In December, special operators participated in Saddam's capture at a remote farm near Tikrit.

Despite the prominent role played by SOF troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, the overall campaigns have been planned and managed, thus far, by the U.S. Central Command, which also is based at MacDill.

Now, the commander of SOCOM, for the first time, will execute specified operations, when directed by the defense secretary to do so, Brown said.

The new center gives SOCOM the ability to plan and run such operations, Brown explained, The center functions much like a joint task force, which the geographic combatant commands have used for years to coordinate their operations.

Headed by a major general, "the center reviews global strategies, develops courses of action and makes operational recommendations for force employment through SOCOM's commander to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and the secretary of defense," Brown said. "The center can plan, direct, monitor and assess combat operations directed against selected targets...