SOCOM will spend bonus dollars on modernization.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Special Operations Command

The Special Operations Command will receive $3.4 billion in new funding between 2003 and 2007. Most of those dollars will be spent on aircraft upgrades and other modernization programs.

In recent years, SOCOM had seen its modernization budget plunge from $729 million in 2000 to $401 million in 2002. But priorities changed when the war in Afghanistan started last October. Hence the plus-up for the special operations forces.

The funds will be allocated as follows:

* $533 million to extend the life of the MH-53 Pave Low helicopter. The Air Force Special Operations Command requested the life-extension upgrade, because the next-generation aircraft, the CV-22 tilt-rotor, was delayed after a series of crashes by the CV-22's parent aircraft, the Marine Corps Osprey.

* $1.5 billion for aircraft survivability programs. Most of these funds will be used to purchase the DIRCM system (directional infrared countermeasures), which is installed on large aircraft to detect and avert infrared-guided missiles. This account also will pay for infrared and radio-frequency countermeasures for MH-47, MH-60 and MH-53 helicopters, towed decoys for fixed-wing aircraft and low-band jammers for all MC-l30Hs and AC-130Us.

* $276 million for overall aircraft maintenance and repairs.

* $116 million to upgrade the equipment used by Psychological Operations units, which were responsible for dropping leaflets and broadcasting radio programs in Afghanistan.

* $978 million ($418 million of this was a congressional add-on) to upgrade four AC-130 gunships from the AC-130H to the AC-130U configuration.

The overall budget for SOCOM in fiscal year 2003 is approximately $4.8 billion. About 41 percent goes to salaries and benefits, 37 percent for operations and maintenance, 10 percent for research, 10 percent for procurement and 2 percent for military construction.

Despite the soaring budgets, SOCOM plans to seek further increases. The current budget, "is not enough money to transform and modernize the force," said the deputy chief of SOCOM, Army Lt. Gen. William E Tangney. "I think we can go up to about $6 billion a year," he said in a speech to the Special Operations symposium sponsored by the National Defense Industrial Association.

Tangney said that he plans to request new funding in the fiscal 2004 budget both for modernization and to expand the size of the force. "We would still be under 2 percent of the total Defense Department's budget," he noted.

SOCOM currently has 46,000 members (27,000 on active duty). Approximately 8,000 have been involved in the ongoing anti-terrorism campaign in Central Asia. Typically, about 4,000 special operations forces are deployed at any given time.

Having to double the size of the deployed force created a "logistics and mobility" crunch, said Tangney. "We were not right-sized for a global campaign." In the early stages of Operation Enduring Freedom, "we needed to draw infrastructure and support from the European Command."

Communications and logistics problems during the war were particularly severe for the Navy SEALs, said Rear Adm. Eric T. Olson, chief of the Naval Special Warfare Command. However, he said, "Those are easier to fix than shortfalls in force structure."

The SEALs' presence in the Central Command theater expanded threefold since September 11, said Olson. "While preparing for a larger war, we continued to interdict and seize ships that are smuggling oil from Iraq." He noted that ship interdiction is nor a new mission for the SEALs. They have been doing that for many years. SEALs intercept ships known to be non-compliant with the UN oil embargo against Iraq. They climb aboard, during the brief period when the ship is sailing in international waters.

These are dangerous missions, Olson said. "At times, the ship crews have strewn wire beehive across their decks, which limits the SEAL' ability to move in the dark." Nonetheless, he said, the SEAL interdiction work has "taken an estimated $20 billion a year from the pockets of Saddam Hussein."

In fiscal 2003, SOCOM will receive $431 million for research and development, $777 million for procurement and $219 million for operations and maintenance.

During a presentation at the symposium, SOCOM's acquisition executive, Harry E. Schulte, listed the following programs as the commands top priorities:

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