{"id":16855,"date":"2014-11-11T14:30:03","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T03:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=16855"},"modified":"2014-11-12T11:36:07","modified_gmt":"2014-11-12T00:36:07","slug":"australian-sof-enthusiasm-and-talent-dont-equal-capability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australian-sof-enthusiasm-and-talent-dont-equal-capability\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian SOF: enthusiasm and talent don\u2019t equal capability"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Australian<\/a>Our friends at the land power forum blog run by the Directorate of Future Land Warfare have just published an important report<\/a> on Australian special operations. Written by LTCOL Ian Langford, the report provides policy makers, strategists, and operational planners with a better understanding of the utility, capabilities, and future of Australia\u2019s special operations forces (SOF). While the report succeeds in explaining these important ideas, there\u2019s a danger some readers will come away with unrealistic expectations of Australia\u2019s talented, but small and constrained, SOF organisation. SOF aren\u2019t a panacea for Australia\u2019s strategic challenges. The broad spectrum of activities, missions, and expectations of SOF could lead to the cardinal sin of all special operations; confusing enthusiasm with actual capability<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Langford presents a theoretical background for special operations by citing Admiral William McRaven\u2019s theory of relative superiority<\/a>. The idea is simple. Special operations are successful when a highly specialised force, through precise and well-rehearsed plans, is able to achieve relative superiority at a decisive time and place. Those operations require specific skills in \u2018operators\u2019 (the guys we think of when we think of SOF). Australia\u2019s well known for having good ones. Yet, equally important, those operations also require an array of supporting talent, systems, and capability from integrated \u2018enablers\u2019 (the guys behind the scenes). Australian SOF isn\u2019t known for those enabling capabilities, largely due to the small size of its SOF organisation. But even these kinds of missions, sometimes referred to as \u2018hyper-conventional<\/a>\u2019, are only half of the special operations spectrum.<\/p>\n

The other side of special operations involves indirect action. Langford really doesn\u2019t include those in his theory section, though he discusses them in the five \u2018traits\u2019, 10 premises, six principles, and four future missions of Australian SOF. The US calls this side of the special operations spectrum, \u2018special warfare\u2019, which refers to those missions that Australian SOF are currently undertaking in Iraq and those assigned most recently in Afghanistan. Special warfare requires SOF to work through and with indigenous forces whose political, cultural, and professional characters may vary widely. It involves advising, assisting, and even accompanying indigenous forces to influence their activities toward common objectives.<\/p>\n

Therein lies a problem. Australian SOF maintain primary missions of direct action and reconnaissance, often in the context of counter terrorism. That requires a high level of specialisation and precision in certain skill sets. Yet, Australian SOF keep getting tasked to do the special warfare mission, one that typically requires a different and more diverse set of skills. True, there\u2019s some important overlap\u2014it\u2019s hard to teach and advise about something if you\u2019ve never done it\u2014but these are different missions that require unique capabilities, education, personalities, preparation and training. There\u2019s currently no school or comprehensive training program in the Australian SOF that teaches the art of special warfare.<\/p>\n

As Langford points out, in addition to precision raiding skills, these special-warfare missions require, \u2018language proficiency, cultural awareness, political sensitivity and the ability to use information-age technology in combination with extant military and weapon skills that define their role in the military\u2014in essence, they must be \u201csoldier-diplomats\u201d.\u2019 That\u2019s a tall order for any organisation that also needs to be highly specialised in counter-terrorism missions. Does Australia\u2019s SOF really have the depth of people, the training and education facilities, and the talent-management system to be able to do all that? Is it effectively leveraging the non-SOF elements of the ADF to integrate necessary talent and enablers?<\/p>\n

The report continues to highlight expectations for special operations. In the midst of his traits, premises, and principles, Langford lists diverse demands placed on Australia\u2019s SOF operators. Then, in the section on the future, he explains why they may be asked to do more, including disrupting anti-access and area denial and waging influence campaigns. \u2018SF are likely to conduct more counter-terrorism and influence campaigns in addition to their traditional roles such as point-of-entry seizure, direct action, special reconnaissance and special recovery operations.\u2019 There\u2019s a fundamental problem with the idea that any force of human beings can be prepared and optimised for everything. It\u2019s a logical fallacy. People prepared for everything are, by definition, optimised for nothing. If Langford\u2019s correct, and I think he is, Australia needs to reassess how it selects, educates, organises, and commands its SOF. Given the small size of Australia\u2019s SOF, there\u2019s also a need to seamlessly incorporate enabling capabilities from the conventional force and from allies.<\/p>\n

Not too long ago, ASPI published a report on Australian SOF<\/a>. The recommendations from that report are an important step in the right direction, especially funding small-scale capability projects (more enablers), establishing an ADF joint-capabilities manager, and leveraging linkages with allied SOF organizations. If Australian SOF are going to meet the challenges in Langford\u2019s report, real changes still need to be made. With so many high expectations of SOF, we should remember that enthusiasm and talented people don\u2019t equal real capability.<\/p>\n

Lieutenant Colonel Jan K. Gleiman is an active duty US Army officer and a visiting fellow at ASPI from United States Pacific Command. These are his personal views. Image courtesy of Department of Defence<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our friends at the land power forum blog run by the Directorate of Future Land Warfare have just published an important report on Australian special operations. Written by LTCOL Ian Langford, the report provides policy …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":271,"featured_media":16862,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[33,263,311,374],"class_list":["post-16855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-capability","tag-special-forces","tag-special-operations","tag-training"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAustralian SOF: enthusiasm and talent don\u2019t equal capability | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australian-sof-enthusiasm-and-talent-dont-equal-capability\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Australian SOF: enthusiasm and talent don\u2019t equal capability | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Our friends at the land power forum blog run by the Directorate of Future Land Warfare have just published an important report on Australian special operations. 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