SO/LIC Paper Pushes Transformation.At this year's Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict (SO/LIC SO/LIC Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict ) symposium, the theme was "transformation." The SO/LIC White Paper's following points attempt to identify actions to sup port this goal. * There is an increased probability of future conflicts in urban environments against an enemy that is hard to identify. Our nation's conventional forces are learning to execute what used to be special operations Operations conducted in hostile, denied, or politically sensitive environments to achieve military, diplomatic, informational, and/or economic objectives employing military capabilities for which there is no broad conventional force requirement. missions, fighting homeland terrorism, keeping peace in foreign nations, executing special reconnaissance Reconnaissance and surveillance actions conducted as a special operation in hostile, denied, or politically sensitive environments to collect or verify information of strategic or operational significance, employing military capabilities not normally found in conventional forces. and performing psychological operations Planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals. . SO/LIC needs to have a "meeting of the minds," to discuss its relationship with the services, to determine who has the capabilities to take the lead in each mission area. * Technology can be a force or capability multiplier multiplier In economics, a numerical coefficient showing the effect of a change in one economic variable on another. One macroeconomic multiplier, the autonomous expenditures multiplier, relates the impact of a change in total national investment on the nation's total as long as it's simple, rugged and easy to maintain. While it's important to incorporate "skip-ahead" technologies, it is equally important to be flexible enough to withstand a low-tech environment. * It is likely that SO/LIC will continue to emphasize joint doctrine Fundamental principles that guide the employment of US military forces in coordinated action toward a common objective. Joint doctrine contained in joint publications also includes terms, tactics, techniques, and procedures. It is authoritative but requires judgment in application. and training. Should it become necessary, SO/LIC will be able to provide a forward regional presence with a crisis-response capability, in a joint manner. * There is a need for increased funding of special operation forces to achieve optimal results. Major Force Program 11 is not funded sufficiently to execute force maneuvers. An increasing share of the current funding is spent on personnel and maintenance of aging systems. The services must commit to funding portions of new weapons systems or update existing SO/LIC systems. * It is the intent of the SO/LIC division leaders to address policy, doctrine and resource issues, to ensure that SO/LIC forces continue to meet national security needs, and to ensure that the SO/LIC organization survives the current Defense Department reorganization. |
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