When they deploy to combat zones, special operations troops bring along a multitude of gizmos. Besides basic line-of-sight radios to communicate with their peers, they need devices to connect with other U.S. government agencies and allies. They also have satellite receivers, smartphones, tablets and custom terminals to upload streaming video.
At a time when special operations forces are seeking to expand their presence around the world, there has to be better ways to connect operators and allow them to share information in real time, said Adm. William McRaven, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command.
“We are trying to enhance the SOF network,” McRaven said during a presentation at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. “How do we push communications down to every liaison officer at a U.S. embassy, to every operator in the field?”
McRaven’s plan is to transition SOCOM from a force that is primarily in the Middle East and Afghanistan to one that is spread around the globe.
In the future, special operations forces will face challenges that “cut across geographic combatant command boundaries, demanding integrated global approaches,” said Jim Thomas, vice president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. In a new CSBA study on the future of special operations forces, Thomas suggested that SOCOM’s vision to build a “global network” will require greater collaboration with foreign forces and interagency partners/.../