Special Forces?

[mguarino]

Trying to build up packages for the following

• 18B Special Forces Weapons Sergeant

• 18C Special Forces Engineer Sergeant

• 18D Special Forces Medical Sergeant

• 18E Special Forces Communications Sergeant

• 18F Special Forces Assistant Operations & Intelligence Sergeant

• 18X Special Forces Candidate <-- this is you all current classification

• 18Z Special Forces Operations Sergeant

 

The team should be able to accomplish the following types of missions:

 

Direct Action (DA). These are short-duration strikes and other small-scale offensive actions conducted as a special operation in hostile, denied, or politically sensitive environments and which employ specialized military capabilities to seize, destroy, capture, exploit, recover, or damage designated targets. DA differs from conventional offensive actions in the level of physical and political risk, operational techniques, and the degree of discriminate and precise use of force to achieve specific objectives.Activities within DA include the following:

1. Raids, Ambushes, and Direct Assaults. These are operations designed to achieve specific, well-defined and often time-sensitive results. They are sometimes beyond the effective strike capabilities of conventional force elements. Such operations typically involve attacks on critical targets, interdiction of LOCs or other target systems, capturing designated personnel or material; or the seizure, destruction, or neutralization of adversary facilities or capabilities.
    
   
   
2. Standoff Attacks. These are attacks by weapon systems or through IO. Standoff attacks can be conducted by air, maritime, or by ground platforms or units. When targets can be sufficiently damaged or destroyed without the commitment of close-combat forces, these attacks can be performed as independent actions.
    
   
   
3. Terminal Attack Control and Terminal Guidance Operations. These are actions to identify and precisely report the location of targets, and with global positioning systems, laser designators, beacons, or other means, conduct either terminal attack control (TAC) or terminal guidance operations (TGO) to effectively engage them. TAC involves actions to control the maneuver of and grant weapons release clearance to attacking aircraft. TGO includes any electronic, mechanical, voice or visual communication that provides approaching aircraft or weapons additional information regarding a specific location or target. TAC differs from TGO in that TAC includes the authority to clear aircraft to release ordnance and TGO does not. Because of this, TAC requires individuals to be qualified as joint terminal attack controllers, but TGO does not.
    
   
   
4. Recovery Operations. These are operations conducted to search for, locate, identify, rescue, and return personnel, sensitive equipment, or items critical to national security. SO recovery missions are characterized by detailed planning, rehearsal, and thorough intelligence analysis. These operations employ unconventional tactics and techniques, clandestine search, possible indigenous assistance, and the frequent use of ground combat elements.
    
   
   
5. Precision Destruction Operations. These are operations in which collateral damage must be minimized, requiring highly sophisticated weapons and/or timed detonation of specific amounts of explosives placed in exact locations to accomplish mission objectives. Precision destruction operations can be conducted against targets where precision-guided munitions cannot guarantee first strike successor when the contents of a facility must be destroyed without damage to that facility.
    
   
   
6. Anti-Surface Operations. These are operations conducted against adversary maritime surface targets, including combatants. These include, but are not limited to, visit, board, search, and seizure operations which are shipboarding operations to board and seize cooperative, uncooperative, or hostile contacts of interest.
   

Special Reconnaissance (SR). These are 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. These actions provide an additive capability for commanders and supplement other conventional reconnaissance and surveillance actions. Even with today's sophisticated long-range sensors and overhead platforms, some information can be obtained only by visual observation or other collection methods in the target area. SOF's highly developed capabilities of gaining access to denied and hostile areas, worldwide communications, and specialized aircraft and sensors enable SR against targets inaccessible to other forces or assets. Activities within SR include the following:

1. Environmental Reconnaissance. These are operations conducted to collect and report critical hydrographic, geological, and meteorological information.
    
   
   
2. Armed Reconnaissance. These are operations that involve locating and attacking targets of opportunity, e.g., adversary materiel, personnel, and facilities in assigned general areas or along assigned LOCs. Armed reconnaissance is not conducted for the purpose of attacking specific identified targets.
    
   
   
3. Target and Threat Assessment. These are operations conducted to detect, identify, locate, and assess a target to determine the most effective employment of weapons. This type of operation might include the assessment of the potential effects (to include collateral damage) of a strike or an attack on a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or toxic industrial material site.
    
   
   
4. Poststrike Reconnaissance. These operations are undertaken for the purpose of gathering information used to measure results of a strike.
   

Foreign Internal Defense (FID). These are operations that involve participation by civilian and military agencies of a government in any of the action programs taken by another government or other designated organization, to free and protect its society from subversion, lawlessness, and insurgency. Both conventional and SOF units have a role and capability to conduct FID missions. SOF's primary role in this interagency activity is to assess, train, advise, and assist Host Nation (HN) military and paramilitary forces with the tasks that require their unique capabilities. The goal is to enable these forces to maintain the HN's internal stability, to counter subversion and violence in their country, and to address the causes of instability. Internal stability forms the shield behind which a nation-building campaign can succeed. Successful FID missions can lead to strategic successes for US foreign policy. FID activities include the following:

1. HN Military Assistance. These are operations that train HN military individuals and units in tactical employment, sustainment, and integration of land, air, and maritime skills, provide advice and assistance to military leaders, and provide training on tactics, techniques,and procedures required to protect the HN from subversion, lawlessness, and insurgency, and develop indigenous individual, leader, and organizational skills.
    
   
   
2. Population Security. These are operations that strengthen population security by providing supervision of tactical operations conducted by HN military units to neutralize and destroy insurgent threats, isolate insurgents from the civil population, and protect the civil population. As a subset of FID, designated SOF units may also train select HN forces to perform counterterrorist missions.
   

Unconventional Warfare (UW). These are operations that involve a broad spectrum of military and paramilitary operations, normally of long duration, predominantly conducted through, with, or by indigenous or surrogate forces who are organized, trained, equipped, supported, and directed in varying degrees by an external source. UW is unique in that it is a Special Operation (SO) that can either be conducted as part of a geographic combatant commander's overall theater campaign, or as an independent, subordinate campaign. When conducted independently, the primary focus of UW is on political-military objectives and psychological objectives. UW includes military and paramilitary aspects of resistance movements. UW military activity represents the culmination of a successful effort to organize and mobilize the civil populace against a hostile government or occupying power. From the US perspective, the intent is to develop and sustain these supported resistance organizations and to synchronize their activities to further US national security objectives. SOF units do not create resistance movements. They advise, train, and assist indigenous resistance movements already in existence to conduct UW and when required,accompany them into combat. When UW operations support conventional military operations, the focus shifts to primarily military objectives; however the political and psychological implications remain. Operational and strategic staffs and commanders must guard against limiting UW to a specific set ofcircumstances or activities defined by either recent events or personal experience. The most prevalent mistake is the belief that UW is limited to guerrilla warfare or insurgency. UW includes, but is not limited to, the following activities:

1. Guerrilla Warfare. These are military and paramilitary operations conducted by irregular, predominantly indigenous forces in adversary-held or hostile territory. It is the military aspect of an insurgency or other armed resistance movement. Guerilla warfare techniques can undermine the legitimacy of the existing government or an occupying power as well as destroy, degrade, or divert military capabilities.
    
   
   
2. Subversion. These operations are designed to undermine the military, economic, psychological, or political strength or morale of a regime or nation. The clandestine nature of subversion dictates that the underground elements perform the bulk of the activity.
    
   
   
3. Sabotage. These are operations that involve an act or acts with intent to injure, interfere with, or obstruct the national defense of a country by willfully injuring or destroying, or attempting to injure or destroy, any national defense or war material, premises, or utilities, to include human and natural resources. Sabotage selectively disrupts, destroys, or neutralizes hostile capabilities with a minimum expenditure of manpower and materiel.
    
   
   
4. Intelligence Activities. These activities assess areas of interest ranging from political and military personalities to the military capabilities of friendly and adversary forces. SOF perform intelligence activities ranging from developing information critical to planning and conducting operations, to assessing the capabilities and intentions of indigenous and coalition forces.
    
   
   
5. Unconventional Assisted Recovery (UAR). These operations consist of UW forces establishing and operating unconventional assisted recovery mechanisms and unconventional assisted recovery teams. UAR operations are designed to seek out, contact, authenticate, and support military and other selected personnel as they move from an adversary-held, hostile, or sensitive area to areas under friendly control.
   

Counterterrorism (CT). These are operations that include the offensive measures taken to prevent, deter, preempt, and respond to terrorism. SOF's role and additive capability is to conduct offensive measures within DOD's overall combatting terrorism efforts. SOF conduct CT missions as special operations by covert, clandestine, or low visibility means. SOF's activities within CT include, but are not limited to, intelligence operations, attacks against terrorist networks and infrastructures, hostage rescue, recovery of sensitive material from terrorist organizations, and non-kinetic activities aimed at the ideologies or motivations that spawn terrorism:

1. Intelligence Operations. These are operations to collect, exploit, and report information on terrorist organizations, personnel, assets, and/or activities. SOF have the capability to conduct these operations in an overt, covert, and/or clandestine manner.
    
   
   
2. Network and Infrastructure Attacks. These are operations that involve preemptive strikes against terrorist organizations with the objective of destroying, disorganizing, or disarming terrorist organizations before they can strike targets of national interest.
    
   
   
3. Hostage or Sensitive Materiel Recovery. These are operations conducted to rescue hostages and/or recover sensitive materiel from terrorist control, requiring capabilities not normally found in conventional military units. The safety of the hostages and preventing destruction of the sensitive materiel are essential mission requirements.
    
   
   
4. Non-Kinetic Activities. These are actions that are focused on defeating the ideologies or motivations that spawn terrorism by non-kinetic means. These could include, but are not limited to, PSYOP, IO, CA operations, UW and/or FID.
   

 

 

What types of skill packages make the best sense when working as a team in order to accomplish the above goals? Thanks in advanced.

[mguarino]

Re: Special Forces?

 

Dark Champions 5th Edition has a great write up for this type of thing.