Special operations forces from all five branches of the military are facing a wide variety of challenges at home and abroad in 2024. Leaders from every branch met at the 2024 State of the Special Operations Forces Week summit to discuss everything from budget restraints to troop enlistment.
The summit panels and keynote speeches came to a similar conclusion: cooperation and collaboration among all the branches is the best way to tackle the growing list of challenges.
From the start of the gathering, leaders emphasized that while internal challenges will need to be addressed, each branch will need to collaborate to tackle growing threats from abroad.
“In this decisive decade, autocrats and terrorists the light seek to up end, the free and open international system, from the PRC to Russia, from Iran to North Korea, and violent extremist organizations,” Gen. Bryan Fenton, commander of U.S. special operations forces, said. “Those adversaries seek to divide and weaken the power of these partnerships.”
Fenton also said that in addition to threats from countries, terrorist groups like Al Shabaab, al-Qaida and ISIS still pose a risk. In addition, growing groups like Hamas, the Houthis and Hezbollah also required attention and special forces resources in the last year. U.S. military leaders said new technology made it easier for those groups to attack than ever before.
“We’re seeing the character of war rapidly change with smaller, faster and cheaper uncrewed systems and robotics, ubiquitous surveillance tools of every kind,” U.S. special operations forces Command Sgt. Maj. Shane Shorter said. “And of course, artificial intelligence are all creating wicked problems.”
Special operations forces from each branch will have to cooperate with each other. They will also have to work with allied nations’ special forces as the number of threats grows. Retired Army Gen. Vincent Brooks said that collaboration will give the U.S. and its allies a leg up on those threats.
“I think that this approach to having great capability in both the unconventional and special operations arena, as well as the general purpose arena, is what can give us a decided advantage over adversaries who have great challenges in bringing such things together,” Brooks said.
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