Throughout the spectrum of warfare, the US and its allies face new challenges. Authoritarian states conduct irregular statecraft and operations within the grey zone between peace and struggle, aiming to coerce nation-states, normalize authorities and personal market corruption, and subvert the worldwide rules-based order. Adversaries together with China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran problem particular person freedoms, basic human rights, and the safety of the worldwide commons. They leverage know-how to erode U.S. margins of benefit. These threats demand U.S. particular operations forces evolve shortly and creatively.
Whereas the previous twenty years of fight shifted Naval Particular Warfare’s (NSW’s) principal missions to counter–violent extremist organizations (C-VEO) and counterterrorism (CT), we by no means left our “frogman” roots. As we speak, we’re making use of hard-earned fight classes—figuring out irregular alternatives; fusing operations and intelligence; planning missions; and rehearsing and integrating with the joint drive, different businesses, the intelligence group, and dependable worldwide companions—to broaden deterrence choices and resolution house. With new and energized partnerships with U.S. House, Strategic, and Cyber Instructions, we’re creating modern capabilities and ideas to extend diplomatic leverage; affect adversary leaders to undercut their confidence in success; ship war-winning entry in battle; and mitigate the political, strategic, and army dangers the nation should assume to discourage its adversaries.
To create leverage and scalable choices, Naval Particular Warfare is creating “purple button” choices that may maintain adversaries and their important army capabilities in danger. These initiatives are anchored in a renewed emphasis on undersea and seabed warfare.
Sensing, Downside Fixing, And Adapting For Relevance
In March 2021, Naval Particular Warfare Power Grasp Chief Invoice King and I carried out undersea clandestine infiltration coaching on board a Virginia-class submarine—one thing I had not finished since I used to be an ensign at SEAL Group Eight out of the escape trunk of a Sturgeon-class submarine. We have been there to expertise firsthand the warfighting competence, complexities, dangers, and capabilities of those distinctive operations and establish methods to extend choices in right this moment’s complicated, contested operational surroundings.
A principal accountability of leaders is to know what has modified—after which boldly, fearlessly lead their organizations to adapt. This requires information of 1’s personal drive, capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses. It additionally requires seeing the threats and alternatives. With that perspective, leaders should create a imaginative and prescient to satisfy the threats and alternatives and align their crew with it. That is what our frogman forefathers taught us, and their spirit stays deep inside Naval Particular Warfare’s tradition and ethos. It’s what makes our transformation doable.
Core to Naval Particular Warfare’s ongoing transformation are our excessive requirements, humility, grit, problem-solving and relentless pursuit of excellence. The nation trusts its frogmen to be prepared for complicated, dangerous missions. To fulfill these expectations, we should establish, enroll, assess, choose, practice, and develop the individuals who will guarantee future mission success.
Throughout World Struggle II, U.S. naval commandos—known as underwater demolition groups (UDTs) on the time—pioneered particular operations missions from the ocean. These have been irregular warfare missions from the maritime flanks of the enemy. Over the seaside, into the littoral, towards island targets, and deep into riverways, these groups operated in complicated menace and environmental circumstances. Their resolute examples encourage how Naval Particular Warfare right this moment is evolving to struggle underneath, on, and above the ocean to increase the attain of the joint drive into denied areas for intelligence assortment and high-leverage, environment friendly, and efficient actions.
Naval Particular Warfare’s organizational transformation and modernization priorities are to:
• Strengthen the rigor and precision of candidate identification, evaluation, choice, enrollment, coaching, and improvement, with daring drive design adjustments to keep up our relevance
• Experiment with new warfare ideas and function with joint companions to make step adjustments in built-in deterrence throughout all domains
• Construct comparative fight benefit via synthetic intelligence (AI) and machine studying (ML)
Personnel Modifications: Higher Evaluation, Choice, And Improvement
New approaches to recruitment, evaluation, choice, and coaching are underpinning our transformation. Recognizing our group suffered a number of high-profile circumstances of lapses in judgment and management over the previous few years, we’re placing elevated emphasis on particular person character, cognitive and management evaluation, and improvement. In 2021, we shaped a brand new
Echelon IV command—Naval Particular Warfare Evaluation Command—that may make use of active-duty SEALs and particular warfare combatant crewmen (SWCCs) to establish, have interaction, and enroll future candidates. This command will present a extra exact preliminary evaluation of candidates and frequently evolve evaluation approaches throughout the continuum of NSW careers. With the institution of this command, Naval Particular Warfare now not will depend on conventional recruiting strategies to search out future SEALs and SWCCs. We’re figuring out and fascinating potential candidates from demographics that traditionally haven’t considered becoming a member of our crew. These efforts will give us an edge in chief choice and candid suggestions for self-improvement and particular person improvement.
Over this similar interval—with Navy Schooling and Coaching Command’s help—we disestablished the separate recruit rifle division at boot camp in December 2020. SEAL and SWCC recruit candidates at the moment are totally built-in with the remainder of their Navy shipmates in recruit coaching. This implies SEAL and SWCC candidates resolve their first issues within the Navy along with teammates from the larger Navy.
On the similar time, we’re implementing new efforts to enroll numerous candidates in Naval Particular Warfare. And we moved the Naval Particular Warfare preparatory college from Nice Lakes to Coronado to pay attention our evaluation and choice cadre, to allow them to conduct the identical stage of preassessment scrutiny already utilized to officer candidates to enlisted candidates earlier than their ultimate approval to start fundamental underwater demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) and fundamental crewman coaching.
Unit 1 rigs her Mk 25 underwater respiration equipment earlier than a dive. NSW is partnering with the Marine Corps to develop complementary ideas, expeditionary sustainment, and staging for inside-force operations in contested environments. Credit score: U.S. Navy (Alex Perlman)
These initiatives concerned studying from different companies’ evaluation and choice packages, private-sector finest practices, and modern concepts from the fleet, backside up. The brand new management evaluation and choice program improves choice precision for all officer and senior enlisted milestone assignments in any respect echelons. We now conduct a four-day evaluation—modeled after the Army’s new Battalion Commander Evaluation Program (BCAP) and Particular Operations Forces’ Particular Mission Unit finest practices—that features strong cognitive and noncognitive psychometric testing, written assessments, peer and subordinate evaluations, and double-blind candidate interviews that mitigate cognitive biases in chief choice.1
Tactical Modifications
Naval Particular Warfare is implementing adjustments throughout its tactical formations for survivability, lethality, and relevance inside joint warfighting ideas. On the core tactical maneuver-element stage, we diminished the variety of SEAL platoons from 72 to 48 over the previous 12 months—realigning finish power into the remaining platoons. These newer, greater platoons now have a 3rd subordinate maneuver aspect for natural cyber, digital warfare, and multidomain unmanned system capabilities. Having fewer platoons additionally diminished the danger of management failure that had elevated as Naval Particular Warfare grew to satisfy C-VEO calls for after 9/11. The platoon discount resulted in a 33 % enhance in tactical management selectivity.
Particular operations command-and-control (C2) ideas have been redesigned to handle the operational threat for complicated Twenty first-century missions. Improvements on this space heart on a flag-level process drive that may take our type-command features of manning, coaching, and equipping and mix them with new operational authorities to supervise strategic maritime missions and maintain our adversary methods in danger.
We merged Naval Particular Warfare Group 3 and Group 10, two O-6 Echelon III main instructions, into Naval Particular Warfare Group 8 which fuses undersea capabilities (together with SEAL supply car [SDV] groups) and superior intelligence, cyber, digital warfare, and multidomain unmanned methods throughout the particular reconnaissance groups. This shift supplies process drive depth throughout joint warfighting features, unity of command, and new irregular capabilities to counter peer adversary methods.
Experimentation, Idea Improvement, And Companions
Early in my profession, I deployed on Navy plane carriers, and I nonetheless have vivid recollections of residing immediately underneath the “three-wire” (the first arresting wire for plane returning to the flight deck) as a junior SEAL on board the USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67), Saratoga (CV-60), and Kitty Hawk (CV-63). On six-month deployments, we immediately supported the service air wing, extending the Navy’s choices throughout the Balkan battle and later in Southeast Asia. Such previous experiences with fleet integration are driving present advances in maritime reconnaissance and scouting; strike, mine, undersea, and seabed warfare; strategic sabotage towards important infrastructure; and deception. These ideas enhance survivability and lethality of the joint drive with kinetic, digital warfare, and cyber results. Wargaming and testing the survivability, lethality, and relevance of recent ideas illuminates functionality gaps and refines help to “large Navy’s” distributed maritime operations.
Rear Admiral Wayne E. Meyer, the “father” of the AEGIS fight system, exhorted his groups to “construct a little bit, take a look at a little bit, study quite a bit.” In that vein, we’re working with the Navy’s submarine drive and Marine expeditionary forces to develop new ways, strategies, and procedures. Naval Particular Warfare has lengthy loved a particular relationship with the submarine drive. Distinct stealthy NSW capabilities, mixed with superior stealthy submarines, create an unequalled uneven benefit. Final summer time, SEALs and SDVs carried out interoperability workout routines within the jap Mediterranean on board a Virginia-class submarine for a proof-of-concept with the U.S. Sixth Fleet, affirming the power to adapt collectively for brand new strategic, multidomain choices that broaden nationwide leverage. We are also partnering with the Marine Corps on complementary ideas, expeditionary sustainment, and staging for inside drive operations in contested battlespace.
As Naval Particular Warfare continues to satisfy our enduring C-VEO and CT missions to guard the homeland from exterior assault, we’re pushing to check, consider, experiment, and combine scalable results towards important adversary methods (together with C5ISRT) of nice energy rivals. We’re studying how one can combine our capabilities to enrich the F-35 Lightning II, littoral fight ships, Zumwalt-class destroyers, Navy Sealift Command property, and Navy unmanned automobiles. Working alongside these manned and unmanned platforms, we’re testing new ideas, applied sciences, and ways; contributing to the Navy’s unmanned process drive mission; and amplifying the lethality, scalability, entry, and precision of Navy fight energy.
Lately, the commander of U.S. Particular Operations Command determined to carry roughly a 3rd of Naval Particular Warfare’s combat-ready drive in reserve for experimentation, idea improvement, and high-return deploy-for-purpose (DfP) missions. This can be a vital change from the previous twenty years of deploying all our combat-ready forces. These DfP reserve components enhance our agility to answer crises across the globe and—maybe most important—present combat-ready forces to experiment and generate new ideas at decrease coaching threat after they’ve mastered core mission-essential duties. Permitting combat-ready forces to experiment with new ways, strategies, and procedures for probably the most stressing onerous targets and environmental circumstances helps reply the Navy’s and joint drive’s key operational issues. These combat-ready forces practice towards peer-level opposition forces that replicate superior detection capabilities in workout routines utilizing goal evaluators. Naval Particular Warfare’s DfP components already are advancing readiness in excessive menace and environmental circumstances, such because the Arctic’s Excessive North, the place we see a rise in destabilizing actions within the maritime commons.
Allies And Companions
As adversaries press for benefit throughout domains, U.S. army forces should combine with allies and dependable companions to strengthen our collective energy to uphold the rules-based worldwide order. As Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin wrote in Might 2021, we plan to make use of our “present capabilities, construct new ones, and use all of them in new and networked methods—shoulder-to-shoulder with our allies and companions.”2 NSW forces take part in military-to-military contact occasions across the globe. In 2021, we skilled with Japanese, South Korean, Australian, and Indian counterparts within the Indo-Pacific theater and with Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Cyprus, and Greece within the European theater. Alternatives to coach, study, and function new applied sciences and share knowledge for widespread intelligence and area consciousness end in built-in capabilities to discourage those that would threaten freedom.
Innovate To Win
Naval Particular Warfare possesses a variety of distinctive capabilities for shut entry missions. Our prime precedence displays that of the Division of the Navy—creating ideas and capabilities that bolster deterrence and broaden U.S. warfighting benefit towards China.3 Competing towards superior threats calls for consistently updating and adapting new know-how. The challenges forward require multidomain autonomous unmanned methods and scalable, compounding applied sciences that impose prices on the adversary and create deescalation alternatives in crises.
Naval Particular Warfare is investing in resilient networks and modernizing enterprise software program, safety, and knowledge infrastructure to advance AI/ML purposes. With present knowledge on human efficiency, machines, and adversaries, and making use of current DoD insurance policies for digital benefit, we’re making use of AI to human warfighting readiness, company efficiencies, and intelligence, maneuver, safety, and fires—to create benefit. We’re experimenting with autonomous marsupial ideas—issues in and on issues that do issues—that leverage interoperable multidomain robots. We’re pursuing collaborative, clever, networked, autonomous, and interoperable unmanned methods for resolution dominance, entry, precision, and scale, whereas thoughtfully contributing to DoD efforts to set insurance policies and precedents to handle the inherent ethical, authorized, and moral dangers in disruptive applied sciences. AI relies on experimenting with algorithms, and we see alternatives inside our small however agile drive to function a take a look at mattress for brand new know-how for DoD and the Fleet. Experimenting with NSW’s small drive first means the Navy can settle for extra threat whereas transferring new applied sciences to bigger methods and forces quicker.
Distinctive Choices—From And On The Sea
Within the quest to innovate for army benefit and edge, Naval Particular Warfare is prioritizing the distinctive missions that solely we will do—underneath, on, and above the ocean and into the littorals. Our most up-to-date fight experiences introduced us farther on land than previous generations of naval commandos, however our maritime roots will chart the course for the following period. Naval Particular Warfare is innovating to resolve the toughest safety challenges—by constructing a disciplined, exact, and deadly drive.
