{"id":1933872,"date":"2023-05-19T04:40:19","date_gmt":"2023-05-19T08:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/special-forces-structure-budget-need-revamping-to-counter-china-russia-experts-testify\/"},"modified":"2023-05-19T04:45:02","modified_gmt":"2023-05-19T08:45:02","slug":"special-forces-structure-budget-need-revamping-to-counter-china-russia-experts-testify","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/special-forces-structure-budget-need-revamping-to-counter-china-russia-experts-testify\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts testify that the Special Forces structure and budget require revamping to counter China and Russia."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fspecial-forces-structure-budget-need-revamping-to-counter-china-russia-experts-testify%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1933872&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>U.S. Special Operations Forces Shift Focus to Great Power Competition<\/h2>\n<p>For over two decades after 9\/11, United States <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nobel-peace-prize-the-most-controversial-winners\/\" title=\"Nobel Peace Prize: The Most Controversial Winners\">special operations forces<\/a> primarily engaged in counterinsurgency campaigns and operations against terrorist organizations, mostly in the Middle East. But now, U.S. special operations forces (SOF) are engaged in a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/top-u-s-commander-we-must-assume-very-real-possibility-that-we-may-need-to-use-nukes-against-china-russia\/\" title=\"Top U.S. Commander: We Must Assume \u2018Very Real Possibility\u2019 That We May Need To Use Nukes Against China, Russia\">great power competition<\/a>\u201d against China and Russia, a transition that is exposing deficiencies in force structure and resources, witnesses told a Senate panel on May 17.<\/p>\n<h3>Transitioning to a New Focus<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cWe are no longer trying to defeat most of these terrorist groups across the globe,\u201d Center for Naval Analyses Research Program Director for Countering Threats and Challenges Jonathan Schroden said during a 90-minute hearing before the Senate Armed Forces Committee Emerging Threats Subcommittee. The plan now, he said, is to \u201cmonitor, disrupt, degrade\u201d terrorist groups that have the capability to \u201charm the homeland\u201d with a focus on countering Chinese and Russian state aggression.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis has translated into a reduction in requirements for counter-intelligence, which has freed up some SOF,\u201d Schroden said. \u201cThere is some capacity to repurpose now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Former Army Special Operations Commander Lt. Gen. Kenneth E. Tovo said there\u2019s a bit of deja vu with a return to strategic competition with adversarial nation-states. \u201cSome of our current SOF organizations were created to meet the requirements of the last period of strategic competition, the Cold War with the Soviet Union; in some ways, this is a return to our roots,\u201d he noted. But it\u2019s a whole new world now, Tovo acknowledged.<\/p>\n<h3>Less Money, More Demand<\/h3>\n<p>U.S. special forces operations are coordinated and conducted by the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), the only joint combatant command created by an act of Congress, which also oversees Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force SOF component commands.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Pentagon, about 6,000 SOF \u201coperators\u201d are currently stationed in more than 80 countries. USSOCOM\u2019s $9.68 billion Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) budget request is about $437 million less than this year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-depth-blanket-budget-slash-to-22-spending-levels-could-defund-bidens-green-energy-push\/\" title=\"IN DEPTH: Blanket Budget Slash to \u201922 Spending Levels Could Defund Biden\u2019s Green Energy Push\">enacted spending plan<\/a>. Its largest projected expenditures are $3.37 billion for \u201ctheater forces\u201d and $2 billion for combat development activities.<\/p>\n<p>Schroden and Tovo both said the overall spending request, which is about $3 billion to $4 billion less than SOF spending a decade ago, is inadequate, especially when several service branches are either flattening or cutting special operations budgets, most notably the Army by at least 10 percent.<\/p>\n<h3>Change the Ecosystem<\/h3>\n<p>Tovo said the current SOF command-and-control procedures are \u201clacking a strategic vision\u201d and need to be streamlined. \u201cThe challenge is two-fold,\u201d he said, noting the statutory authorities and procedures for approving a SOF operation \u201cis very hard\u201d to get through a chain of command that is structured to only handle \u201cone op at a time in its approval process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Among his ideas is \u201cpushing authorities and approvals further down the chain of command.\u201d But it still requires action rather than dithering by the Pentagon, Tovo said. Our challenge is often moving from authority to permission,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Schroden said restructuring the force to allow greater and faster flexibility is \u201cthe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/whats-the-limiting-principle-judge-reportedly-warns-alleged-capitol-rioters-could-be-facing-unconstitutional-charges\/\" title=\"\u2018What\u2019s The Limiting Principle?\u2019: Judge Reportedly Warns Alleged Capitol Rioters Could Be Facing Unconstitutional Charges\">million-dollar question<\/a>.\u201d But one confusing element is clear: \u201cThere is no single entity in the Department of Defense that you could point to and say, \u2018That entity is in charge. [It is] the lead [entity] for global competition campaign against the likes of China,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s been discussion about making SOF and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/special-forces-structure-budget-need-revamping-to-counter-china-russia-experts-testify\/\" title=\"Experts testify that the Special Forces structure and budget require revamping to counter China and Russia.\">cyber defense separate military branches<\/a>, and debate about whether special operations should come under the Joint Chiefs of Staff.<\/p>\n<p>Schroden said being an advisory board rather than an operational command, the Joint Chiefs of Staff would not be suitable to oversee SOF functions. But, he said, the Center for Naval Analysis is \u201cin the midst of assessment of the unified commands plan\u201d that will \u201clay out some options.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tovo said there is some movement toward a more streamlined structure being organically developed within the service SOF commands, noting the Army\u2019s First SOF Command has \u201cstood up an integrating headquarters to try [to get] a global view of these campaigns against Russia and China.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For over 20 years, US special operations forces focused on counterinsurgency and anti-terrorism in the Middle East. However, they now face a new challenge in competing against China and Russia, revealing gaps in their force structure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":509,"featured_media":1933873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[4463,4501,4405,4521,3945,9456,27109,4280,7262,10786,5308],"class_list":["post-1933872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-budget","tag-china","tag-counter","tag-experts","tag-forces","tag-require","tag-revamping","tag-russia","tag-special","tag-structure","tag-testify"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1933872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/509"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1933872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1933872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1933873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1933872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1933872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1933872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}