Foreign Internal Defense

Where we lived with villagers and tied bottom up security to district and provincial governance, VSO and ALP held ground the centralized model could not, and when support was cut the Taliban wasted no time reclaiming the countryside.

Can SFOD-As and SFABs team up for smarter missions? A fresh look at Special Forces, conventional troops, and strategic ops.

Has the Special Forces mission expanded too far? Green Berets were built for Unconventional Warfare—so why are they juggling nine missions?

Ricardo and I stood under the barracks’ overhang, chain-smoking those god-awful Colombian cigs and watching chaos unfold like it was just another Tuesday, all while humming ‘Going back to Cali’ like we were extras in some black comedy war flick.

In a war with China, allied and partner commando units that U.S. special operation forces have helped stand up or train would be an advantage for the U.S. military.

On July 24, 2020, members of the Air Force’s 21st Special Tactics Squadron, along with their friends and family, joined together for a special awards ceremony. The squadron’s most recent deployment was in 2019. It involved members deploying to three different locations and fighting against six different extremist organizations. Due to the actions of the […]

As U.S. troops have begun withdrawing from Afghanistan after 19 years of warfare, it looks like U.S. Special Operations units are going to be the last bastion of defense in the country. The agreement between the U.S and the Taliban stipulates that American troops are to be gradually withdrawn from the country within a 14-monthly […]

The United States has begun the initial, gradual withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in keeping with the peace agreement signed with the Taliban on Feb. 29. The Pentagon confirmed this despite the political chaos surrounding the Kabul government. Under the peace agreement, U.S. forces will be reduced from 13,000 to 8,600 over the next 135 […]

The task of the Special Forces Assessment and Selection course is identifying the candidates who are suitable for Special Forces training. And two of the primary functions of Special Forces are UW (Unconventional Warfare) and FID (Foreign Internal Defense). It is important that the schools don’t lose sight of that fact as SOF (Special Operations […]

Read part 2 here “For all their limitations, I don’t believe we could’ve won the war without the firqats,” says Ian Gardiner, a former Royal Marines officer with extensive service to include deployments in Oman, Northern Ireland, and the Falklands. Before we delve into what the firqats, literally meaning a company, were and their operations with the SAS, […]

The Pentagon’s decision to replace elements of an infantry brigade of the 101st Airborne with elements of the 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB) has long been in the works.  This will accomplish two tasks: Firstly, it will provide better continuity in training missions with a unit designed to train foreign troops, thereby freeing up […]

When people hear of Navy SEALs or Special Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewmen (SWCC), most think of a scene of guns blazing, cool ass night vision goggles, and fast helicopters and boats slipping through the dark night. In reality, Naval Special Warfare has many different mission sets, including Foreign Internal Defense (FID). FID may not be the […]