SOF

Shoot, Move, Communicate: How Special Operations prepares you for the real-world

There is a certain culture found in the special operations community. These guys are considered to be some of the toughest, strongest, smartest, and most capable individuals in the U.S. military. It is common knowledge that if you need to make a bad guy disappear or to rescue someone from a hostile environment, that one […]

The Pic of the Day: Preparing for some explosive breaching

U.S. Marines conduct urban breach demolition and explosives training during exercise Fuji Viper 20-2 on Camp Fuji, Japan, Nov. 27, 2019. Fuji Viper is a regularly scheduled training evolution that allows infantry units to maintain their lethality and proficiency in infantry and combined arms tactics. This iteration of the exercise is executed by an activated […]

Navy SEAL graduates from NASA’s Astronaut Program

A Navy SEAL has successfully completed the NASA Astronaut program. Last week, Lieutenant Jonny Kim graduated from the course and now is qualified for missions to the International Space Station and the moon. Kim enlisted in the Navy in 2002. After successfully completing the grueling Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) and SEAL Qualification Training (SQT) courses, […]

Obese and Weak: Are Young Americans Failing the Special Operations Community?

Facing a concerning shortage in special operations personnel, the U.S. military grapples with the reality that, despite the high costs and rigorous standards of training, fewer young Americans are stepping up to join the elite ranks, possibly due to growing societal comfort and diminishing physical and mental aptitude.

Disaster in the making? US to withdraw from Africa

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley was in Brussels to speak at a gathering of NATO commanders. There he said that the U.S. wants to reduce its footprint in Africa. Meanwhile, France’s President Emmanuel Macron was hosting a conference of the G5 nations (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger) […]

We ain’t Navy SEALs: The path to becoming a Navy SWCC

Becoming a Navy Special Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewman (SWCC) is no easy task. The SWCC selection pipeline is designed to weed out the weak and to create a training environment that simulates the stressful conditions that are experienced in real-world situations. If an individual is not physically and mentally prepared, they have very little chance to […]

How Spec Ops helicopters defeat heat-seeking missiles

The MH-47G Chinook helicopter fleet, one of the most important aviation assets of the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), is getting a new countermeasure system aimed at improving its survivability on the battlefield. More specifically, the MH-47Gs are being outfitted with the AN/AAQ-24 LAIRCM. This enhancement is a Directional Infrared Counter Measures (DIRCM) system that […]

Shock and Awe: French SOF assault three terrorist camps

In the span of a few weeks, a French Special Operations task force has assaulted three terrorist camps deep in Mali, resulting in the death of scores of Jihadists. The French Ministry of Defence announced that the first operation took place on December 21. A French Special Operations ground element, supported by Mirage 2000D fighter […]

A glimpse into the Covert Ops of the Vietnam War

On August 2, 1964, four North Vietnamese patrol boats attacked the destroyer USS Maddox (DD731). This did not turn out well for the North Vietnamese. Between American guns and air support, one NV patrol boat was left dead in the water with the remaining badly shot-up. The Maddox took a few machine-gun hits. In spite […]

Army refuses to restore Special Forces Tab to pardoned Golsteyn 

The U.S. Army is setting up another showdown over a pardon issued by President Trump to Major Matt Golsteyn. The Washington Post was the first to report, citing two different sources on the condition of anonymity within the Army, that Lieutenant General Francis M. Beaudette, the commander of U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC), had […]

Iran embassy takeover forty years ago helped shape today’s SOCOM

Over 40-years ago, Iranian militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, and took 98 hostages. The majority of them would be held for 444 days until they would be freed just before Ronald Reagan became President.  The events that unfolded during the crisis would put in motion the creation of the United States Special […]

America goes to war with Iran… what would it look like? 

Well, in an earlier piece, I tried to tell you that open war with Iran is a really, really remote possibility. Now we’ll flip-flop it a bit (that’s the beauty of the internet) and assume that war between the United States and Iran isn’t only possible, but we will attempt to outline how it might […]