ARSOF Module Flashcards
What is the ARSOF Core Competencies?
“The army special operations forces’ core competencies are special warfare and surgical strike.” (ADP 3-05)
A core competency is an essential and enduring capability that a branch or an organization provides to Army Operations (ADP 1-01)
What are the 13 SOF Core Activities?
- Civil Affairs Operations
- Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction
- Counterinsurgency
- Counterterrorism
- Direct Action
- Foreign Humanitarian Assistance
- Foreign Internal Defense
- Military Information Support Operations
- Preparation of the Environment
- Security Force Assistance
- Special Reconnaissance
- Unconventional Warfare
- Hostage Rescue and Recovery
What are the 9 SF Principal Tasks?
- Unconventional Warfare
- Foreign Internal Defense
- Counterinsurgency
- Security Force Assistance
- Special Reconnaissance
- Direct Action
- Counterterrorism
- Counterproliferation
- Preparation of the Environment
What makes something a special operation?
- Specialized Training
…
Define Unconventional Warfare
UW is the core activity and organizing principal for Army SF.
Activities conducted to enable a resistance movement or insurgency to coerce, disrupt, or overthrow a government or occupying power by operating through or with an underground, auxiliary, and guerilla force in a denied area.
Define Foreign Internal Defense
Participation by civilian and military agencies of a government in any of the action programs taken by another government or other designated organization to free and protect its society from subversion, lawlessness, insurgency, terrorism, and other threats to its security.
Define Counterinsurgency
A comprehensive civilian and military effort designed to simultaneously defeat or contain an insurgency and address its root causes.
Define Security Force Assistance
Department of Defense activities that support the development of the capacity and capability of foreign security forces and their supporting institutions
Define Special Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance and surveillance actions conducted as a special operation in hostile, denied, or diplomatically and/or politically sensitive environments to collect or verify information of strategic or operational significance, employing military capabilities not normally found in conventional forces.
Define Direct Action
Direct Action is defined as short-duration strikes and other small-scall offensive actions conducted as a special operation in hostile, denied, or diplomatically sensitive environments and which employ specialized military capabilities to seize, destroy, capture, exploit, recover, or damage designated targets.
Precise and rapid application of force to execution and achieve immediate OBJs
Define Counterterrorism
Activities and operations taken to neutralize terrorists and their organizations and networks in order to render them incapable of using violence to instill fear and coerce governments or societies to achieve their goals.
Protecting populace by detecting and disrupting terrorist activities
Define Counterproliferation (Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction)
Actions taken to defeat the threat and/or use of weapons of mass destruction against the United States, our forces, allies, and partners.
Define Preparation of the Environment
Actions taken to prepare the operational environment for potential operations.
Create conditions to enable success of an operation.
What are the 7 dynamics of an insurgency?
- Leadership
- Ideology
- Objectives
- Environment and Geography
- External Support
- Phasing and Timing
- Organization and Operational Pattern
Define the “Leadership” insurgency dynamic
Provides vision, direction, guidance, coordination, and organizational coherence; may come from strategic-level in an organized insurgency or initially come locally from disparate
Key tasks: Break bonds between government and people, Create ties between the insurgency and the people, Generate legitimacy and credibility
Define the “Ideology” insurgency dynamic
Unifying factor, Common set of beliefs, values and norms, Used to influence behavior of the movement, and also the broader population The most powerful ideologies tap latent, emotional concerns of the populace, Religion-based objectives, Desire for justice, Ethnic aspirations, Liberation from foreign occupation
Provides a motivation for mobilization in support of an insurgency, Grows out of discontent with status quo, Illuminates strategic direction and evolves with the objectives,
Define the “Objectives” insurgency dynamic
Specific things we want to achieve, ideology is the “why” things need to be changed
Objectives: of an insurgency can evolve over time, Resistance - common for new/small movements, just trying to survive., Reform – coerce policy change in existing government, Nullification – “Leave us alone”, Secession – “Formally – leave us alone”, Revolution
Define the “Environment/Geography” insurgency dynamic
PMSEI-PT
OAKOC
Define the “External Support” insurgency dynamic
External support may provide otherwise limited resources, Any entity looking to influence the conflict may participate by supporting the insurgency, Ethnic or religious communities in other states (diasporas)
Benefits external agencies providing support
Define the “Phasing and Timing” insurgency dynamic
Phasing and Timing: Common phases of development, Insurgent movement may be in different phases in different parts of a given country, Flexibility is the key strength of a phased approach
Shifting activities (protracted war strategy), Strategic movement from one phase to another does not end the operational and tactical activities typical of earlier phases; it incorporates them (North Vietnamese Dau Trahn)
Define the “Organization and Operational Patterns” insurgency dynamic
Organization is their operational framework
What operations I conduct and how frequently do they occur (what are actions are they taking)
Describe the Objective Dynamics of an Insurgency
Objectives: of an insurgency can evolve over time
Resistance - common for new/small movements, just trying to survive
Reform – coerce policy change in existing government
Nullification – “Leave us alone”
Secession – “Formally – leave us alone”
Revolution
What are the 3 phases of Mao’s insurgency strategy?
- Strategi Defense
- Strategic Stalemate
- Strategic Offense
What are teh 3 phases of insurgency according to ARSOF doctrine
- Latent or Incipient
- Guerrilla Warfare
- War of Movement
