Defense Department Officials Highlight Work Of Special Operations Forces In House Hearing

Lisa Ferdinando at the DoD News offers the below piece:

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16, 2018 — The global successes of the U.S. Special Operations Command and the services’ special operations forces are due to their extraordinary people and the support from Congress, senior special operations officials told lawmakers yesterday on Capitol Hill.

Owen West, assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, told the House Armed Services Committee’s emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee that funding for Socom amounts to about 1.9 percent of the defense budget, enabling a presence in 90 countries.

"This capital expenditure fuels the current fight, but it must also result in long-term competitive advantage,” West told the House panel during a hearing on the fiscal year 2019 budget request for special operations forces and Socom.

‘Outsized Effects Around the Globe’

West and the Socom commander, Army Gen. Raymond A. Thomas III, thanked Congress for its support through funding the command and approving authorities for operations.

Socom’s budget was $11.8 billion for fiscal year 2017, Thomas said. The projected budget for fiscal 2018 is $12.3 billion, he added, noting that the figure is projected to be $13.6 billion for fiscal 2019.

The support from Congress, West and Thomas said, has allowed special operations forces to make significant contributions, such as contributing to the defeat of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

"Special operations forces played an integral role as part of the joint force in the destruction of ISIS' physical caliphate in Syria and Iraq,” Thomas said. "We continue to have outsized effects around the globe, defeating our enemies, training, equipping and enabling our friends and allies, rapidly transforming the organization to be prepared for all future threats and caring for our fallen, wounded and ill and their families.”

Recruiting Members for Elite Forces

West said he and Thomas are partners in making the command a “more efficient enterprise that supports the National Defense Strategy and the secretary of defense.”

Explaining that only 30 percent of high school students are eligible for military service, West underscored the importance of exploring “unconventional techniques and new pools” to recruit the elite force of men and women.

"Today's battlefield has challenged the traditional definition of a combatant, successfully operating in the global contact layer demands that we build a diverse force,” he said. “The [special operations forces] entry standards are high, but America has always encouraged its pioneers." The most important capital investment is human, West said.

"The task is to remain unpredictable but expansive, pushing the competitive boundaries in ways our enemies do not expect," he added. "To sustain this expansion, we must be fiscally hawkish, reducing asymmetry by adopting a focus on return on investment."

‘Decisive Advantage’ in the People

Socom and the special operations forces are “relentlessly focused on winning our current fights and preparing for all future threats facing our nation," Thomas said. He told the subcommittee that members of the command and formations are better than they have ever been, thriving under pressure, executing the toughest missions and achieving success.

“Socom continues to enhance our role as part of the joint force in assuring allies and improving their capabilities in the face of aggressive regional hegemons, reinforcing host nation and law enforcement efforts in the Western Hemisphere in the defense of our national boundaries, and preparing for contingencies,” the general said.

The successes, he said, are directly attributable to “recruiting and training amazing Americans, outfitting with them with the best equipment and training in the world and empowering them with the requisite authorities to defeat our adversaries.”

Thomas said the people “continue to be the decisive advantage." He paid tribute to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

"Success however has carried a high price,” he said. “In the past 10 months, we suffered the loss of 20 special operations personnel from our formation in combat, with 144 wounded and injured.”

Note: In the above Navy photo taken by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Mat Murch East Coast-based Navy SEALs participate in a nighttime exercise during TRIDENT 17 on May 4, 2017 at the John C. Stennis Space Center, Mississippi.

U.S. Special Operations Command HEROs Combat Human Trafficking To Save Children Around The Globe

Shannon Collins at the DoD News offers the below piece:

WASHINGTON, Jan. 2, 2018 — January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and the Defense Department has teams who work year-round to combat these crimes worldwide.

The Human Exploitation Rescue Operative, or HERO, Child-Rescue Corps is a program developed by U.S. Special Operations Command, Warrior Care Program-Career Transition, the National Association to Protect Children and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Army Col. Kimberly Moros, chief of Socom's career transition initiatives.

“The HERO Child-Rescue Corps Program is designed for wounded, injured and ill transitioning service members and veterans who receive training in high-tech computer forensics and law enforcement skills to assist federal agents in the fight against online child sexual exploitation,” she said. “Upon successful completion of the program, HERO interns will have the knowledge, skills and experience to apply for careers with federal, state and local police agencies and other organizations in the field of computer forensics.”

Since 2013, more than 130 veterans and transitioning service members have entered the HERO program. Of the successful graduates, 74 have been offered careers in federal law enforcement and another 31 are in internships, Moros said.

“HEROs and HERO interns now make up over 25 percent of the Homeland Security computer forensics workforce,” said Robert Kurtz, unit chief for HERO at Homeland Security Investigations.

Human Trafficking

“Human trafficking includes using force, fraud or coercion to compel a person to provide labor, services or sex. It’s a violation of basic human rights,” said Linda Dixon, DoD Combating Trafficking in Persons Office Program Manager. “Combating trafficking in persons is a duty that DoD takes seriously as we do in other situations that bring harm to our nation. It is a global concern, and our goal is to educate every member of DoD on how to recognize and report human trafficking in the U.S. as well as around the world.”

The three most common forms of trafficking, according to DoD's Combating Trafficking in Persons office, are forced labor, sex trafficking, and child soldiering.

Moros said the idea behind the HERO Corps is a simple one.

“When it comes to hunting those who prey on the innocent, who better than our nation’s most highly trained military veterans?” she said. “Much of today’s human trafficking and child sexual exploitation is technology facilitated. Offenders utilize the internet and digital technologies to coordinate their activity, advertise, share information and hide evidence. HEROs receive training in counter-child exploitation as well as digital forensics and victim identification. And they are then embedded with federal law enforcement.”

She said the HERO Child-Rescue Corps save children in several ways. “As law enforcement first responders, they are at every crime scene, searching for critical clues that might provide evidence for an arrest or to find a victim,” Moros said.

Back at the forensic lab, the HERO is the lead digital investigator, searching out clues that can lead to organized criminal rings, evidence of sexual assault or production of child abuse imagery, she said.

“In many cases, it has been the relentless focus and military mindset that has allowed HEROs to go beyond the digging that might be done in traditional law enforcement to find a victim,” she added.

Kurtz said federal law enforcement is just beginning to track rescues. In 2016, Homeland Security Investigations identified and rescued 820 known child victims from sexual exploitation.

“But the real number is undoubtedly many times greater,” Moros said. “As a major segment of the digital forensic workforce, and one especially dedicated to combatting child sexual exploitation and trafficking, they have been instrumental in working hundreds of those cases.” 

U.S. Special Operations Develops 'Iron Man' Suit

Jim Garamone at the DoD News offers the below piece:

MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla., Jan. 28, 2015 - Tony Stark's Iron Man suit is cool. But it's not real.

The Tactical Assault Light Operators Suit is cool, too. But it is real and may soon be protecting America's special operations forces going into harm's way.

The TALOS suit "was chartered to explore and catalyze a revolutionary integration of advanced technology to provide comprehensive ballistic protection, peerless tactical capabilities and ultimately to enhance the strategic effectiveness of the SOF operator of the future," Army Gen. Joseph L. Votel III, Socom's commander, said at the National Defense Industries Association's Special Operations/Low-intensity Conflict Symposium here yesterday.

The joint acquisition task force for the suit was established in November 2013 and is banking on breakthrough technology -- or technologies -- to protect special operators, Votel said. Socom, he said, has put together an unprecedented group from industry, academia and government to develop the prototype.

And Votel says they are on the mark.

"Although many significant challenges remain, our goal for a Mark 5 prototype suit by 2018 is on track right now," he said.

A Holistic System

Future prototype suits have exoskeletons that augment the power of the operators, Votel explained. They will also feature helmets with heads-up display technology. Other future prototypes will feature cooling/heating systems and medical sensors to monitor an operator's vital signs.

"It's a holistic system with open systems architecture, so if a new technology rises we can swap it in," said a joint task force member speaking on background during a recent interview at Socom at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. "Survivability is our number-one tenet. We have to look not only at the integration of current systems for personal protective equipment, but also to augment the guy's motion."

This is serious science with risks and serious trade-offs, and the task force's main effort this year was to "get as many smart people working on it as possible," the task force member said.

A rapid prototyping event was held in Tampa from April to June 2014. "The idea of the event was to bring industry , Interagency [and] academia together with special operators to accelerate the development of the technology and accelerate the brainstorming of the ideas for the suit and the project," said a task force member.

It worked.

More than 200 people from a wide range of disciplines answered the open call. "Putting those people in one room enabled cross polinization and an incredible collaborative teamwork atmosphere," the task force member said.

But the rapid prototyping event was more than simply charting the way ahead of theorizing on how the various parts would fit together, the task force member said. There were 3D computer modeling designers participating, he added.

"People could explore concepts by seeing what it would look like, how it would fit, how it would affect other aspects of the design," an engineer said. "Usually in [Defense Department] contracting you don't get that kind of immediate feedback. We could actually have a physical model of what we were thinking about."

The team went from cutting designs from foam to sculpting it from clay to 3D printing the prototypes. "We were able to try a group of different ideas with the experts in the room," a task force member said.

'Big Leap' Challenges Remain

Going into the rapid prototyping event, the task force members had ideas of what the problems were going to be and the event confirmed them. "It also pointed to ways we can surmount those challenges and pointed out challenges we really didn't think would be that tough," the engineer of the group said.

An untethered power source is going to be a problem, officials said. The power will be needed to operate the exoskeleton, cool or heat the operator and fuel all the sensors in the suit. "Identifying an untethered power source for extended duration is one leap of technology," one official said. "It's something that doesn't exist in that man-portable size technology. If someone has an arc reactor in their basement, I know how they can make a lot of money."

The task force is looking at novel materials and materials used in different configurations. "If you could make armor that was super, super light and is a leap in technology, that buys down some of our other problems," an official said. "We wouldn't need as much power, for example.

"We're looking to get those leaps of technologies," he continued. "Those leaps of capabilities to the guys so they can do their jobs better than they do now."

Suit Sensor Challenges

Another challenge is with the suit's sensors, officials said. One problem deals with latency -- the time between when a sensor detects something and when it is transmitted to the brain. Night-vision goggles are immediate -- there is zero-difference from when the sensor picks it up and it hits the eye.

"When I move my head, the picture is with me all the time," the engineer said. "The problem with current visual solutions right now is when I move my head, it lags and takes a second to catch up."

Today, even the best prototype sensor solution still creates nausea after being under it for 30 minutes.

The task force never forgets they are developing this suit for real people, for comrades in arms, and they have constant interaction with operators, officials said. "The last thing you want to do is build a suit that nobody wants to get inside," said one task force member.

The task force has given various pieces of technology to operators to test. Recently, operators tested various heads-up displays. They also had user assessment of the first-year exoskeletons. "We had operators from all components strap them on and run through an obstacle course," one task force member said. "We also did functional movement tests. It gives the operators the chance to come and tell us what they liked and disliked about the prototypes."

TALOS has a number of civilian uses as well, officials said. Firefighters may find the initial prototype passive load bearing exoskeleton suits handy, as would other people working in extreme environments. The results of tests will be seen not only in the special operations community, but in improved ballistic protection for all service members.

On the wall of the task force building is a countdown calendar. The day of the interview, the number read 877 -- the days left before the Mark 5 first prototype suit must be ready for testing.

"We know why we're doing this," one member of the task force said. "This is life-saving technology. There are challenges, but the juice is definitely worth the squeeze."

U.S. Special Operations Command Seeks Prototypes For 'Iron Man Suit'

David Vergun at the U.S. Army News Service offers the below piece:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18, 2013 – U.S. Special Operations Command wants its operators to be protected with what it informally calls an “Iron Man suit,” named after the fictional superhero.
In September, Socom announced it is seeking proposals for prototypes of the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit, or TALOS.

The goal of TALOS is to provide ballistic protection to Special Operations Forces, along with fire-retardant capability, said Michel Fieldson, TALOS lead for Socom.

"We sometimes refer to it as the ‘Iron Man’ suit, frankly, to attract the attention, imagination and excitement of industry and academia," Fieldson said. "We're hoping to take products we're developing in several technology areas and integrating them into a consolidated suit to provide more protection for the [special operations forces]."

Other technologies include sensors, communications, energy and material that can store and release energy to prevent injuries and increase performance.

Materials that can store and release energy might be similar to the Intrepid Dynamic Exoskeletal Orthosis, now used by some wounded warriors for lower-leg injuries. So TALOS could benefit wounded warriors too, Fieldson said.

The Homeland Security Department and firefighters have expressed an interest in this technology as well, he said, and it eventually might become available for other service members.

"Our goal right now is to try to get the word out and bring industry partners together," Fieldson said. The technologies that will go into the suit’s development are varied, he said, so it is unlikely one contractor would be able to specialize in the entire ensemble.

The traditional approach, Fieldson said, was to pick a prime contractor, usually a traditional defense partner, give them the design requirements and let them come up with the solution. That would take a long time, he noted.

"In this case, the government will be the lead integrator, and we'll look to work with traditional or nontraditional partners in industry and academia who are innovative," he said. "We'll leave no stone unturned."

The goal, he said, is to begin integrating capabilities over the next 12 months and have the first suit ready for full field testing in four to five years.

Fieldson thinks TALOS will become a reality because it protects the warfighters and has the backing of Socom's commander, Navy Adm. William H. McRaven.

"I'm very committed to this," McRaven said to industry representatives at a July 8 TALOS demonstration in Tampa, Fla. "I'd like that last operator that we lost to be the last one we ever lose in this fight or the fight of the future, and I think we can get there.

"I'm committed to this," he continued. "At the end of the day, I need you and industry to figure out how you are going to partner with each other to do something that's right for America." 

Defense Secretary Says U.S. Remains Focused On Pursuit Of Al-Qaida

By Cheryl Pellerin, American Forces Press Service * ABOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT, April 27, 2012 - America has become a safer place since a Navy SEAL team killed 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden in his Pakistan compound nearly a year ago, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said today. * Returning from a weeklong trip to South America to strengthen military ties in Colombia, Brazil and Chile, Panetta, who was director of the CIA on May 2, 2011, when the al-Qaida chieftain met his end, recalled the high-risk mission the Defense Department called Operation Neptune Spear. * "I don't think there's any question that America is safer as a result of the bin Laden operation," Panetta told reporters traveling with him. * "When you combine that with the other operations that have ... gone after al-Qaida leadership," he added, "I think it has weakened al-Qaida as an organization and certainly it has prevented them from having the command-and-control capability to be able to put together an attack similar to 9/11. * But al-Qaida remains a threat, the secretary said. * "It doesn't mean that we somehow don't have the responsibility to keep going after them wherever they are -- and we are," he said. * President Barack Obama's decision to give the bin Laden operation the green light was gutsy, the secretary said, since there wasn't absolute confirmation that bin Laden was inside the Abbottabad compound. * Officials had based the operation "on a lot of circumstantial evidence," the secretary said, yet it was the best lead on bin Laden's whereabouts since 2001. * However, the validity of the evidence, he said, was "still a big question mark." * Panetta said the operation provided "several fingernail-biting moments" for U.S. officials and military leaders who from Afghanistan, the CIA operations center and the White House were monitoring the raid as it happened. * One of those anxious moments occurred, the secretary said, when the military aircraft used in the operation -- two lead helicopters plus backups -- entered Pakistani airspace. * "When they crossed the border and were going into Pakistan there were a lot of tense moments about whether or not they would be detected," Panetta said. * Another nail-biting moment occurred as the helicopters entered the Abbottabad compound and one of them lost lift and had to be left behind and destroyed, Panetta said. * "What had happened was that we had picked up from weather reports what the heat conditions were going to be on the ground," the secretary said, "but it turned out to be hotter than we expected." * The heat, intensified by the compound's thick, high walls, caused the helicopter to lose lift and end up on the ground. * Panetta was at that time on the line with Navy Adm. William H. McRaven, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command. McRaven was monitoring communications from Jalalabad, Afghanistan. * After the loss of the helicopter, Panetta recalled asking McRaven, "Okay, what's next?" The admiral, the secretary said, replied, "Don't worry, we're ready for this." * There was additional tension during a 20-minute period of silence that began after the SEALs entered the building where everyone hoped they would find bin Laden, the secretary said. Then they heard weapons fire. * "We knew gunshots had been fired but after that I just didn't know," Panetta said. It was at that point that McRaven reported that he might have heard the code word -- Geronimo -- that would mean they had found bin Laden. * "We still were waiting, and then within a few minutes McRaven said the words, 'Geronimo KIA,'" the secretary said, which meant that bin Laden had been killed in action. "And that was that," Panetta said. * It was also tense when the team got back into the helicopters and began to leave the compound, he said. * "By that time they had blown [up] the helicopter that was down and you knew that we had woken up all of Pakistan to the fact that something had happened," Panetta said. * The concern revolved around what the Pakistanis were thinking and how they would respond, and whether the team could get out without problems, he said. * "The moment they crossed the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, we finally knew that the mission had been accomplished," Panetta said. * Yet, he said, there were no cheers or high-fives at the CIA's operations center. * "We had some special forces people at the operations center at CIA and we all kind of looked at each other," Panetta said. "As a matter of fact, I have a picture in my office of all of us putting our arms around each other, just [acknowledging that] we got the job done." Today, nearly a year after bin Laden's demise, the United States and its allies continue to hunt down al-Qaida and other terrorists -- wherever they may be. * "The more successful we are at taking down those who represent their spiritual and ideological leadership, the greater our ability to weaken their threat to this country and to other countries," Panetta said.