News & Briefings
Get the latest news and SOF commentary here. Your source for all news SOF since 2017.
Today, and not at some distant point in the future, AI algorithms can shape public perception, disrupt markets, and steer missiles. Given the depth and breadth of its capabilities, it’s increasingly clear that the real frontier of artificial intelligence isn’t the battlefield but in the gray zone. Long before a shot is ever fired, nations are now locked in constant competition in an ill-defined space where influence operations, economic coercion, and cyber campaigns persistently blur the lines between peace and war. Over the last 10 years, many nations have tested how far they can push competitor states without tripping into open conflict, and AI is rapidly becoming the accelerant for these actions.
For nearly seventy years, U.S. Army Special Forces have thrived at the intersection of people, ideas, and technology. From the OSS agents operating behind enemy lines in World War II to the Green Berets riding with Afghan horsemen in 2001, Special Forces have always fused the technical with the human. Radios, air controllers, and precision munitions have been tools—but never the center of gravity. The decisive factor has always been the credibility that comes from empowering others to fight for themselves.
Guerrillas and other irregular forces in the American Civil War actively engaged with the civil populace on a day-to-day basis and often relied on it for their very survival. Modern Special Operations Forces (SOF) can learn a great deal about guerrilla units and how they leverage the civil domain by studying two famous units: “Mosby’s Rangers” and the “Knight Company.” More importantly, the modern practitioner may find their aperture widened by engaging with the history of the American Civil War “off the beaten path” of famous battles like Antietam and Gettysburg.
Military information support operations (MISO), historically rooted in the U.S. military’s
psychological operations (PSYOP) doctrine, remain a pivotal strategic function within Special
Operations Forces (SOF). In the context of 21st-century conflict, characterized by the
weaponization of information and the diffusion of influence across social, cognitive, and
digital domains, MISO must adapt to emerging technological and adversarial paradigms.
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into MISO presents a transformative capability,
enabling the automation, precision, and amplification of psychological effects at scale.
Army special operators are working to integrate technology that reflects the changing nature of war, creating a detachment dedicated to robotics and planning to soon incorporate technicians into their formations.
In March 2024, 1st Special Forces Command created the Special Operations Robotics Detachment, resulting from “the experience of military operations in Ukraine” and the attention paid to “new products of an asymmetric nature,” an Army statement of work for the detachment read.
The world is sliding into a long political war. It moves without ceremony across the seas and archipelagos of the Asia-Indo-Pacific. Its front lines run through villages, ports, digital networks, and the minds of men and women who live under pressure from four authoritarian powers that now operate with shared purpose. China, Russia, Iran, and north Korea have fused their ambitions into an informal alignment that has become known as the Dark Quad or CRInK. Their collaboration links the Eurasian landmass and the Asia-Indo-Pacific into one contested system. They do not see separate theaters. They see one struggle, connected across geography and ideology.
No results found.
Stay Up To Date
Subscribe to Our Newsletter and Stay Up to Date with the Latest Special Operations Forces Support News and Events