The U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School (SWCS) has trained Special Forces soldiers to conduct unconventional warfare for decades. During the War on Terror, fighting a counter-insurgency became the priority during training, while digging tank ditches and other Cold War-era tactics collected dust.  

But the war in Ukraine has shown the world that World War II and Cold War-era tactics are not dead. The commanding general of SWCS, Brig. Gen. Guillaume Beaurpere, said they’ve been watching, taking notes, and implementing new training while bringing back the old. 

“For example, the engineer sergeant is now being taught how to dig and form counter-mobility tank ditches. Then, after they build them, how to defeat and breach them,” Beaurpere said. “So that kind of thing is absolutely critical, and we realize that in large-scale conflict, that’s a skill that an [Special Forces engineer sergeant] is going to need.” 

The frontlines of Ukraine are littered with tank ditches and layers of defensive positions both in front of and behind them – a major deterrent to enemy mechanized infantry piercing the frontline. The threat of large-scale combat is proving that tactics like Battle Drill 7: Enter a trench to secure a foothold, and other WWII-era skills are a necessary part of training for the next war. 

Related: The ultimate test of Special Forces’ nerves

“Those are basic warrior tasks. You stop, build a patrol base, and you improve your fighting position. You usually start digging, and eventually, you’ve got individual fighting positions and then trenches,” Beaurpere said. “Then it’s time to move and go do something else. I think that reinforces how critical the fundamentals of just being a soldier have really become now and really honing on those things that make you a good soldier.”

George Barros, the Russia Team & Geospatial Intelligence Team Lead at the Institute for the Study of War, said the implementation of small drones on the battlefield has restricted conventional forces’ ability to maneuver and changed how tank ditches and other anti-armor tactics are implemented. 

“The Russians and the Ukrainians have pushed UAS systems down to well beyond the battalion level – down to the company, platoon, and sometimes even lower echelons. There’s no place to hide; everything is seen, and there’s almost no cover,” Barros said. “Drones can strike you with direct fire, they can drop precision munitions on you, and can reconnoiter your position for field guns.”

Barros pointed to the Ukrainian’s last spring offensive that failed due to the intricate use of tank ditches, obstacles, and current-day technology.   

“When you add in the other things that complicate maneuvers like tank ditches, landmine fields, and extended anti-tank ground crews – things like that,” Barros said. “What really happens is you have a recipe to actually destroy and remove any conventional forces’ ability to maneuver.”

This article by Joshua Skovlund was originally published by Task & Purpose.

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The Army doesn’t have enough PSYOP soldiers to fight the information war with China and Russia, the Department of Defense’s Inspector General said in a report released Wednesday.

The IG report found the Army has not recruited, trained, or retained a big enough workforce to meet the growing demand for Military Information Support Operations (MISO), commonly referred to as “psychological operations, or PSYOP” which aim to influence the beliefs and actions of other countries’ populations. 

Without enough active duty soldiers trained in PSYOP warfare, the service has relied on reservists to “fill the global, full-time requirements for conventional MISO.” In fiscal year 2023, the Army’s four active and reserve Psychological Operation Groups operated with only 60% of their authorized strength, according to the report.

“The resulting operational tempo required of this under-resourced force risks burnout of these specialized Soldiers, which only serves to worsen the underlying conditions,” the report said.

However, Aaron Schmidt, a current PSYOP reservist, said the “burnout” issue is not unique to PSYOP but to reservists in general.

“There are things that we need to better address whether that’s manning, training and equipping,” he said. “But from my perspective, I do not see it as a burnout issue.”

The “divorce”

Problems in the Army’s PSYOP community began around 2006 with the “divorce,” where Army reserve civil affairs and PSYOP units under the U.S. Special Operations Command were reassigned to the Army Reserve Command.

The change “enhanced PSYOP support of special operations forces, but diminished the employment of this capability for conventional forces,” according to an article by a former soldier and author of a book on the origins of U.S. Army Special Warfare.

After September 11, as the requirements for active duty soldiers increased, U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) decided they were going to support other Special Forces units only, instead of the Army writ large, said Robert Curris, former commandant of PSYOP at the Special Warfare Center.

“That got lost somewhere along the way and so that put a lot more pressure on the reserves to do things that they neither had the manpower or training to sustain for any period of time,” Curris said.

Along with the reassignment, training became separate for the two groups which is different from other Army capabilities like armor or infantry where reservists and active duty soldiers train alongside one another.

“They don’t have language training. They’re not required to be jump-qualified. Their messaging processes are a little bit different and they are not tied into SOF activities and other additional SOF training that would be given to an active duty PSYOP soldier,” said former PSYOP Sgt. Maj. Kenneth Ramos, who also runs the Army W.T.F. social media pages.

PSYOP assessment and selection for active duty soldiers lasts 10 days and is designed to assess leadership qualities, critical thinking, and effective communication with populations around the world. After that, soldiers must endure roughly 41 weeks of physically and mentally demanding training with the PSYOP Qualification Course. 

Curris said that Army PSYOP is losing its ability to “function at anything above the tactical level” partially because of sheer numbers and partially because of the command and control relationship and changes that were made under USSOCOM leadership. 

The result, he said, has become a turf war over resources. 

“It’s just blatant protectionism,” he said. “They don’t trust us and they don’t reinforce us. In fact, what they’ve said is that they would like to expand their information operations capability on the SF team without us. What that really means is, they don’t care if we go away, they would just build an internal capability which could then be Special Forces and they would control it.”

The other aspect is the “identity crisis” facing the special operations community which is trying to redefine itself post-Global War on Terror and now in the era of “Great Power Competition” with China and Russia where “there’s not as much of a role for the traditional Special Forces missions,” Curris said.

Related: Six tips to mentally prepare for Navy SEAL training

Impacts on national security

The former and current soldiers interviewed by Task & Purpose all expressed concerns over the outsized mission that PSYOP soldiers are tasked with.

“I think [Army] Information Operations as a whole is supposed to be a coordinating agency, but they try to take on a role of PSYOP because there is a lack of cyber around, which means that you get really bad PSYOP because they’re doing a job that they’re not trained for, but they’re trying to fill a need,” Curris said.

The IG report notes the 2022 National Defense Strategy which says that emerging technologies are making it easier for competitors (i.e. Russia and China) to “engage in operations below the threshold of armed conflict.” 

The solution, according to the defense strategy, is that the U.S. military should use non-traditional tools like those in the information space. MISO is part of the military’s strategic, operational, and tactical capabilities and helps shape the operational environment and deterrence of large-scale combat operations, according to the DOD.

“We are diminished in our information warfare capabilities, as we speak, against China and Russia,” Ramos said. “We don’t have enough personnel and also, we don’t have enough outside eyes looking into the SOF organization to fix it.”

MISO or PSYOP are used by the military “to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals, in a manner favorable to the originator’s objective” according to the IG report.

One PSYOP reservist told Task & Purpose that they’re doing a job that shouldn’t inherently be left up to the military, referring to the national power strategy of DIME: Diplomatic, Information, Military, and Economic.

“If the military is going to be conducting special operations with information support, what are those other state instruments that are going to be facilitating the other discussions for information support and that’s where that discussion around the I in dime comes in,” they said. “If we are going to say that the military is now responsible for something that it shouldn’t be responsible for, we are always gonna fail at it.” 

Related: Incredible mortar-assembly challenges with the Green Berets

Policy issues

The IG also called out an Army officer career management policy that limits who can become a PSYOP soldier. Instead of PSYOP units recruiting soldiers out of high school or college, the policy requires officers to reach the rank of captain and then seek a transfer into a psyop branch.

New officers who previously enlisted as 37F PSYOP specialists also “cannot directly re-enter the PSYOP branch as PSYOP officers.” 

“The inability to assign newly commissioned officers into the PSYOP branch, combined with possibly taking years to fully train reserve PSYOP officers, contributes to 10 of 32 manned reserve PSYOP detachments not having PSYOP-qualified commanders,” according to the report. 

As a result of policies like this, active special operations PSYOP soldiers have been forced to work more than the standard ratio of one month deployed to two months at home and the Army Reserve’s PSYOP groups operated with 25% of captains required to complete missions, according to the report. 

“If new reserve officers were to commission directly into the PSYOP career field as recent college graduates, they might have more time and flexibility to spend longer lengths of time in training, compared with captains who might have more conflicting responsibilities related to civilian careers and families,” the report quoted from a PSYOP force modernization proponent.

When it comes to recruiting, Curris said there’s not enough education on what exactly PSYOP does. Most assume they handle marketing-like activities. However, with the contentious relationship with special operations forces, Curris fears that PSYOP won’t get the attention it needs.

This article by Patty Nieberg was originally published by Task & Purpose.

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Soldiers may not have to shave when they’re deployed in the Arctic, the Army’s commanding general for the Alaska-based 11th Airborne Division said Monday.

The comments came from Maj. Gen. Brian Eifler, the commander of the Alaska-based 11th Airborne, who discussed lessons learned from a recent large exercise the division participated in at the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center’s Alaska facilities in late February.

“A lot of our guys had a long, unclean, shaven face. It’s just one of those things you got to do in the environment to limit your exposure to cold weather injuries,” Eifler said. Shaving, he said, requires a fuel source to boil water in extreme cold and removes natural oils that protect exposed skin at low temperatures. Arctic troops had found, he said, that it’s “very bad to pull that layer of skin off.”

The exercise at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center, or JPMRC, was a major step forward in the Army’s push to review service doctrines for Arctic strategy, operating in cold weather environments and general training in cold conditions. 

“What works for say, something that’s more like zero to 10 degrees or 10 to 23 is going to be very, very different – maybe not as effective or effective at all here. When you start talking negative-10 to negative-20 plus, you’re talking about wind chills, and things like that,” 11th Airborne Division spokesperson Maj. Leah Ganoni told Task & Purpose.

The exercise was also part of what the Department of Defense believes is a deterrence to larger-scale conflict and aimed to improve the U.S. military posture for strategic competition with Russia in the Arctic. The National Defense Strategy has called out the strategic importance of the Arctic both politically and economically as a hub of maritime trade and natural resources. 

In January, the Army’s lead general for Army Pacific Command, Gen. Charles Flynn described the need for “arctic-capable” forces in the Indo-Pacific region.

“We’re just doing things in plain sight quite honestly because as Gen. Flynn likes to say, we don’t want war,” Eifler said. “The advent of the 11th Airborne Division in the Indo-Pacific and in the Arctic is another message to our potential adversaries of: we’re taking this seriously.”

Related: Why the military has an office dedicated to tracking the world’s biggest blocks of ice

Problems with technology

Eifler highlighted the challenges of operating in sub-zero temperatures and acclimating to the Arctic climate. The exercise involved troops carrying ice blocks to melt into water for drinking and soldiers delivering messages between units via snowmobile due to degraded communication technologies. 

“They literally sent people out on either snow machine or [cold-weather All-terrain vehicle] to go to their lower battalions to get information out. It’s not unlike what we’re seeing in Ukraine,” Efler said, with soldiers using both modern technology and equipment from decades ago. “You’ve got information warfare, but you almost go all the way to the other end of the spectrum of industrial warfare still happening.”

As the military incorporates more 21st-century technology, Eifler said digital tech functions differently – and sometimes not at all – in cold weather. Difficulties with touch screens, digital keyboards, or batteries are a reminder that the Army needs to keep its manual or mechanical capabilities to “be ready for full spectrum,” he said.

The exercise included nearly 40 experiments and tests on new equipment and technology that the Army is testing and validating for troops including the military-grade version of Starlink, munition-armed drones, snowmobiles, tents, skis, and a casualty evacuation sled. 

“As you can imagine, treating casualties and moving them in the Arctic becomes a whole different scenario,” Ganoni said. “You can’t just treat a guy on the ground, rip open his uniform, and train for a casualty because then you’re exposing his skin.”

Eifler said that the 11th Airborne is “looking forward” to testing the autonomous systems and other technology because of the need to validate it in harsh environments. Even with less sophisticated tech like the Next Generation Squad Weapon, they found that “some of the parts retain the cold so much that you can get frostbite from touching the weapon.” 

Related: Cold-weather adventures in the US Army

Largest Alaska air assault

One of the JPMRC operations included the 11th Airborne’s largest air assault in Alaska to date. During the simulation, which included soldiers playing the role of both U.S. forces and an enemy force, the enemy had significant air defense capabilities and the U.S. did not have air superiority.

The American units, flying Apache attack helicopters, had to find operational windows and “duck and weave” to carry out attacks deep behind enemy lines while avoiding air defense emitters, counter-drone capabilities, and electronic warfare tools.

“In this battlefield, it’s very hard to be camouflaged like we used to,” Eifler said. “In some spectrum, you’re observed – whether it’s electronic, whether it’s physical, informational or whatever across the cyberspace in communications you really can be observed.”

Compared to previous years, this exercise had more troops, with nearly 8,000 to 9,000, and covered a vast swatch of Alaskan wilderness that Eifler described as “from Louisiana to Detroit.” The exercise also included multi-battalion airborne drops, deep attacks of over 100 miles, and an 80-mile air assault with about 15 aircraft. 

U.S. airmen and Marines also participated in the February exercise alongside units from Mongolia, South Korea, and Canada. The 11th Airborne is doing 18 multinational exercises this year which Eifler said is more than any other unit in the Army.

This article by Patty Nieberg was originally published by Task & Purpose.

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The last class of Marine Scout Snipers is scheduled to graduate on December 15, marking the end of the 0317 MOS and a long tradition of producing some of the deadliest snipers on the battlefield. 

The last HOGs night will take place the night before, aboard Camp Geiger in North Carolina. 

Marine scout sniper candidates are initially called Professionally Instructed Gunmen, or PIGs, but once they graduate from the course, they are called Hunters of Gunmen, or HOGs. 

The HOGs night, a tradition for all scout sniper graduates including legends like Carlos Hathcock and Charles “Chuck” Mawhinney, is where scout snipers gather around a bonfire to receive their HOGs tooth, a 7.62 bullet on a 550 cord necklace. The rite of passage is traditionally attended by Scout Snipers past and present.

Jonathan Taylor is the executive vice president and COO of the USMC Scout Sniper Association. He served as a Scout Sniper from 2006 to 2013, deploying three times to Iraq and once to Afghanistan. He’s helped put together the HOGs night for years, helping to attract celebrity guest speakers and getting invites out to as many Scout Snipers as possible. 

“It’s usually just a smaller group with the graduates and then a few, you know, a few stragglers here or there. This one is scheduled to be big,” Taylor said. “We’re already getting emails from people. I think they are planning for 50 at the HOGs night, but that’s just off the top of the head of the staff NCOIC. I would say it’s closer to 60 to 70.”

Related: MARSOC Raiders to deploy in smaller, tech-loaded teams as conflict gets more complex

The night will include a pig roast and goodbyes – for now – to the Scout Sniper course and MOS. Celebrity guest speakers like Naked and Afraid star Justin Governale and Cody Alford, former Scout Sniper and Marine Raider, will attend the last HOGs night and graduation the following day. 

“It’s definitely a bittersweet event,” Taylor said. “But, you know, the Scout Sniper program is going away. We don’t know how long it’s going to be gone for, but this will be the last one for the time being.” 

Logan Stark, a former Marine Scout Sniper who deployed to Okinawa, Japan; and Sangin, Afghanistan, acknowledged that though there are mixed emotions, he’s confident that with the current state of the world, this won’t be the last we’ve seen of the Scout Snipers. He pointed out that the Marine Scout Sniper course has come and gone multiple times since the first course took place in 1918. 

“I think that there’s very much a break in case of emergency mentality for Scout Snipers right now,” Stark said. “I think that if all of a sudden the warfare landscape switched dramatically overnight, I think we would see the program brought back immediately. But, who knows.”

This article by Joshua Skovlund was originally published by Task & Purpose.

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Explosively formed penetrators (or projectiles), better known as EFPs, were responsible for wounding and killing many American military personnel throughout the War on Terror, quickly earning a reputation for their ability to punch through armor during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

According to a report on EFP fatalities declassified several years ago, 195 American service members were killed and close to 900 wounded by EFPs from July 2005 to November 2011. The lethality of these devices forced the American military to find and implement new defensive technologies and tactics as countermeasures to combat EFPs throughout the war. 

What is an EFP?

An EFP is a copper warhead that, once detonated, is superheated, turning it into a molten projectile that can punch through almost anything – including M1 Abrams tanks and MRAPs. They are usually designed to be triggered by motion, remotely, or via pressure switches like other types of IEDs. 

“EFPs are a kind of mine that has two special characteristics. One is that the mine can be deployed quite far away from the side of a road or wherever the target is,” said Dr. Michael Knights, a Jill and Jay Bernstein Fellow at The Washington Institute. 

Knights has traveled throughout Iraq, Yemen, and the Gulf States and regularly briefs U.S. government policymakers, congressional committees, and U.S. military officers on regional security affairs. 

“And second, they have a very powerful, armor-piercing effect that can penetrate even the most modern main battle tanks,” Knights said.

Knights explained that a particularly lethal aspect of EFPs is their ability to hide in plain sight, sometimes hung under a bridge, within a brick wall, the upper part of a lamppost, or in a HESCO barrier. Although EFPs can be used as an accurate munition, as the war on terror continued the creators of these menacing improvised explosive devices designed them to be daisy-chained area weapons to counter America’s defensive measures. 

Related: 7 great hunting weapons chosen by the US military

History of EFP bombs in the War on Terror

After U.S. forces invaded Iraq, EFPs surfaced and caused an abrupt change in tactics. When the molten projectiles started disabling heavily armored vehicles, among other types of IEDs, the military implemented jamming systems to prevent remote triggers.

Then terrorists switched to command wires, which carried an electric charge from the ignitor to the main device, rendering jamming useless. The military’s technology advanced, and drones could pick up the wires and warn incoming personnel. 

In a third evolution, EFPs were set up with a passive infrared motion sensor. Knights said terrorists would wait until there were no vehicles between the EFP and the incoming convoy, then they would arm the EFP remotely before the convoy’s jamming system was in range.

The military found a way to bypass the motion sensors by using booms that could trigger the motion sensor trigger in front of the vehicle. That evolution caused the molten projectile to fly in front of the vehicle, often missing it entirely. Terrorists then switched to offset EFPs, so the U.S. responded with variable-length booms, making it harder to offset the explosion accurately. 

“Those were the kinds of back and forth. It was really mainly about initiation. […] So it wasn’t about armoring, it was about pre-detonating, or it was about attacking the network,” Knights said. “In other words, proactively going and finding the attack network and killing them. Stopping these devices from getting into country in the first place.”

Related: Energy drinks – The unsung hero of the Global War on Terror

EFPs in Ukraine

Not all EFPs are the same, but all of them are deadly. Reports of EFP devices being used to counter armor in Ukraine have surfaced on the internet. A video shared to NextaTV’s X (formerly Twitter) account shows an airburst-style munition claiming to be an EFP. After the airburst, an impact is visible on the Russian anti-aircraft system, followed by flames belching upward into the sky. 

The munition is possibly a 155mm BONUS Howitzer round fired from an M114 Howitzer – basically an EFP on steroids, and one of Ukraine’s most requested weapons. Once fired, the carrier shell separates in the air, releasing two individual sensor-fuzed warheads with the ability to seek out their own targets within a range of 32,000 square meters. The shell fired from a NATO L52 gun can reach out to 35 kilometers, or approximately 22 miles. 

Russia has used IEDs in Ukraine, leaving them as counter-measures during withdrawals but concrete proof of improvised EFPs isn’t available yet.  

How to defeat EFPs

The most effective way to counter EFPs, according to Knights, is using a counter-intelligence strategy to find and take out EFP manufacturers. Though it’s not a 100% effective means of countering roadside EFPs, it compliments defensive measures like variable-length booms, and jamming equipment troops can add to their armored vehicles. 

RAFAEL’s Reactive Armor Tiles and the ShieldAll armor system, developed by Battelle and produced by PVI, are both claimed to be effective measures to counter EFPs and other types of penetrating impacts, but due to the sensitive nature of the research, very little is declassified.

This article by Joshua Skovlund was originally published by Task & Purpose.

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