American mercenaries — some of whom were ex-special operators with Army Special Forces, SEAL Team 6, and the CIA — were hired by the United Arab Emirates in 2015 to take part in a “targeted assassination program in Yemen,” according to a BuzzFeed News investigation published today. According to the report, the contractors were employed by the Spear Operations Group LLC, ... Read More »
The Air Force has established a new headquarters organization aimed at meeting combatant commanders’ growing needs for special operations airmen, Col. James Hughes, the wing’s commander, told Stars and Stripes in a telephone interview Friday. The Special Warfare Training Wing was activated Wednesday at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, according to an Air Force statement issued Wednesday. Composed of approximately ... Read More »
The first Indo-US tri-services exercise is likely to take place next year and talks are on to include the Special Forces of two countries in the drill, a senior US defence official has said. The three forces of India and the US already take part in bilateral exercises separately — their armies participate in an annual drill called Yudh Abyaas, ... Read More »
Yesterday we re-published an old New York Times article about research relating to blast effect and PTSD. We represented it as new information. That was an error on my part for not checking the vintage of the article when someone sent it to us asking that we re-publish it on SOFX. I apologize. Sincerely, Sam Havelock Read More »
As reported by WAAY 31, a retired green beret in the Huntsville area is using his expertise to help Alabama churches come up with plans in the event of an active shooter situation. Retired Army Special Forces officer and DEA agent Noell Bishop, in the aftermath of shooters killing 27 people in two church shootings in Nashville, Tennessee, and Sutherland Springs, Texas, ... Read More »
LACKLAND, TX – To meet the demand for special operations war fighters and improve retention rates for these critical career fields, Air Force officials activated the Special Warfare Training Wing Oct. 10. The mission of the new wing is to select, train, equip, and mentor Airmen to conduct global combat operations in contested, denied, operationally limited, and permissive environments under ... Read More »
n early 2012, a neuropathologist named Daniel Perl was examining a slide of human brain tissue when he saw something odd and unfamiliar in the wormlike squiggles and folds. It looked like brown dust; a distinctive pattern of tiny scars. Perl was intrigued. At 69, he had examined 20,000 brains over a four-decade career, focusing mostly on Alzheimer’s and other ... Read More »
NATO has announced that Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to create a Multinational Special Aviation Programme. As part of the agreement a new training centre will be established in Zadar, Croatia, exclusively to train air crew for the insertion and extraction of special operations forces. The programme will be established in a gradual, stepwise ... Read More »
The Marine reconnaissance community has a storied history dating back the Corps’ first operational small boat units in World War II. Its lore has captivated the ambitions of many young Marines wishing to earn the 0321-occupation specialty. Recon Marines are tasked with land and amphibious reconnaissance, intelligence collection, surveillance and small unit raids, and straddle the line between special operations forces and conventional ... Read More »
On Oct. 7, 2001, U.S. and British planes began striking Taliban positions, beginning Operation Enduring Freedom. The combination of Afghan allies, CIA teams, American airpower and Special Forces “horse soldiers” broke the Taliban’s army in a matter of months. Yet 17 years later, America’s longest war still grinds on today — mostly on autopilot. We have spent perhaps $2 trillion ... Read More »
SOFX The Crossroads of Special Operations