SOCOM / SOF
RealClear Context
Click below to continue reading this story, discover more SOCOM / SOF stories from over 25 years of RealClear archives, or follow this topic to stay in the know.
Trump Nominates Former Green Beret To Oversee Special Operations
President Donald Trump has nominated Derrick Anderson to serve as assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict
06/04/25Read it on DefenseScoopU.S. Special Forces Want a Helmet Display With Drone Control
U.S. Special Operations Command seeks a helmet-mounted display with a 50-degree field of view for drone control and ATAK data....
2d agoRead it on Defence BlogNavy SEALs and Delta Force Commandos Living Together
Sandboxx News makes the complex approachable. Bridging the gap between academic expertise and practical boots-on-the-ground experience, we remove the...
1w agoRead it on Sandboxx NewsAir National Guard To Stand Up a New Special Tactics Squadron
The Pentagon directed the Air Force to stand up a new unit based in Florida, where there’s a host of Air Force special operations resources...
2w agoRead it on Task & PurposeReflecting on an Epic Horse Campaign in the Mountains of Afghanistan
The CIA and Green Berets Commemorate 9/11 by Honoring Muslim Partners, Even as the Taliban and American Government Hunt our Loyal Afghan Allies Amid...
3w agoRead it on RealClearDefenseReflecting on an Epic Horse Campaign in the Mountains of Afghanistan
The CIA and Green Berets Commemorate 9/11 by Honoring Muslim Partners, Even as the Taliban and American Government Hunt our Loyal Afghan Allies Amid...
3w agoRead it on RealClearDefense
Reflecting on an Epic Horse Campaign in the Mountains of Afghanistan
Amid all the partisan bickering between Republicans and Democrats over how each party presented the supposed gaffs of the other during the commemoration of the twenty fifth anniversary of 9/11, a historic memorial ceremony marked by a rare sense of unity was held in New York City on September 11th by an elite group of Green Beret Special Forces and CIA operatives. As in the past, when I have been invited by this remarkable brotherhood of warfighters who made history by leveraging local Afghan Uzbek horse warriors to provide America with a proxy force to overthrow the Taliban in 2001, I was invited to commemorate September 11th at what is one of the most powerful memorials to that tragedy; the America’s Response statue overlooking the Reflection Pools in Manhattan. Tourists who visit the nearby 9/11 Museum and Reflection Pools or go up the new World Trade Center often miss this 16-foot dramatic bronze statue of a horse mounted Special Forces soldier built on a promontory overlooking the hallowed grounds of the square. But on this crisp blue afternoon that was eerily reminiscent of that fine day shattered by planes flying into buildings a quarter of a century ago, the tourists could not fail to notice the activity on the knoll as scores of soldiers dressed in dress uniforms and the legendary Green Beret gathered for a historic event to honor their own.
USSOCOM Test Drone Laser for Longer Mortar Shots
A PDW C100 drone carrying a Leonardo DRS STAG-5 laser designator guided mortar engagements beyond standard 120 mm mortar range
10/15/26Read it on Defence BlogThe Lesson of 1986 for New Autonomous Warfare Command
When a capability becomes central to how America fights, how should the Department of War organize itself to ensure that capability gets the...
10/14/26Read it on RealClearDefenseUSASOC Graduate First Batch of Robotics Technician Integrators
Army Special Forces graduated the first batch of a new military occupational specialty meant to help units, soon across the Army, employ an...
10/05/26Read it on DefenseScoopU.S. Special Forces Operate Helicopter From Autonomous Barge
The U.S. Army's 160th SOAR has landed an MH-47G Chinook on an autonomous Sea Machines barge for the first time, advancing naval logistics and drone...
09/24/26Read it on Naval News
After the Midterms, the Right Strategy Against Iran
By Lance Gordon • RealClearDefense
The Color Revolution Came Home
By Emzari Gelashvili • RealClearDefense
When Access Becomes the Fight
By Richard Byno • RealClearDefense
What the 2026 Midterm Results Mean for U.S. Strategic Competition with Rivals
By Dean Chen • RealClearDefense
Measurable by Design: Project Meridian
By Alex Willard • RealClearDefense

New USAF Force Design Bets on Technology
By Stephen Losey, Air & Space Forces
DoD Pushes $450M in Loans To Bolster U.S. Space Companies
By Hitchens, BrDefense
The U.S. Navy Needs a New Battlecruiser. Will It Get One?
By Sadler & Ouellette, NatInt
U.S. Army Rehearses Rapid HIMARS Rocket Launcher Deployment
By Global Defense N.
Coding Commander's Intent into Unmanned Systems
By Thomas Baumstark, Proceedings
