Building special forces relationships with other countries requires being on the ground and meeting the partner where they are, SOCOM chief Gen. Bryan Fenton said.
May 09, 2023
SOF WEEK 2023 — The head of US special operations says he doesn’t necessarily see a “direct linkage” between some of the lessons learned in Ukraine and those useful in a potential conflict with China, but Kyiv’s defense of its country has emphasized another, more general rule: When it comes to international partner forces, “be there early.”
USSOCOM chief Gen. Bryan Fenton was referring to the American special operations relationship with the Ukrainian military, dating back to shortly after the end of the Cold War. In the mid-1990s, he said, someone from the special operations community was there ” to shake the hand of this new nation, Ukraine, and talk to their military and say, ‘We want to be a partner.’”
“You gotta be there,” Fenton told the audience at SOF Week 2023 here in Tampa, Fla. “You gotta be there early.”
The second lesson, he told the audience, was to be “persistent” in developing capabilities that meet Ukraine’s needs as the country moved along its “own journey.” It’s at that point the third lesson comes in: improve that capability by teaching relevant lessons from America’s own experience from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Previously, observers have noted that the structure of Ukrainian forces, mirroring those of US forces, allow greater flexibility and effectiveness on the ground — lessons Moscow never appeared to learn.)
After all that, the last lesson is perhaps the most obvious: listen, and learn from the partner’s experience.
Fenton half-joked that some of the time the US is working with partner nations, the Americans learn more than they teach. And while he suggested some specific, tactical lessons wouldn’t necessarily translate to a different conflict, namely a fight in the Pacific, he said US special operations forces were already “employing now” some of what Ukrainian forces have taught them.
Elsewhere in the talk, Fenton said the US was facing an unprecedented collision of threats to the international order, what he called “waves of consequence,” from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to China’s assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific, to Iran and North Korea’s destabilizing actions “in their respective regions” to the lingering threat from non-state actors like ISIS and al Qaeda.
When it comes to strategic competition, he said that competition is “in action at both ends of the spectrum,” with conventional military threats on one end, to activities in the gray zone — below the threshold of conflict — on the other.
Helping to counter those threats, Fenton said, is the special operations community’s focus on emerging technology — integrating artificial intelligence, natural language processing, “data-driven” capabilities, robotic and autonomous uncrewed systems. Later, in response to a question, Fenton noted the importance of cyberspace and space itself in modern operations — so integral that they form a SOF-cyber-space triad.
Still, the SOCOM chief struck an optimistic tone about the waves of change crashing all around. SOF operators, he said, are big wave surfers.
“After all that, the last lesson is perhaps the most obvious: listen, and learn from the partner’s experience.”
The Ukrainians have listened and learned what they’ve been taught by various Western partners, including the US. I do hope that we don’t have too much snobbishness to discount any valuable lessons the Ukrainians can provide us. I’m sure there is a wealth of knowledge coming from this war and much can be useful when we must confront bat virus land, or any other trash country.
Another valuable lesson would be to give Ukraine what it needs so that it can finish the job at hand. But, we still have a Biden in the Yellow House who refuses to hand over those badly needed items.
Tell me, why doesn’t Ukraine borrow the money themselves if they need F-16s so badly?
Ukrainian government debt to GDP is only 80%. The US was at 105% under Trump and is up to 120% under Biden.
Are you saying Biden is a coward for not borrowing more? Well what does that say about Ukraine?
Even if the US gives unused F16s, there are still substantial costs involved. Why doesn’t Europe, especially those contributing less per GDP than the US pay for them. Why doesn’t Ukraine borrow more if they are so needed. That is what the US does (and it’s dangerous).
Ukraine is trying to buy them, yes, and all the equipment and training that goes with it. But as you should know, the Pentagon has a process to sell them to any foreign country. Biden is not allowing that process to occur.
Why don’t we just hand over planes that are baking in the Arizona sun? Can you answer that, please?