A visitor tries the TCL RayNeo X2 augmented-reality glasses during the Mobile World Congress 2023 on March 2, 2023, in Barcelona, Spain.

A visitor tries the TCL RayNeo X2 augmented-reality glasses during the Mobile World Congress 2023 on March 2, 2023, in Barcelona, Spain. Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Tomorrow’s Special Operator? Less Iron Man, More 007

But first, SOCOM must reverse a trend of “falling behind, not just linearly but exponentially” to Chinese and Russian tech.

TAMPA, Fla.—A couple of years after Navy SEALs raided Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, Adm. William McRaven announced a bold new vision for special operations. Troops in Iron Man-like exoskeletons would burst through walls, facing down a pelting rain of bullets before dispatching terrorist cells in seconds. That vision never came to be, but 10 years later, U.S. Special Operations Command is pursuing a new list of superpowers, topped not by bulletproof suits but by something like omniscience.

There are practical reasons for the shift in focus, not least the difficulties of recreating comic-book physics in real life. But they also reflect SOCOM’s changing expectations about where its operators will be and what roles they will play.

Speaking at Global SOF’s SOF Week conference here, Col. Jarret Mathews laid out the command’s effort to create hyper-enabled operators. 

“I'm going to try to orient you to the competition space, the gray zone, the integrated deterrent,” said Mathews, who leads SOCOM’s Joint Acquisition Task Force. “A possible mission set will be for internal defense under a [theater special operations command]-driven irregular warfare campaign and with the objective of integrated deterrence with our partners.”

Operators on future missions, especially ones meant to train foreign partner forces, will likely lack some crucial tools of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, such as missile-armed drones overhead.

“Everyone's talking about UAVs and theater-based assets,” said Mathews, but: “The SOF teams that are in these 80 countries” where special operations are deployed quietly, “they don't have the benefit of those tools. So picture [Special Operations Forces] in any country without, you know, unblinking UAV assets and we're still there to, you know, to help our partners achieve their objectives.” 

Mathews went on to present a video where an operator used augmented-reality glasses to look around their environment and immediately translate all written language, collect data from nearby sensors on the location of adversaries, and rapidly change or hide electronic signatures. Matthews described it as the ability “a little bit to see around corners.”

Artificial intelligence will play a big role in that. SOCOM’s Automate the Analyst effort aims to produce a kind of always-on advisor in an operator’s ear or sightline.

Of course, the general public now has access to something a little similar. ChatGPT and similar generative AI and large language models can answer virtually any question, if often incorrectly. But those require access to key public datasets and enormous cloud capabilities, things SOCOM operators can’t count on having. 

That’s why SOCOM is working on an instant translator that doesn’t require the internet to operate. A demonstration on Tuesday showed that the effort remains a work in progress. Some of those constraints are hardware-based. SOCOM is working with Nvidia and other partners to build devices that need not resort to off-device computation. 

In some tech realms, SOCOM is playing catch-up to China and Russia, said Brian Sisco, the command’s Futures team leader. His office was established in 2020 to identify how adversaries might develop new technologies and where the United States needed to go to counter. 

“We're falling behind not just linearly but exponentially,” Sisco said. 

The reason is that the United States was too rooted in the counterterrorism mission when it should have been pivoting to counter high-tech adversaries. A big part of his job: “Moving [SOCOM] a little bit away from the concept of effects-based work and how to blow people up and blowing things up, and turning it into something that looks a lot more like what Q does for James Bond.” 

The United States is only beginning to realize that some adversaries develop tech faster than others and so the U.S. military must increase its rate of innovation. “Our adversaries are not increasing their capability now at the same level they were over the course of the counterterrorism play. If you think of the bad guy with the AK-47 and the IED and maybe some remote-control devices, they didn't have the same increase in capability year over year as people who have dedicated science and technology labs. We have dedicated government programs for increasingly new technology, buys, and research,” he said. 

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.