HQ$History - United States Special Operations Command

SOKF-J-9 (Futures) also integrated IW
concepts into joint and service war games
and experiments that address capability
requirements in future operating environments.
The war games and experiments
were used to validate IW concepts that
would shape DOD’s response to the irregular
threats that jeopardized our strategic
national interests.
In June 2007, CDRUSSOCOM established
an IW Directorate (J-10) in SOKF to
maintain the momentum in IW planning
and policy and provide continuous focus on
IW-related issues cutting across all operational
and programmatic lines. Scheduled
to reach full operational capability in
October 2008, the J-10 planned to leverage
the IW efforts already completed and collaborate
with the IW community to facilitate
the application of IW strategies in support of
U.S. national objectives.
Interagency Task Force:
Winning the GWOT required the full
participation of the entire Inter-Agency community.
In April 2006, USSOCOM’s Center
for Special Operations (CSO) stood up an
Interagency Task Force (IATF) to expand
USSOCOM’s global synchronization effort to
include agencies outside the Department of
Defense. The IATF acted as a catalyst to
rapidly facilitate CT collaboration within
DOD and across the interagency (IA)
against trans-regional terrorist organizations
with strategic level focus against terrorist
strengths and weakness. When possible,
the IATF would support other U.S.
agencies and host nations during crises
across the world. In this process, the IATF
assisted in the development of strategic and
operational concepts and plans to facilitate
action by the most appropriate combination
of DOD, IA organizations, or partner nation
organizations.
All the major interagency partners (as
well as the combat support agencies) were
represented in the task force. By design, the
IATF could be the lead for SOF objectives, or
could support other U.S. agencies’ goals.
The IATF focused on CSO priority efforts
such as countering the global foreign terror
network and collaborating on strategic communications
initiatives. The foundation for
interagency interaction was built on three
fundamental principles: (1) the accumulation
of knowledge on specific strategic level
problem sets; (2) the development of communities
of interest in which collaboration,
analysis, and information sharing occurred;
and (3) the linking of this knowledge,
analysis, and operational recommendations
to decision makers
across the interagency.
The IATF also provided direct
support and leadership to the
USSOCOM Crisis Action Planning
Team in support of the Command’s
Time Sensitive Planning process
and mission.
1987 EARNEST WILL- MH-60
Blackhawk
landing on Hercules.
2006 OEF - A Predator UAV sits in a maintenance bunker in Afghanistan.
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