Producer: Popular Science China
Author: Li Xiaobai
Planner: Zhao Qingjian
Producer: Guangming Network Science Popularization Division
After the end of World War II, some countries experienced the unique advantages and important role of small elite units in war, and began to form small elite commandos dedicated to special tasks. Through the development of war theory and the evolution of small elite units, the concept of special forces has gradually taken shape, that is, elite combat units that are equipped, organized, and trained, and use special means to carry out special tasks.
Over the past half century, special forces have been widely used, active in battlefields around the world, performing special operations tasks such as sabotage, reconnaissance, and counter-terrorism, and constantly optimizing themselves according to operational needs, and have developed rapidly. Especially after the Cold War, the system of special forces has been improved again, and the combat tasks have become more diversified, and even gradually moved towards new battlefields such as networks and space.
Special forces wearing multi-functional tactical helmets and using SCAR rifles (image from the internet)
The level of informatization and integration has been further enhanced
Informationized warfare subverts the style of traditional warfare, and thanks to the application of high-tech equipment, special forces can unite with other services to carry out tasks and improve the success rate of tasks under the premise of greatly reducing operational risks. With the progress of the scientific and technological society, in the future, the special forces will further enhance the level of informatization and increase the importance attached to joint operations.
Especially after the advent of the 5G era, special forces soldiers will be equipped with multi-functional helmets, compound sights, intelligent network information terminals and other high-tech equipment. Greatly improve the level of information collection and processing, enhance battlefield situational awareness capabilities, control unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned combat vehicles to reconnoiter, guide and strike combat targets, and improve the level of comprehensive combat effectiveness under the premise of improving battlefield survivability.
At the same time, special forces will pay more attention to joint combat capabilities. In the future battlefield, special forces soldiers will become independent combat units in the combat system, sharing battlefield situation information to the combat network platform in real time, and the rear command organization implements accurate decision-making based on the combat pictures transmitted by special combatants in real time, and unifies the command and deployment of various services and arms under the combat system, and the joint operations of various services and arms to complete combat tasks. Among them, the special forces are not only the transmitters of military information in the front, but also give full play to their own advantages of flexibility, precision and efficiency, carry out special operations, and coordinate and supplement with other branches of the joint operation.
Special forces equipped with advanced night vision and communication systems (image from the network)
The proportion of counter-terrorism operations has increased
After the end of the Cold War, the process of political multipolarization has been deepening, and the probability of large-scale wars between countries has become smaller and smaller, and counter-terrorism operations have become one of the main forms of future struggle. After 9/11, the United States launched a global anti-terrorist operation, and the U.S. military once again upgraded the status of special forces and sent special forces to counter-terrorism battlefields around the world. At the same time, countries have attached great importance to the anti-terrorism combat capabilities of special forces, and there is no shortage of elites to select and form full-time counter-terrorism special forces.
The special forces are specially appointed, equipped, and personnel, lean and efficient, and the cost and cost of performing tasks are low, and the chances of success are large. Compared with special forces, the functions and combat methods of conventional forces are relatively single, and the high cost of investment in counter-terrorism operations may not be able to reap corresponding returns. The special forces are small in scale, flexible in mobilization, and highly concealed, which is not easy to arouse the vigilance of the enemy, and can also minimize political sensitivity and reduce the pressure of public opinion, so as to avoid some potential risks. Second, the special forces have a strong adaptability. It can not only make accurate judgments and adjust tactical means with the battle situation in combat operations, so as to seize more initiative for their own side; it can also be based on the flexible advance and retreat of the entire war situation, and withdraw at any time when it encounters unfavorable situations, so as to avoid unnecessary follow-up losses.
Special Forces counterterrorism operations have yielded many successes, such as the killing of al-Qaida leader Bin Laden in Operation Neptune Spear by U.S. Navy SEALs and the death of Baghdadi, the leader of the extremist group Islamic State (IS), during a raid by U.S. Delta Commandos. While most counterterrorism operations are covert and unknown, it is foreseeable that special forces will play an increasingly important role in the future counterterrorism battlefield.
Special operators undergoing tactical coordination training (image from the Internet)
The dimensions of war continue to expand
With the development of science and technology, future wars will no longer be limited to land, sea and air, but will move towards the struggle in the fields of network and space. Special forces have distinct characteristics of the times, where there is a battlefield, there will be the existence of special forces to meet the needs of future operations.
Modern warfare is a high-tech war that is changing rapidly, and the scientific and technological forces of attacking the enemy have become a new way of thinking that paralyzes the enemy's ability to fight. For example, in the Russo-Georgian War, Russia used cyber warfare to form an overwhelming advantage over Georgia and won a lot of convenience for follow-up operations; the US military often looks for computer mining masters in various forms, including hacking competitions, steals military intelligence on the Internet, and suppresses the enemy's combat system by means of network attacks.
In addition to the network, the competition in the space field is also becoming more and more fierce, and anti-satellite weapons, space vehicles, and space arms have become high-tech weapons that space powers are competing for, trying to accurately damage enemy satellites in wartime. The future special forces are not necessarily special operators with excellent military quality, they may be computer network masters, or they may be astronauts who have undergone special training.
U.S. X-37B spacecraft (Image from the Internet)
Special forces are the product of the accumulation of mankind's long history of struggle, and will also develop with the development of scientific and technological society and war style. In the era of informationization and joint warfare, special forces will pay more attention to the construction of their own information level, give play to their unique advantages, jointly fight with other services and arms, and will also participate in more anti-terrorism operations and move toward the development of the network, space and other fields.
A small dictionary of military affairs
Special operations are combat operations carried out by using special armed forces and special combat means in order to achieve special political, military, economic and other purposes.
About the Author
Li Xiaobai, a member of the Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics and an author of military science popularization, has published hundreds of articles in many well-known military journals and well-known websites in China, and his articles have been cited by CSBA, an international think tank. He has long been engaged in the popularization of science for young people's national defense education, and has won the first prize of the Eighth National Future Aircraft Design Competition of the "Innovation Cup" of the Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Source: Popular Science China - Frontiers of Military Science and Technology