Press Releases

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Representative Ronny Jackson (R-TX), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations, delivered the following opening remarks at hearing on the role of special operations in great power competition.
 
Rep. Jackson’s remarks as prepared for delivery:
 
Today we will hear from our witnesses on “The Role of Special Operations Forces in Great Power Competition.”
 
The United States is facing a dramatically different geopolitical environment than any other time in recent decades. While this century has been dominated by our efforts in the Global War on Terrorism, the new era of great power competition presents strategic challenges from revisionist states in China and Russia and their rogue state allies in Iran and North Korea.  
 
Over the past several years, as our Nation has confronted the evolving landscape of great power competition, our special operators have adapted to meet the challenges posed by our adversaries, while continuing to combat the continuous and evolving threats posed by violent extremist organizations, military proxies, and non-state actors.
 
U.S. special operations forces are ideally suited and organized for great power competition.  The core activities of our special operations units—from working with our partners around the world to help bolster their defenses and unconventional warfare capabilities to counter-proliferation and special reconnaissance—are more in-need today than they have been in decades and offer the ability to present strategic and operational challenges to our adversaries and enable our allies and partners to resist outside aggression.
 
The relationships our SOF have built and sustained over decades of partnerships are critical for our access and placement to counter our adversaries
 
The United States will continue to rely on the men and women throughout the SOF community to prepare future battlespaces, rapidly respond to contingencies in multiple theaters, and extend American influence by operating across the spectrum of competition, including below the threshold of traditional military conflict and in the Grey Zone.
 
To address this continuously changing environment, ASD SOLIC and SOCOM recently released the Joint Special Operations Forces Operating Concept for Force Development and Design to guide the SOF Community and the Department to ensure we develop, and I quote, “a Joint SOF that rapidly fuses all-domain capabilities for tailored and simultaneous missions across the full spectrum from competition to conflict, enabled by persistent campaigning for global advantage.”  That sounds a little verbose and academic, but if you read it slowly it is accurate and makes sense.
 
This concept will require the SOF community to be culturally literate in dynamic regions across the globe, and proficient across evolving domains in the cyber, space, and information realms, all while maintaining the ability to provide unique tactical combat capabilities for the joint force.
 
Today’s hearing is focused on the role of special operations forces as the United States embraces an era of great power competition. This Subcommittee will seek to examine the unique capabilities of the SOF service components and how special operations forces’ core activities may complement and enable the Joint Force to operate against strategic adversaries.
 
We hope to further understand how the SOF components determine what the appropriate capabilities and force structure are to support and respond to Geographic Combatant Commands requirements for GPC and counter adversaries and non-state actors.