Air Force Special Operations are small, covert military missions that can be carried out independently or jointly with other agencies or conventional forces. They include counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, counterproliferation, psychological operations, and unconventional warfare. These operations are highly classified and conducted clandestinely for the best chance of success and to protect military personnel.
Air Force Special Operations are military missions conducted in politically sensitive, denied, or hostile environments. Air Force special operations objectives could be economic, military, informational, and/or diplomatic. When large conventional forces are not needed or when such forces might actually impede the achievement of an objective, the military’s unique special operations capabilities could be employed to conduct clandestine, low-visibility, or covert missions. Air Force special operations may be carried out independently or jointly with other agencies or conventional forces. In some circumstances, special operations might involve operating through or with surrogate or indigenous forces.
Conventional and special operations differ in size and operational techniques. Special operations forces are small compared to the size of the enemy. For example, a small team of Air Force special operations personnel could be inserted behind enemy lines to gather intelligence. Conventional forces use the latest jet fighter aircraft to attack the enemy. A special operations aircraft, however, could be a small single-engine propeller plane or a helicopter capable of flying under enemy radar.
There are a few core activities that define Air Force Special Operations. Counterterrorism operations are actions or missions that target terrorist networks, counterinsurgency involves combined military and civilian efforts to address grievances and defeat an insurgency, and counterproliferation of weapons of mass destruction includes missions to locate, recover, and destroy such weapons. Psychological operations to influence the attitudes and behavior of potentially hostile populations also fall under the responsibility of special operations. An example of a psych operation is a flyer explaining a planned military attack. Leaflet drops were done as part of a special operations campaign prior to the start of the Iraq War in 2003.
Unconventional warfare is another aspect of Air Force special operations. These are paramilitary and military operations, generally of long duration, conducted mainly by surrogate or indigenous forces equipped and supported to varying degrees by external entities. An example of unconventional warfare is the equipment and assistance provided to the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan by several governments in its effort to defeat the Taliban in 2001.
Military special operations are highly classified and are normally conducted clandestinely. This is done both to give operations the best chance of success and to provide protection for the military personnel carrying out the operation. Historians of wars and military campaigns usually do not have access to information about special operations, so it remains largely unknown and undocumented except in highly classified intelligence information.
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