Rowan Scarborough, in the Washington Times, reports that the Army's Special Forces "are operating at under their authorized strength because of the high-attrition qualification course and because of the lure of higher-paying security work at private companies."
This is important because the special forces are a crucial element in the new rapid-response structure Rummy is trying to create. They play a particularly important role in the war on terror because they are specialists in unconventional warfare.
The problem is not yet severe, in fact the number of special forces has grown by about 100 troops in the past three years, but that increase is already straining the system. It is very difficult to increase the number of people being trained because so few soldiers can meet the physical and mental requirements necessary to be in the Special Forces. And it takes a long time to train a special forces soldier. It is therefore likely that, as more Special Forces troops opt out for lucrative civilian employment, the training schedule, already accelerated, will be unable to keep pace with the losses.
The age of mass warfare, initiated in the late eighteenth century, seems to be drawing to a close. Vast armies will no longer simply slug it out as they have for the past two centuries. Will we return to something like the previous system of movement and deployment? Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment