US Joint Special Operations Command

Summary: The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM or SOCOM) was established in 1987 to provide operational control of special operations units across the military's branches. Some of these units include US Army Special Forces-Detachment Delta, popularly known as “Delta Force.” In addition were units of the US Navy’s Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) organization. The US military Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) was organized in 1987 as a component of SOCOM. The Joint Special Operations Command is a joint component command within the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), a Unified Combatant Command (UCC). Some of these commands are organized geographically, such as the Northern Command (homeland defense); Indo-Pacific Command (Asia and the Pacific, renamed in 2018); Southern Command (Central and South America and the Caribbean); Central Command (Central Asia and the Middle East, including Afghanistan and Iraq); European Command; and Africa Command. Other commands are organized functionally, including Cyber Command, Special Operations Command, Space Command, Strategic Command, and Transportation Command. Within Special Operations Command (SOCOM), JSOC is a highly specialized, elite unit.

After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the number of servicemembers assigned to the JSOC increased. In addition to special operations, JSOC has an important role in providing intelligence. In this role, the Defense Department found itself in conflict with the Central Intelligence Agency, especially in cases where JSOC operatives have been sent into countries out of uniform. The JSOC has also been tasked with training anti-terrorist units of other countries—such as the Philippines and Mali—and with a variety of non-conventional warfare techniques such as propaganda and information warfare. In the late 2010s and early 2020s, the JSOC was particularly active in Syria.

In 2010, the command listed foremost among its missions to "synchronize planning of global operations against terrorist networks" and to "deter, disrupt and defeat terrorist threats." In this regard, JSOC was the front-line US military response to terrorism and remained so into the 2020s. 

JSOC preceded the war on terrorism. It was established by the Defense Department in 1987 as one of several new "integrated commands" mandated by acts of Congress (the Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 and the Nunn-Cohen Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act of 1987) to improve coordination of the traditional military branches—Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. In specific geographic areas or in carrying out specific types of duties anywhere in the world. Those acts were spurred in part by a disastrous operation conducted by special forces in trying to rescue Americans held hostage at the US embassy in Tehran in 1980. One of the first major missions conducted by JSOC was in coordination with the area commander during the 1989 invasion of Panama. Unlike other unified commands, the JSOC operates independently of the other services for its budget and its ability to develop or acquire equipment, including specialized equipment needed to carry out its duties. 

The JSOC lists several Core Activities on its website: 

1. Direct Action: Short-duration strikes and other small-scale offensive actions employing specialized military capabilities to seize, destroy, capture, exploit, recover, or damage designated targets.
2. Special Reconnaissance: Actions conducted in sensitive environments to collect or verify information of strategic or operational significance.
3. Unconventional Warfare: Actions to enable a resistance movement or insurgency to coerce, disrupt, or overthrow a government or occupying power.
4. Foreign Internal Defense: Activities that support an HN's internal defense and development (IDAD) strategy and program designed to protect against subversion, lawlessness, insurgency, terrorism, and other threats to their internal security, and stability, and legitimacy.
5. Civil Affairs Operations: CAO enhance the relationship between military forces and civilian authorities in localities where military forces are present.
6. Counterterrorism: Actions taken directly against terrorist networks and indirectly to influence and render global and regional environments inhospitable to terrorist networks.
7. Military Information Support Operations : MISO are planned to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals in a manner favorable to the originator's objectives.
8. Counter-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction: Activities to support USG efforts to curtail the conceptualization, development, possession, proliferation, use, and effects of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), related expertise, materials, technologies, and means of delivery by state and non-state actors.
9. Security Force Assistance: Activities based on organizing, training, equipping, rebuilding, and advising various components of Foreign Security Forces.
10. Counterinsurgency: The blend of civilian and military efforts designed to end insurgent violence and facilitate a return to peaceful political processes.
11. Hostage Rescue and Recovery: Offensive measures taken to prevent, deter, preempt, and respond to terrorist threats and incidents, including recapture of US facilities, installations, and sensitive material in overseas areas.
12. Foreign Humanitarian Assistance: The range of DOD humanitarian activities conducted outside the US and its territories to relieve or reduce human suffering, disease, hunger, or privation.

In practice, the terms Special Operations Command and Joint Special Operations Command are often used interchangeably, although the commanders of the two are different. 

The operating units under these commands include: 

Army:

• Special Forces (Green Berets). 

• Delta Force, specializing in counter-terrorism. 

• 75th Ranger Regiment. 

• 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, specializing in flying helicopters for special operations. 

• Intelligence Support Activity. 

• 95th Civil Affairs Brigade, specializing in civil affairs. 

• 4th Psychological Operations Group. 

Navy:

• SEALs (Sea, Air, Land), Navy commandos. 

• Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewman (SWCC), who operate surface boats. 

• Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 84 (HSC-84) 

Marine Corps:

• US Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC). 

• Force Recon, specializing in "deep reconnaissance." 

• Division Recon, "highly trained reconnaissance Marines." 

• Maritime Special Purpose Force for special operations. 

• Scout Snipers, elite sniper teams. 

• Radio Reconnaissance Teams. 

• Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team, dedicated to security for Navy ships. 

• Recapture Tactics Team, another security team 

• Special Reaction Team, specialists in special weapons and tactics (SWAT) tactics. 

Air Force:

• Air Force Special Operations, "elite airmen" assigned to several different duties, including operating AC-130 gunships and other specially-equipped aircraft to support special operations. 

• Special Tactics teams that include air traffic controllers in combat situations, meteorologists, Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) units, and Tactical Air Control Parties (TACP). 

• The military special operations command does not include operational agents assigned to the Central Intelligence Agency. 

What Are Special Operations?

The Joint Special Operations Command lists a variety of duties to which it might be assigned. In general, these are of short duration, involve specific targets, and consist of relatively small numbers of personnel. They are, in contrast, for example, to the assignments of regular forces, which might include seizing and occupying large swaths of territory or patrolling vast stretches of open water. Other specific missions of special operations troops include counterinsurgency and counterterrorism, as well as nonviolent activities such as establishing and maintaining cordial relations with civilian populations and conducting psychological warfare, along with intelligence and logistics activities to support special operations. 

JSOC and the War on Terrorism

After the Al Qaeda attacks of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush made the war on terrorism the primary focus of JSOC, including synchronizing plans to combat global terrorist networks and carrying out operations. The command "receives, reviews, coordinates and prioritizes all [Department of Defense] plans that support the global campaign against terror and then makes recommendations to the Joint Staff regarding force and resource allocations to meet global requirements." 

In 2002, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld designated the JSOC as a "supported organization" instead of a "supportive" command. The change meant that whereas special operations had previously provided forces as requested to regional commanders, the JSOC began receiving orders directly from the Pentagon as a primary tool in the post-9/11 war on terrorism. 

Afghanistan in particular saw a sharp increase in missions by the JSOC after its former commander, General Stanley McChrystal, was appointed by President Obama as the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan. McChrystal was commander of the Joint Special Operations Command from 2003 to 2008 before being assigned to lead American operations in Afghanistan. McChrystal later brought JSOC forces under his command following a rise in civilian casualties blamed on JSOC activities. Such casualties, some widely publicized in Afghanistan and many of which occurred during nighttime raids, were blamed for widespread hostility towards American and NATO troops in Afghanistan. 

In the last month of McChrystal's command and the first two months of General David Petraeus, the number of JSOC raids increased dramatically—rising to nearly 3,000 separate actions in the ninety-day period May-July 2010. 

Beyond Afghanistan

In September 2009, General David Petraeus—the then-commander of US Central Command—authorized sending special operations troops to several countries, primarily to gather intelligence and to develop closer ties to friendly military forces. According to reports at the time, one goal was to prepare for a possible future conflict with Iran and protect against threats from and to Somalia and Saudi Arabia. His order did not include offensive operations. 

While many of its operations are secret, JSOC does include among its acknowledged activities raids intended to eliminate the leadership of designated terrorist groups, such as the Afghan Taliban or insurgents in Iraq. The New York Times reported in December 2009 that special operations forces had "had success weakening the network of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the strongest Taliban warrior in eastern Afghanistan" and had "also killed some important Taliban operatives in Marja, the most fearsome Taliban stronghold in Helmand Province." According to the Times, JSOC forces pursued Osama bin Laden of Al Qaeda and were responsible for capturing Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003. They were also responsible for the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder and leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. The actions of Special Operations forces are acknowledged only in countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq, where the American military is officially active. 

In March 2010, Senator Carl Levin said in a statement that while the official US combat role in Iraq was scheduled to end in September 2010, "the requirement for special operations forces and the unique skill they bring to the effort there will continue." In April 2010, Reuters reported the United States planned to provide $34 million in the form of "tactical aid" to Yemeni special forces trying to track down members of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The command has also carried out a wide range of less-publicized activities. In May 2002, about 150 members of the special forces went to Georgia to train soldiers in combating extremists in the Pankisi Gorge—an 11-mile-long (17.7-kilometer-long) forested valley thought to be home to insurgent fighters from both the anti-Russian guerrilla war in neighboring Chechnya and from Afghanistan. Similar training missions have been conducted on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, home to an Islamist insurgency, and in the sub-Saharan country of Mali. In September 2009, US special forces operating from a Navy ship killed a Kenyan terrorist, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, active in Somalia, in an operation that included strafing Nabhan's convoy from helicopters, then landing Navy SEALs to retrieve his body to confirm his identity. Such operations typically involve a small number of US forces and last for a short period, sometimes described as "surgical operations" that leverage the global reach of the US Navy and other forces. 

JSOC forces engage in other non-conventional activities besides anti-guerrilla commando warfare. For example, psychological operations meant to "provide truthful information to foreign audiences" in order to "influence behavior in support of US military operations," and information operations aimed at "adversely affecting enemy information and systems while protecting US information and systems." 

The JSOC remained active in fighting terrorism as the twenty-first century progressed, though the actors and stages evolved into different groups in different nations. In 2015, JSOC forces killed ISIL leader Abu Ala al-Afri in Operation Inherent Resolve. Operations throughout the end of the 2010s and through the 2020s have also been concentrated in Syria.

Vice Admiral William McRaven became commander of JSOC in June 2008, succeeding General Stanley McChrystal. He previously oversaw the Special Operations Command Europe. His background includes a lengthy list of special operations commands, including a stint as a Navy SEAL platoon commander specializing in underwater demolition. According to Newsweek magazine (March 15, 2004). McRaven was in command of Task Force 121, described as "a covert, miniature strike force" that tracked down Saddam Hussein, and given responsibility for producing "a lightning-fast reaction should intel locate [Osama] bin Laden."

In 2011, JSOC forces under the command of Admiral McRaven staged a nighttime raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Osama bin Laden—the subject of an intense manhunt for nearly a decade—was previously been located in a private residence. The JSOC forces located Bin Laden and killed him. McRaven was later promoted to four-star admiral and given command of SOCOM at MacDill AFB, Florida. McRaven retired from the military in 2014. Beginning in 2011, the US withdrew the majority of its conventional forces from Iraq. In 2021, the US completed the withdrawal of conventional forces from Afghanistan. US special operations forces, including those in JSOC, have continued to be deployed to volatile areas worldwide. From 2022 to 2025, Vice-Admiral Frank M. Bradley served as the seventeenth commander of JSOC. LTG Jonathan P. Braga took over this role in September 2025.

 

Bibliography

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