Curated news, analysis, and commentary about special operations, national security, and conflicts around the world.
Photo / Image: A Soldier assigned to 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) pins of the coveted Special Forces Tab on a newly graduated Green Beret following assignment to 3rd SFG(A) during the 3rd SFG(A) tabbing ceremony on Fort Bragg, N.C., Dec. 10, 2025. The Special Forces Tab is awarded to U.S. Army Soldiers who successfully complete the Special Forces Qualification Course, a physically and mentally demanding course that train Soldiers on the basics of unconventional warfare. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Edgar Martinez)
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SOF News
Navy Wins! In a very close contest the Naval Academy’s Midshipmen won over the Army’s West Point ‘Black Knights’ football team with the score of 17 to 16 on Saturday afternoon, December 13, 2025. Navy’s record is now at 10-2 while Army’s record is at 6-6.
SOF and the Golden Dome. Special Operations global capabilities have the potential to enable early warning and flexible deterrent options when it comes to dealing with hypersonic and cruise missile threats. A new Space Force element located at United States Special Operations Command that was created in 2025 can assist SOF in bolstering resilience from cyber and electromagnetic attacks. “Golden Dome: A Special Operations Forces Overview”, JSOU Press, November 17, 2025.
Legalize Psychedelics? There are a few SOF-focused veterans organizations promoting the need to speed therapeutic access to psychedelics to help veterans struggling with deep trauma, depression, and alcoholism. Matthew Buckley, a former Navy pilot and the president of the No Fallen Heroes Foundation recently took part in a panel discussion at Harvard University about the therapeutic need vs. safety questions of psychedelics. “Time to Legalize Psychedelics?”, The Harvard Gazette, December 5, 2025.
SOF Helicopters of the Vietnam War. Stavros Atlamazoglou writes about how the helicopter not only revolutionized warfare but how special operations units, to include MACV-SOG, used the aircraft for infil and exfil on missions in the 1960s. “The Special Operations Helicopters of the Vietnam War”, SANDBOXX, December 12, 2025.
Report on Osprey Aircraft. A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report finds some safety concerns and provides some recommendations to mitigate the risks. GAO-26-107285, December 8, 2025. https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-26-107285
A Quiet Maritime Interdiction. Some special operations that take place on the high seas make it to the ‘front page’ of the news. And then some incidents are barely mentioned. A recent ship boarding operations is one of the quiet ones. “US Special Operations Forces Board a China-to-Iran Ship in the Indian Ocean”, SOFREP, December 14, 2024.
SOF History
On December 20, 1989, more than 3,600 Army Special Operations Forces (ARSOF) soldiers participated in Operation Just Cause (Panama). Parachute assaults were conducted onto Panamanian airfields. Read more at USASOC History Office: https://arsof-history.org/arsof_in_panama/index.html
On December 13, 2003, Iraq President Saddam Hussein was captured hiding in a hole at a farmhouse in Adwar, Iraq. Task Force 121, a joint special operations team, conducted the operation. The TF was assisted by elements of the 4th ID. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Saddam_Hussein
National Security and Commentary
Spc. Sarah Beckstrom – RIP. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, a military police officer assigned to the 863rd Military Police Company, West Virginia Army National Guard, was laid to rest with full military honors during a ceremony at the West Virginia National Cemetery in Grafton, West Virginia, Dec. 9. “West Virginia Guardsman Laid to Rest”, Department of Defense, December 11, 2025.
Slashing Jobs at VA. The Veterans Affairs department may soon have to do without 35,000 health care positions – including doctors and nurses. The department has already lost 30,000 positions this year. These additional cuts will likely add more pressure to an already stretched health care system for America’s veterans. The cuts will mean longer wait times for veterans who need to schedule appointments to receive health care. “VA plans to abruptly eliminate tens of thousands of health care jobs”, The Washington Post, December 13, 2025.
Crisis of U.S. Diplomatic Corps. Global leadership relies on a professional and experienced diplomatic workforce. However, just as global threats are intensifying America’s soft power is eroding. The American Foreign Service Association conducted a survey of its active-duty membership and over 2,000 diplomats responded. 98% report poor morale, 86% say changes in the workplace have affected their ability to advance U.S. diplomatic priorities, and nearly 1 in 3 are considering leaving the diplomatic service. Read the results in a report entitled “At the Breaking Point: The State of the U.S. Foreign Service in 2025”, American Foreign Service Association, December 3, 2025, PDF, 16 pgs.
IO, CYBER, Intel, IW
SOF-Cyber-Space Triad. Special operations forces are now a player in the space and cyber worlds. The integration of Army Special Operations Forces (ARSOF) into the SOF-Space-Cyber Triad will extend the operational reach, survivability, and decision-making agility of forward deployed SOF teams. A key task, however, is to take advantage of technology without diminishing the core activities of the ARSOF mission. Two Special Forces officers provide their perspective in “A Team Room Discussion on the SOF-Space-Cyber Triad”, Special Warfare Journal, December 11, 2025.
New Army Intel General. Lieutenant General Michelle A. Schmidt has been promoted and assigned as the Army’s Deputy Chief of Staff, G-2. She was confirmed for promotion by the U.S. Senate on 30 October 2025. She is a career intelligence officer with extensive experience in both conventional and special operations. She has served on command or staff assignments with Resolute Support Mission, DIA, 82nd Airborne Division, Delta Force, JSOC, and other organizations.
New Cdr of the NGA. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has a new director, one who has over three decades of intelligence experience. She is expected to accelerate the NGA’s modernization – especially in the analytics and artificial intelligence fields. Read more about the new director in “LTG Michele Bredenkamp: Modernizing the NGA for Lethality?”, Grey Dynamics, December 12, 2025.
Strategic Competition
SCS, USCG, and Political Warfare. China is aggressively consolidating its position in the critical maritime corridor of the South China Sea (SCS). It is using its maritime militia, fishing fleets, and artificial islands to turn the area into a contested area in an attempt to expand its territorial boundaries. While the U.S. Navy has a presence in the region, it is a military solution to a political warfare problem. A more appropriate response might be the deployment of U.S. Coast Guard assets as a maritime strategy. Read more in “The Coast Guard’s Place in Political Warfare”, Special Operations Association of America, December 9, 2025.
IW and Russia’s Shadow Fleet. Andrew Rolander writes on how Russia operates with near impunity using its shadow fleet to exploit loopholes in maritime legal frameworks. The Russian government can conduct nefarious activities but shield itself from any diplomatic, legal, or military response. “Irregular Warfare at Sea: How Russia’s Shadow Fleet Undermines Maritime Security”, Small Wars Journal, December 11, 2025.
China, Operational Art, and Wargaming. Military planners have gotten away from practicing and applying operational art in a large scale war. The Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) side-tracked the U.S. military for over two decades in how it conducts land warfare. The emergence of China as the chief strategic competitor on the world scene and its aggressive moves in the Indo-Pacific has the U.S. focused once more on strategic, operational, and tactical aspects of warfare. The area that needs work is the space between strategic and tactical aspects of warfare – called operational art. Recent wargaming has exposed a weakness in operational planning. Read more in “Decline of Operational Art: The Story of a Strategic China Wargame”, by Marco Lyons, War on the Rocks, December 12, 2025.
Ukraine Conflict
February 2022 – Will the Russians Invade? Many observers said no and downplayed the risk of a Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Read more in “Why Many Underestimated Russia’s Invasion Risk”, War on the Rocks, December 8, 2025.
Russia’s Cognitive Warfare Effort. The advances in Ukraine by the Russians in 2025 have been minimal – gaining less than one percent of Ukrainian territory. This has come at an enormous cost to the Russians – both in personnel and equipment. What the Russians have failed to achieve on the battlefield they wish to win at the negotiation table. One of the biggest Russian goals is to get the Ukrainians to cede territory through a peace agreement that the Russians can’t win through combat on the ground. To do this, they are relying on influence operations to convince the United States and the international community that the war is hopeless for the Ukrainians and that Ukraine is looking at an ultimate defeat if the war continues.
Stopping Russian Aggression. Appeasement with Russia is not working. The solution, according to Oleksandr Sukhobrus – a native of Kyiv and former diplomat, is for the West to back Ukraine’s resistance with sustained military and economic support. “A Letter from Ukraine – How to Stop Russian Aggression: or appeasement or resistance?”, Small Wars Journal, December 12, 2025.
- References:
- Interactive Map. Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine by the Institute for the Study of War and Critical Threats. On storymaps.arcgis.com See also https://www.national-security.info/ukraine/maps.html
- U.S. Security Assistance to Ukraine, Congressional Research Service, CRSIF12040, periodically updated, PDF, 3 pages. https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12040
- Ukraine Conflict, National Security Info. https://www.national-security.info/ukraine-conflict.html
SOF News welcomes the submission of articles for publication. If it is related to special operations, current conflicts, national security, or defense then we are interested.
Asia
Taiwan’s IC. The intelligence community is made up with eleven intelligence bodies with defense, law enforcement, immigration, and border protection mission areas. There are three main organizations and several small ones. Taiwan’s IC has evolved over the past decades into a professional set of organizations. Learn more in “Taiwan’s Intelligence Community: NSB, MJIB, MIB Leading the Way”, by Mauro Esgueva, Grey Dynamics, December 11, 2025.
Terror Attack in Australia. At least 16 people were killed in what is being described as a terrorist attack conducted by two assailants. One of the attackers was killed and the second is in critical condition. Another 40 people are reported to be injured – two of them police officers. The mass shooting took place at Bondi Beach in Sydney on Sunday evening, December 14, 2025, during a Jewish Hanukkah event. The two attackers used rifles during the assault, one was disarmed by a bystander. There is speculation that there was a third gunman. Two of the shooters have been identified as father and son, the son is hospitalized.
Western Hemisphere
Troubles in Haiti. The situation in Haiti is going from bad to worse. The criminal gangs have been running amok and the government is unable to quell the violence. The international community been trying to assist but thus far has been unable to restore stability to the country. Florida International University has published a report that details the dire situation in Haiti and presents some recommendations on the way forward. Read A Strategic Opening: Fighting Haiti’s Criminal Insurgency, Florida International University, November 24, 2025, PDF, 40 pages.
U.S. Shadow War with Venezuelan Cartels. As of mid-December 2025 there have been at least 22 kinetic strikes that have killed more than 80 drug smugglers in the waters around Venezuela. U.S. special operations forces have been involved in some of these attacks. Should a conflict with Venezuela occur U.S. SOF will be playing an important role. “America’s Shadow War with Venezuelan Cartels”, Special Operations Association of America, December 11, 2025.
CSAR Assets Arrive in Caribbean. Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) aircraft and personnel have recently deployed to the Caribbean Sea region. The HH-60W helicopters and HC-130J planes along with refueling aerial tankers are used by combat rescue crews. The Southern Spear mission may soon be morphing into something more serious that is aimed at Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. These CSAR assets are in addition to numerous other types of aircraft already moved into the area in recent months. “Combat Rescue Aircraft, Tankers Arrive in Caribbean as U.S. Military Buildup Accelerates”, The War Zone, December 11, 2025.
Africa
ARSOF and IW in the Sahel. A Civil Affairs officer, Juan Quiroz, examines the current state of conflict in the Sahel region of Africa and provides his recommendations for the way forward. Among these is for ARSOF to focus more on the provision of essential services and less on physical security against terrorist or criminal threats. “Misconceptions about Irregular Warfare Have Wasted U.S. Influence in the Sahel”, Special Warfare, December 2025.
A Path for US CT in Sahel. Jordyn Abrams presents her ideas on how the United States should move forward to keep the jihadist movement in the Sahel region of Africa at bay. “Approaching the War on Terror in the Sahel”, Small Wars Journal, December 8, 2025.
RSF Advances in Sudan. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have seized Heglig – home to Sudan’s largest oil field and a main processing hub for South Sudan’s oil exports. This is a major military, economic, and political setback for the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). Heglig (Google Maps) is located in the southern part of Sudan just above the South Sudan border. This is also a blow to South Sudan as 90% of its economy is based on shipping oil through Sudan to ports in the Red Sea. There are ongoing negotiations to keep the oil pipeline that South Sudan relies on open.
Books, Podcasts, Videos, and Movies
Secrets of the Cold War. Michelle Ainsworth reviews two books that reveal the behind the scenes happenings of the Cold War. “Decoding Espionage: Newly Declassified Documents Reveal the Secret Intelligence War”, Skeptic, December 11, 2025.
Video – ISTC Alpine Sniper Course 2025. Green Berets with U.S. Special Operations Command Europe and special operations forces from Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Georgia, Italy, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom participate in the Alpine Sniper Course at the International Training Center in Hochfilzen, Austria, Sept. 20, 2025. The ISTC’s Alpine Sniper course is a two-week sniper training course designed to teach and train NATO Allies and partner nations the necessary skills to operate in an austere environment. Video by Joint Multinational Readiness Center (JMRC), DVIDS, September 19, 2025.
https://www.dvidshub.net/video/989563/istc-alpine-sniper-course-2025
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