Dan
04-06-2006, 15:10
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Apr2006/20060405_4721.html
Defense Department Seeks $5.2 Billion for Special Operations Forces
Funding essential to build skills to win war against terrorism, official says
By David I. McKeeby
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington - The Bush administration has requested $5.2 billion from Congress to fund a Department of Defense expansion of the U.S. Special Operations Command, an essential element in winning the global War on Terror, says Thomas O'Connell, assistant secretary of defense.
In prepared testimony for an April 5 Senate Armed Services committee hearing, O'Connell said that the 27 percent increase from the previous year's budget request was essential to expand America's "capability and capacity to conduct low-visibility, persistent presence missions and a global unconventional warfare campaign."
"We are faced by interacting networks ... of radical extremists who inflict terror with minimal concern for their innocent victims," he said. "These networks will migrate to places where they can survive, operate and grow."
In the war against terrorism, Army Special Forces, Navy SEALs (sea, air and land special forces), and other elite units have demonstrated their unique skills in Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia, the Philippines and elsewhere, O'Connell said. They have served as "effective counter-networks to monitor, isolate, disrupt and destroy hostile elements," by working with allies to bring terrorist leaders to justice and deny them safe havens. (See related article.)
O'Connell also said that the requested funding is aimed at meeting the Quadrennial Defense Review's long-term objective to expand and transform the U.S. military’s use of special operations forces. (See related article.)
According to O'Connell, the funding increase would be used for:
Recruitment, training, and deployment of over 1,300 new special operations personnel;
Maintaining sustained operations in areas where terrorist networks are operating;
Investments in aircraft to support operations;
Training and equipping foreign military forces to improve planning and execution of counterterrorism operations; and
Support of the newly created Marine Corps Special Operations Command.
O'Connell told the committee that the funding has implications for the nation's defense because many tactics and techniques developed by special forces are subsequently adopted across the services. "Our special operators have often been the innovators for the larger military," he said.
Shifting special operations forces from reactive deployment for regional contingencies " to being a global, proactive and pre-emptive force," he said, is "a key evolution in how we must conduct our security affairs in the future."
The transcript of O'Connell's testimony is available on the Senate Armed Services Committee Web site.
For more information, see Response to Terrorism.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
Defense Department Seeks $5.2 Billion for Special Operations Forces
Funding essential to build skills to win war against terrorism, official says
By David I. McKeeby
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington - The Bush administration has requested $5.2 billion from Congress to fund a Department of Defense expansion of the U.S. Special Operations Command, an essential element in winning the global War on Terror, says Thomas O'Connell, assistant secretary of defense.
In prepared testimony for an April 5 Senate Armed Services committee hearing, O'Connell said that the 27 percent increase from the previous year's budget request was essential to expand America's "capability and capacity to conduct low-visibility, persistent presence missions and a global unconventional warfare campaign."
"We are faced by interacting networks ... of radical extremists who inflict terror with minimal concern for their innocent victims," he said. "These networks will migrate to places where they can survive, operate and grow."
In the war against terrorism, Army Special Forces, Navy SEALs (sea, air and land special forces), and other elite units have demonstrated their unique skills in Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia, the Philippines and elsewhere, O'Connell said. They have served as "effective counter-networks to monitor, isolate, disrupt and destroy hostile elements," by working with allies to bring terrorist leaders to justice and deny them safe havens. (See related article.)
O'Connell also said that the requested funding is aimed at meeting the Quadrennial Defense Review's long-term objective to expand and transform the U.S. military’s use of special operations forces. (See related article.)
According to O'Connell, the funding increase would be used for:
Recruitment, training, and deployment of over 1,300 new special operations personnel;
Maintaining sustained operations in areas where terrorist networks are operating;
Investments in aircraft to support operations;
Training and equipping foreign military forces to improve planning and execution of counterterrorism operations; and
Support of the newly created Marine Corps Special Operations Command.
O'Connell told the committee that the funding has implications for the nation's defense because many tactics and techniques developed by special forces are subsequently adopted across the services. "Our special operators have often been the innovators for the larger military," he said.
Shifting special operations forces from reactive deployment for regional contingencies " to being a global, proactive and pre-emptive force," he said, is "a key evolution in how we must conduct our security affairs in the future."
The transcript of O'Connell's testimony is available on the Senate Armed Services Committee Web site.
For more information, see Response to Terrorism.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)