As the US scales down its military's involvement in anti-terrorist operations, withdrawing from Afghanistan and reducing its presence in Iraq and Syria over the past few years, it has started to redeploy them for different kinds of missions, at least in relation to its Special Forces, the Business Insider has reported.
According to the publication, the Pentagon's new focus where the training of special-operations units is concerned is preparation for potential armed conflicts with Russia and China (instead of dealing with insurgents such as the Taliban* or Daesh**).
Some of the US Army Special-Operations Forces (ARSOF), including the Green Berets and 75th Ranger Regiment, have already started to prepare for this shift during the Lightning Forge 21 drills on Oahu Island, Hawaii, the BI reported.
The Green Berets trained in a role that had been customary for them before the launch of US anti-terrorist operations in Afghanistan and other countries - the support of conventional armed forces. They have filled this role in many conflicts in which the US has taken part, such as the Second World War and Vietnam.
The US Army confirmed that a Green Berets' unit from the 1st Special Forces Group worked with the 25th Infantry Division during the drills in Hawaii focusing on the area in which they excel - small-unit tactics. The latter is used to carry out ambushes, raids and even reconnaissance deep inside the enemy territory in support of the conventional forces' missions.
"[The small-unit tactics can be used] to disrupt enemy defences, eliminate key targets, gather intelligence and provide increased manoeuvrability, improving the brigade's ability to destroy the enemy," the US Army said in a statement.
The Lightning Forge exercise suggests that earlier recommendations by the US Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) on repurposing the Army' special operations units for confrontation with near-peer or peer adversaries, had been listened to in Pentagon. USASOC identified several roles that these elite units can play, namely infiltrating deeply into the enemy's denied areas, cooperation with - or leadership of - local guerrillas in the enemy's backyard, support for conventional forces and the destruction of the anti-access, area-denial (A2/AD) systems.
The latter is one of the main headaches for the US military when it comes to China and especially Russia. Both countries have formidable anti-air defences, which can render US aircraft carriers and strategic bombers useless in open conflict. Russian anti-air defence systems have long been recognised by the Pentagon itself as some of the best in the world because they have in effect made parts of Russia inaccessible to American jets.
*The Taliban is an organisation sanctioned by the UN for terrorist activities.
**Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia and many other countries.