In the Arctic i commandos Americans belonging to the best elite units simulated deployment in a conventional war operation as would occur in conflict between such “great powers”. Navy Seal And Green Berets, special forces of the Navy and the Army respectively, both an essential part of Socom, the United States Special Operations Command which has significantly expanded its workforce – from 38,000 units in 2001 to 73,000 in 2020 – are confirmed as an essential component also in large-scale conflicts that in the collective imagination would belong to nuclear submarines, intercontinental missiles and strategic bombers. The choice of the Arctic theater is not a coincidence: evidently the Pentagon he is wary of China and Russia, and continues to test himself for a hypothetical “action” in what is considered by analysts to be one of the sectors that will fuel future “global tensions”.
The exercise, in which a journalist from the Washington Post as an observer, took place on Kodiak Island, in Alaska, where the temperatures are very cold and the water temperature is just above freezing. As reported by the American journalist, the special operations forces would be in the midst of “an important transformation” but their presence would be essential for domination in the Arctic: a region which, as we remembered, is “rich in resources” and at the center of a real “race” to control the passages granted by the melting of the polar ice cap. Passages and areas that they promise to give access to hydrocarbon and rare earth deposits that are fundamental for the economy of every super-power.
In recent years the Pentagon has significantly expanded its focus on the Arctic region, and, like the theoretical opponents and NATO allies, he imagined how “it would be a war here in one of the most treacherous scenarios on the planet“, simulating scenarios that involve war actions in the operational complex of a war with a power of equal size: not an asymmetric war like the operations in which the elite units mentioned at the beginning have taken part for thirty years now .
Launch onto the area chosen by the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Soar), unit responsible for transporting special forces to the operations area, the commandos wearing equipment and suits specially developed for the harshest climates, once again demonstrated the essential maneuvers to “obtain dominion” of a strategic area where everything, due to the very cold temperatures, risks not working as it should: from the bolts of the assault rifles, to the batteries of the equipment, to the supplies needed for transfusions for personnel injured in combat.
Great powers and new global confrontations
The Pentagon, fresh from asymmetric conflicts in Iraq And Afghanistancan only “study and theorize” what Moscow is learning in the field of the conventional conflict that has been going on for two years in Ukraine. This despite the presence of intelligence observers and the “dark part“of logistical support in aid of Kiev of which we do not know the real red lines but which we can imagine by the Commission’s own admission CIA. Among these lessons we can include the new awareness of the use of armored units and development of countermeasures to defend tanks from new threats, but also and above all, one expertise in the electronic warfare.
No less important, although very different in theoretical threat, is the militarization of China, which, we cite the sources of Post “..it is surpassing the United States in technologies such as hypersonic missiles“. An advantage recognized by the Pentagon which has been observing and monitoring for years the expansion of the Plan Navy fleet which will have to follow Beijing’s expansion in the region of Pacific.
As Washington’s military strategists “calculate” the potential consequences of a Chinese invasion a Taiwan – key partner of the West in the Pacific, as well as dealer of 60% of the global semiconductor market – other sections analyze different scenarios and with them the use and deployment of “forces” in the field. According to what was also reported by the Washington Post, Colonel Tucker, supervisor of special operations with expertise in North America, stated that in the event of a worsening of tensions that could lead to a conflict with a great power, the activation of national defense plans would include undoubtedly theAlaskaborder land, also underlining how “The probability that [una guerra Cina-Taiwan] remains isolated in the South China Sea” should be considered as “ something we… wouldn’t count on”.
Special forces in action
Since their creation, the Special Forces have always represented an asset in military strategy to open the way, flank or support the Army’s conventional units. In particular, commandos such as those trained by Navy Seals or Green Berets would intervene vanguard unitas observers or, in the case of a conventional conflict, as “acquirers” of objectives. This at least until a “restructuring” of this particular entity.
While waiting for a “redesign” in view of new conflicts that are difficult to even imagine, we can therefore rely on the words of the Post reporter, who witnessed the launch of inflatable boats and raiders from the rear door of a Mc-130, the twin-engine the Hercules specially modified for the “special operations” which flew at low altitude to deceive the radars. Upon the arrival of large twin-rotor Ch-47 Chinook helicopters which unload a commando on the snow-capped peak of a mountain with skis and snowmobiles. From there a team of Green Berets, perhaps assisted by special units from the Born like the Danish and Norwegian ones, they can “go down” without being noticed in the vicinity of a strategic objective that is in a “blind spot” for the satellites, and provide coordinates to the Marine operators who would launch a Himars salvo at the target.
Those same missiles that they are using, on the field, in connection between the front line and the rear, i commandos Ukrainians.
