Foto: The U.S. Army
Portāls politika.lv piektdienās sadarbībā ar Latvijas Ārpolitikas institūtu (LIIA) piedāvā ārpolitikas ekspertu analītiskus rakstus par aktuāliem Eiropas Savienības un starptautiskās politikas un drošības jautājumiem. Šonedēļ publicējam LIIA pētnieka Raimonda Rublovska rakstu. Tas ir angliski, tāpēc piedāvājam īsu kopsavilkumu latviski.
21.gadsimta militārās drošības vide liek izdarīt secinājumus par tālāku Speciālo Operāciju Spēku (SOF) nozīmes pieaugumu militārās konfrontācijas apstākļos. ASV militārā vadība, izdarot šādus secinājumus, turpina transformēt ASV bruņotos spēkus, panākot arvien lielāku ASV Sauszemes spēku, Jūras spēku un Gaisa spēku savietojamību ar ASV Speciālajiem spēkiem. Latvijas aizsardzības nozares vadībai ir jāņem vērā ASV pieredze un izdarītie secinājumi, panākot Latvijas Nacionālo bruņoto spēku Speciālo uzdevumu vienības (SUV) turpmāku attīstību kā vienu no visaugstākajām valsts aizsardzības prioritātēm.
Military campaigns of the United States and NATO in Iraq and Afghanistan within last twenty years have shown very important and long-lasting trend. The very core nature of warfare in the 21st century has significantly changed. Complex and complicated security and defense environment in recent military operations have emphasized increasing importance of Special Operations Forces (SOF). The main tasks of the Special Operations Forces remain the same- long range reconnaissance, direct action, and foreign military assistance; however those tasks are becoming more significant when tactical level actions of SOF have important strategic level consequences.
By merging conventional capabilities of the United States Army, Navy, Air Forces with Counterinsurgency (COIN), and other capabilities of SOF within one solid command and control framework the United States military create new opportunities to act decisively and effectively in order to counter military and non-military threats within entire spectrum of military tasks and challenges starting from conventional warfare and ending with counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency tasks. Military operations of the 21st century can turn from conventional warfare to unconventional and hybrid warfare very rapidly; therefore, operational commander has to have necessary assets to counter possible scenarios with both- conventional military capabilities and SOF capabilities.
It is obvious that numbers of SOF operatives will significantly increase within few years to come and the savings of personnel will touch mainly Army, Navy and Air Forces. The decision of the military leadership of the United States to increase significantly interoperability requirements between the US Army and SOF, as well as decrease number of soldiers of the United States Army leads to the several conclusions which will be very important for other NATO countries including Latvia.
Taking into account decisions made by American military leadership, one would emphasize the need of similar actions within Latvian National Armed Forces structure and further development. It is obvious that Latvian national defense priorities have to be changed in favor of Latvian Special Operations Unit (SUV). Rapid development of this unit should be announced as top priority of the development of Latvian National Armed Forces with enhanced operational cooperation and interoperability between LNAF SOF unit and LNAF Land Force Brigade.