The US Navy SEALs are undergoing a major overhaul. The special operations forces are following the rest of the US military and shifting focus away from counterterrorism in the Middle East to face China and Russia.
As part of the transition, the SEALs are reducing the number of platoons it has by 30 percent so that the remaining teams will have more personnel. SEALs commanders are looking to focus on maritime operations since any conflict with China and Russia would involve naval battles.
Rear Adm. H. Wyman Howard III, the top commander of the SEALs, told The Associated Press that the special operations forces will expand cyber and electronic warfare capabilities. Howard said the SEALs could use skills they learned over the past 20 years in counterterrorism missions but that the focus must be shifted. “Many of these things are transferable, but now we need to put pressure on ourselves to operate against peer threats,” he said.
The 2018 National Defense Strategy outlined the US military’s plan to shift focus towards so-called “great power competition” with China and Russia. Each military branch is revamping its forces to confront these two powers in regions such as the Arctic and the Indo-Pacific. Even US Central Command, with overseas US military operations in the Middle East, has identified China and Russia as top threats.
Having bigger enemies benefits the US military as it is always looking to expand its massive budget. When President Biden requested $753 billion for the 2022 military budget, which would be the highest of all time, the Pentagon said the exorbitant amount of money was needed to confront China, which it identified as the top “threat” facing the US.
Seals had best get real tough, Russians and Chines Spec. Ops. are in a whole different league from what the Seals are used too!
I cannot verify the information, but rumors are that US special forces operating in Ukraine and Syria have already bumped into Russian Spetsnaz in those countries.
Supposedly, the US teams did not know what hit them and many families were simply told their loved ones died in training accidents or aircraft crashes.
“In 2017, nearly four times as many service members died in training accidents as were killed in combat, according to a House Armed Services Committee report”
“The military endured a high rate of training-related deaths again in 2018 and a spate of deadly noncombat military aircraft crashes”
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/06/politics/us-military-deadly-accidents
Sound like there are going to be some opportunities to use some widows of dead SEALs as props in the future.
wars, nothing makes me more angry or disgusted as those panhandling “props”. 🙁
We might use Seals. Our preference, I think, is to use contractors (mercenaries). Eric Prince is going to get richer.
I was just going by the premise of the article. And if that’s the case, the SEALs won’t be wandering around in some backward country that doesn’t have forces to counter them. But I do agree with you that mercs will also be used(also) and Eric Prince will indeed get richer.
The SEALS were created to clear the beaches for massive amphibious landings. Those are not going to happen anymore.
They transitioned to being special forces in counter-terrorist teams, hunting and killing individuals who were isolated, NOT part of a massive defense force.
So what role can they have against the massive forces of a peer competitor? They can’t do what they originally did, and they can’t do what they have been doing: no more D-Day landings, and no more isolated terrorist individuals on motor scooters to be assassinated.
They will need to invent something new. It is not automatic that there IS something new that suits these very high cost units.
They consider that the war will be fought on a digitally automated basis using IT clerks at consoles a safe distance from the kill theatre. They will need only a tiny force of what has traditionally been the role of “combat soldier”.
Mercenaries…………………
The navy seals are no match for Russian special forces FACT.