India’s intelligence services are not simply a history, but rather a legacy, which they inherited from the British colonial empire. In the colonial years, the intelligence services were used primarily as a tool to suppress Indian nationalists. Human Intelligence was gathered mainly by the Central Intelligence Bureau, but also by, “Intelligence units of the armed […]

The units that make up America’s Special Operations community are now spread across all four branches and include upwards of approximately 80,000 personnel. Many are support and staff positions, but when we talk about the “tribes” of Special Operations we are really just referencing actual SOF-qualified troops, those who have been through RASP, BUD/S, SFAS, […]

The 75th Ranger Regiment aggressively conducted operations attempting to recover Bergdahl in the five years since he went missing. Those missions were unsuccessful and resulted in some heavy casualties along the way.

Interview with Captain Thorsten Mathesius, German Navy. Captain Mathesius currently serves as Chief of the German Armed Forces Staff in Potsdam. Q. The German naval commandos’ Kampfschwimmer Company celebrated its fiftieth anniversary on 1 April. You have been an active Kampfschwimmer naval commando for twenty years. You have served in the Kampfschwimmer Company as a […]

Brandon’s recent interview with Dalton Fury got me thinking again about a subject I had been meaning to write about for a while. The issue is about leaks, public disclosures, and individuals (including former military) writing books. The issue of OPSEC is brought up again and again. Likewise, many people rail against this new media […]

Sino-American relations have evolved drastically over the last several decades. The rise of China has created fears and concerns within certain sectors of the US defense establishment. The question that is asked time and time again is whether or not China poses a threat to American’s regional interests in East Asia. This paper seeks to summarize […]

One of the new initiatives that US Special Operations Forces will be undertaking in future years is a new focus on Aviation Foreign International Defense or AvFID. The FID mission itself is a mission that Special Forces has focused on since its inception, a mission that usually sees 12-man ODAs training indigenous soldiers in basic […]

Special thanks to Ingo Mathe and our friends at Spartan.at for sharing this article with us. -Jack By Ingo Mathe, German Lieutenant (SEAL) Ret. Effective 1 April 2014 the German naval unit designated as the Specialized Operational Forces of the Navy (Spezialisierte Einsatzkräfte Marine – SEKM) was deactivated. Since its inception over ten years ago […]

It started in October of 2012, when Wake County Assistant District Attorney Colleen Janssen prosecuted a case against Kelvin Melton for assault with a deadly weapon. Previously identified as a leader in the Bloods street gang, Kelvin had a long rap sheet, and this final conviction put him away for life without parole. When Kelvin’s […]

W5’s Mercedes Stephenson recently filmed a rare documentary about Canadian SOF, specifically about CSOR conducting Foreign Internal Defense operations in Niger.  The Canadians are very tight lipped about their SOF units, the other being JTF-2, so it is surprising that they were willing to publicize their involvement in Flintlock.  One of the interesting things about […]

NCIS has recently put out the official word that they are investigating and searching for stolen military technology, all of which is ITAR (International Traffic In Arms Regulations) restricted and not for civilian use.  The devices in question were fielded under a counter-IED initiative which was budgeted at 750 million dollars and distributed 32,000 pieces […]

Tom Bakkeli is a Norwegian writer and journalist who has written extensively about Norway’s Special Operations units, MJK and FSK. Unfortunately, his books are not available in English, but Tom was gracious enough to spare SOFREP a few minutes of his time to answer some questions about Norway’s allied Special Operations units, which have been […]