The United States Army Special Operations Command (Airborne) (USASOC) is the command charged with overseeing the various special operations forces of the United States Army. Headquartered at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, it is the largest component of the United States Special Operations Command. It is an Army Service Component Command. Its mission is to organize, train, educate, man, equip, fund, administer, mobilize, deploy and sustain Army special operations forces to successfully conduct worldwide special operations.
Subordinate units 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne)
The 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne) is a division-level special operation forces command within the US Army Special Operations Command. The command was established on 30 September 2014, grouping together the Army special forces, psychological operations, civil affairs, and other support troops into a single organization operating out of its new headquarters building at Fort Bragg, NC.
Special Forces Groups Established in 1952, the Special Forces Groups, also known as the Green Berets, was established as a special operations force of the United States Army designed to deploy and execute nine doctrinal missions: unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, direct action, counter-insurgency, special reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, information operations, counterproliferation of weapon of mass destruction, and security force assistance.Army Special Operations Forces Fact Book 2018 , USASOC official website, dated 2018, last accessed 28 July 2019 These missions make special forces unique in the U.S. military because they are employed throughout the three stages of the operational continuum: peacetime, conflict, and war. Often SF units are required to perform additional, or collateral, activities outside their primary missions. These collateral activities are coalition warfare/support, combat search and rescue, security assistance, peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance, humanitarian de-mining, and counter-drug operations. Their unconventional warfare capabilities provide a viable military option for a variety of operational taskings that are inappropriate or infeasible for conventional forces, making it the U.S. military's premier unconventional warfare force.
Today, there are seven special forces groups, each one is primarily responsible for operations within a specific area of responsibility: 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) (USINDOPACOM) 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) (AFRICOM) 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (CENTCOM) 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (USSOUTHCOM) 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (EUCOM) 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (ARNG), (USINDOPACOM) and (CENTCOM) 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (ARNG), (USSOUTHCOM)
Psychological Operations Groups
The mission of the 4th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne) and 8th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne), a.k.a. PSYOP units, are to provide fully capable strategic influence forces to Combatant Commanders, U.S. Ambassadors, and other agencies to synchronize plans and execute inform and influence activities across the range of military operations via geographically focused PSYOP battalions.The Army's psychological operations community is getting its name back, Army Times, by Meghann Myers, dated 6 November 2017, last accessed 4 March 2018
4th PSYOP Group (A) consists of five battalions: 1st PSYOP Battalion (USSOUTHCOM) 5th PSYOP Battalion (USINDOPACOM) 6th PSYOP Battalion (USEUCOM) 7th PSYOP Battalion (USAFRICOM) 8th PSYOP Battalion (USCENTCOM)
The 8th PSYOP Group (A) consists of two battalions: 3rd PSYOP Battalion (Dissemination) 9th PSYOP Battalion (Tactical).
Psychological operations are a part of the broad range of U.S. political, military, economic and ideological activities used by the U.S. government to secure national objectives. Used during peacetime, contingencies, and declared war, these activities are not forms of force but are force multipliers that use nonviolent means in often violent environments. Persuading rather than compelling physically, they rely on logic, fear, desire, or other mental factors to promote specific emotions, attitudes or behaviors.
The ultimate objective of U.S. PSYOP is to convince enemy, neutral, and friendly nations and forces to take action favorable to the United States and its allies. The ranks of the PSYOP include regional experts and linguists who understand political, cultural, ethnic, and religious subtleties and use persuasion to influence perceptions and encourage desired behavior. With functional experts in all aspects of tactical communications, PSYOP offers joint force commanders unmatched abilities to influence target audiences as well as strategic influence capabilities to U.S. diplomacy.
In addition to supporting commanders, PSYOP units provide interagency strategic influence capabilities to other U.S. government agencies. In operations ranging from humanitarian assistance to drug interdiction, PSYOP enhances the impact of those agencies' actions. Their activities can be used to spread information about ongoing programs and to gain support from the local populace.
95th Civil Affairs Brigade (Special Operations) (Airborne)
The 95th Civil Affairs Brigade (Special Operations) (Airborne) enables military commanders and U.S. Ambassadors to improve relationships with various stakeholders in a local area to meet the objectives of the U.S. government. 95th Civil Affairs Brigade (Airborne) teams work with U.S. Department of State country teams, government and nongovernmental organizations at all levels and with local populations in peaceful, contingency and hostile environments. 95th Civil Affairs Brigade (Airborne) units can rapidly deploy to remote areas with small villages and larger population centers around the world.
They help host nations assess the needs of an area, bring together local and non-local resources to ensure long-term stability, and ultimately degrade and defeat violent extremist organizations and their ideologies. They may be involved in disaster prevention, management, and recovery, and with human and civil infrastructure assistance programs.
The 95th Civil Affairs Brigade (Airborne) conducts its mission via five geographically focused operational battalions: 91st Civil Affairs Battalion (USAFRICOM) 92nd Civil Affairs Battalion (EUCOM) 96th Civil Affairs Battalion (USCENTCOM) 97th Civil Affairs Battalion (USINDOPACOM) 98th Civil Affairs Battalion (USSOUTHCOM)
The soldiers in these units are adept at working in foreign environments and conversing in one of about 20 foreign languages with local stakeholders. Brigade teams may work for months or years in remote areas of a host nation. Their low profile and command structure allow them to solidify key relationships and processes, to address root causes of instability that adversely affect the strategic interests of the United States.
528th Sustainment Brigade (Special Operations) (Airborne)
The 528th Sustainment Brigade (SO) (A) is responsible for providing logistical, medical, signal, and intelligence support for Army special operations forces worldwide in support of contingency missions and war fighting commanders. Headquartered at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the 528th Sustainment Brigade (SO) (A) sets the operational level logistics conditions to enable Army Special Operation Forces (ARSOF) using multiple Support Operations teams and three battalions.528th Sustainment Brigade, Special Operations (Airborne) , soc.mil, last accessed 13 December 2020528th Special Operations Sustainment Brigade Organizational Chart 2020, 528th Sustainment Brigade History Handbook Published by the U.S. Army Special Operations Command History Office Fort Bragg, North Carolina 2020, by Chris Howard ARSOF Support Historian, dated 5 December 2020, last accessed 12 December 2020FROM LEYTE TO THE LEVANT, A Brief History of the 389th Military Intelligence Battalion (Airborne), Office of the Command Historian (USASOC), by Christopher E. Howard, dated 2019, last accessed 27 November 2020
The Support Operations teams embed each regional theaters' staff to support planning and coordination with theater Army, U.S. Special Operations Command and U.S. Army Special Operations Command to ensure support during operations and training. Support Operations consists of four detachments: current operations, which manages five geographically aligned ARSOF Liaison Elements (ALEs), a future operations detachment, a commodity managers detachment, and an ARSOF support operations element.528th Special Operations Sustainment Brigade Support Operations Organizational Chart 2020, 528th Sustainment Brigade History Handbook Published by the U.S. Army Special Operations Command History Office Fort Bragg, North Carolina 2020, by Chris Howard ARSOF Support Historian, dated 5 December 2020, last accessed 12 December 2020
The 528th Support Battalion provides rapidly deployable combat service support and health service support to ARSOF and consists of a headquarters company with an organic rigger detachment, a special operations medical detachment with four Austere Resuscitative Surgical Teams (ARSTs),The Special Operations Resuscitation Team: Robust Role II Medical Support for Today’s SOF Environment; Journal of Special Operations Medicine Volume 9, Edition 1, Winter 09; by Jamie Riesberg, MD; last accessed 13 December 2020The Special Operations Resuscitation Team: Robust Role II Medical Support for Today’s SOF Environment, Journal of Special Operations Medicine, Volume 9 / Edition 1 / Winter 2009, by Jamie Riesberg (MD), last accessed 22 October 2016 the 197th Special Troops Support Company from the Texas Army National Guard, and 1/528th Forward Support Company from the West Virginia Army National Guard.528th Sustainment Brigade Special Troops Battalion Organizational Chart 2020, 528th Sustainment Brigade History Handbook Published by the U.S. Army Special Operations Command History Office Fort Bragg, North Carolina 2020, by Chris Howard ARSOF Support Historian, dated 5 December 2020, last accessed 12 December 2020
The 112th Special Operations Signal Battalion specializes in communication, employing innovative telecommunications technologies to provide Special Operations Joint Task Force (SOJTF) commanders with secure and nonsecure voice, data and video services. The 112th's signals expertise allows ARSOF to "shoot, move and communicate" on a continuous basis. Soldiers assigned to 112th are taught to operate and maintain a vast array of unique equipment not normally used by their conventional counterparts. To meet the needs of ARSOF, the 112th deploys communications packages that are rapidly deployable on a moment's notice. Soldiers assigned to 112th are airborne qualified.
The 389th Military Intelligence Battalion was established in March 2015 and conducts command and control of multi-disciplined intelligence operations in support of the 1st Special Forces Command (A) G2, component subordinate units, and mission partners via three companies: a headquarters company; an Analytical Support Company with a cytological support element and five geographically aligned regional support teams; a Mission Support Company with a Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination (PED) detachment, a HUMINT and GEOINT detachment, and conducts the Special Warfare SIGINT Course; and an additional PED detachment at Fort Gordon. On order, it deploys and conducts intelligence operations as part of a Special Operations Joint Task Force (SOJTF).528th Sustainment Brigade - 389th MI Battalion Organizational Chart 2020, 528th Sustainment Brigade History Handbook Published by the U.S. Army Special Operations Command History Office Fort Bragg, North Carolina 2020, by Chris Howard ARSOF Support Historian, dated 5 December 2020, last accessed 12 December 2020
U.S. Army Special Operations Aviation Command (Airborne)