Partner for Peace Q&A

Advocating Special Operations as a Valuable Tool in Combating Worldwide Terrorism

His Majesty King Abdullah II bin Al Hussein King of The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

His Majesty King Abdullah II bin Al Hussein is the 43rd generation direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. He assumed constitutional powers as Monarch of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on February 7th, 1999, the day his father, the late King Hussein, passed away. King Abdullah II is the eldest son of His Majesty the late King Hussein and Her Royal Highness Princess Muna Al Hussein.

King Abdullah II joined the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the United Kingdom in 1980, and was commissioned as second lieutenant in 1981. He was later appointed reconnaissance troop leader in the 13th/18th Battalion of the Royal Hussars (British Army) in (West) Germany and England. In 1982, King Abdullah II attended Oxford University where he completed a one-year special studies course in Middle Eastern Affairs. Upon returning home, King Abdullah II joined the Jordanian Armed Forces and served as platoon commander and company second-in-command in the 40th Armored Brigade. In 1985, he attended the Armored Officers Advanced Course at Fort Knox, Ky. A year later, he became commander of a tank company in the 91st Armored Brigade of the Jordanian Armed Forces holding the rank of captain. He also served with the Royal Jordanian Air Force Anti-Tank Wing where he received his wings as well as his qualifications as a Cobra attack pilot.

In 1987, King Abdullah II attended the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., as a midcareer fellow. He completed an advanced study and research program in international affairs, part of the Master of Science in Foreign Service program.

King Abdullah II, thereafter, resumed his military career where he held various positions, among them commander of the Royal Jordanian Special Forces and Special Operations commander. From January 1989 until October 1989 King Abdullah II was the 2nd Company commander in the 17th Tank Battalion, and from October 1989 until January 1991 he was 2nd in command of the 17th Tank Battalion, during which time, in 1990, he attended the Royal Staff College in Camberley in the United Kingdom. He was then promoted to the rank of major. From January 1991 until January 1992 he was Armored Corps representative in the Office of the Inspector General of the Jordanian Armed Forces.

King Abdullah II became battalion commander of the Second Armored Cavalry Regiment in January 1992. In 1993, he was in the 40th Brigade with the rank of Colonel, and was made deputy commander of the Jordanian Special Forces. In 1994, he was made commander of Special Forces with the rank of brigadier and in 1996 he reorganized the Special Forces and other elite units into the Special Operations Command. King Abdullah II was promoted to major general in 1998, and in June/July of the same year attended a defense resources management course in Monterrey Naval Post Graduate School.

King Abdullah II married Queen Rania on June 10, 1993. The Royal Couple have two sons, Prince Hussein, and Prince Hashem, and two daughters, Princess Iman, and Princess Salma. The King has four brothers and six sisters.

King Abdullah II holds a number of decorations from various countries. He is a qualified frogman, pilot and a free-fall parachutist. His other interests include automobile racing, water sports, scuba diving and collecting ancient weapons and armaments.

Q: Good morning Your Majesty. To begin, could you please give our readers a little background on Jordanian special forces?

A: The rapid evolution of defense technology across the spectrum of capabilities continues to change ever-faster the face of modern warfare. The traditional massing of large forces for sustained combat increasingly is being replaced with short, sharp engagements; often conducted in locations far removed from original planning assumptions. These changes demand the availability of special forces correctly trained and equipped to be able to execute timely, high-precision, high-value missions that often are beyond the capabilities of more traditional conventional forces.

The Jordanian Special Forces Group was established by His Majesty King Hussein in 1963. The nucleus was a company sized group trained in parachute skills. Since then our special forces have been transformed through many stages of development, which have seen enhancements in equipment, training and structures so as to keep up with developments and international best practice. Today, our Special Operations Command [SOCOM] is widely acknowledged as being one of the most competent elite formations within our region and is assessed comparable to the best elsewhere in the world in term of skills, capabilities and resources.

Our doctrine requires SOCOM to be capable of sustained independent action as well as to operate as a unit within the Jordanian Armed Forces across the full spectrum from peace support operations through to conventional warfare. This allows a wide range of employment options to suit the mission and threat. However, our approach is that of retaining where possible our high-value special forces for employment for those critical missions for which other assets may be less well suited. Therefore, considerable effort has and will continue to be spent to enhance SOCOM’s capabilities and training to ensure that high levels of readiness are retained appropriate to those missions considered probable in our defense planning.

Q: What are the primary mission sets that SOCOM is responsible for?

A: SOCOM is directly responsible to GHQ Jordan Armed Forces for the following tasks:

Internal security missions: comprising counter infiltration and smuggling, internal security, anti-terrorism and combat search and rescue.

Operations with the United Nations and allies: SOCOM has been tasked with the conduct of international peace keeping and peace support operations, as well as leading in the security and coordination of humanitarian operations.

Training missions: the training of individuals, units and formations of the Jordan Armed Forces in special-forces skills, including rangers, parachuting, marine assault, and military operations in the urban terrain. Training is also provided in basic skills including combat survival, self-defense, sniping and specialist weapons and equipment. SOCOM also trains individuals and units from the Public Security Directorate and the Public Custom Department in security and counter-terrorism programs, as well as supplying training officers and NCOs from our allies within the region, be it here in Jordan or overseas.

Q. Your Majesty once commanded SOCOM and helped shape its present structure. What was your guidance and influence during these early years?

A: In the early 1990s his late Majesty entrusted me with the command of our special forces with a mandate to improve unit efficien[cy] and combat effectiveness. Looking at our multi-mission requirements, but mostly border security and internal security threat, we began with revamping our training and tactics.

The British army [was] of great assistance in helping us design our basic training as well as our fighting in built-up areas courses only using live ammunition and a pre-requisite for all ranks to be qualified as special forces personnel.

Due to series of missions our brigade undertook on our borders as well as internally, it became very apparent to me the lack of interarmy and inter-agency cooperation. A fact that most armies and security service suffered from and continue to this day.

At this point I personally was well influenced by the French Command Operation Special and by my long relationship with the French G.I.G.N.

With his Majesty’s blessings our SOCOM was born, going through several levels of maturity till it became what it is today. SOCOM will continue to evolve as priorities, changes of threat and other issues facing our nation and region warrant.

Q: What lies ahead for SOCOM Jordan?

A: As we enter the second half of the decade it remains our assessment that a competent, responsive component will continue to form a critical element of the defense capability of the Jordan Armed Forces. This has led to a major program of investment so as to ensure that we continue to be ready to face the challenges ahead. A number of initiatives have been launched and are now well advanced. These include the deployment of a new C4ISR capability within SOCOM, which already is demonstrating significant benefit in responsiveness and coordination. This program will in turn be cascaded across the Jordan Armed Forces. A second key initiative is that of enhancing operational flexibility by embedding within the Special Forces group an integral air-lift capability, based upon the Sikorsky Black Hawk medium lift helicopter and the Eurocopter EC635. Jordan is justifiably proud of her special forces and has every confidence in their ability to serve and protect the nation and our allies.

Q. Jordan has developed a world-class defense industry. What are the key areas in which you would wish to see more development? Have you had success in marketing your defense industry internationally?

A: The catalyst for the development of our defense industry has been the King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau  [KADDB] which we established in August 1999 for the supply ofexpert scientific and technical services to the Jordan Armed Forces.

We started from virtually a zero base. In 1999, our defense industry consisted of little more than the military workshops, a re-rubbering facility for the remanufacture and supply of track and roadwheels and a steel foundry. In little over five years KADDB has established successfully over 15 joint-venture companies, most of which have been formed with international partners of excellence. They have brought to Jordan best practice in commercial, technical and engi neering activities, technology transfer, quality assurance and, above all, credibility in products optimized to market forces. This is the area in which I wish to see more development. We need more international players to recognize that in Jordan we are ideally located as a hub for the Middle East and North Africa. We have [a] highly skilled and inexpensive labor force.

Demonstrably we have achieved a degree of global recognition and KADDB’s name, logo and reputation increasingly is understood by defense specialists. Much of this recognition has come from innovative development programs, such as the Falcon and Hybrid turrets for the Al-Hussein main battle tank, as well as the Temsah heavy tracked infantry combat vehicle. We have also invested in marketing our technology, capability and products. The SOFEX exhibition is now the premier event of its kind in the region. Last year KADDB exhibited at IDEX and for the first time at DSEI and in 2006 will exhibit at AUSA and Eurosatory. But we are still at a very early stage in the development cycle of our defense industrial base and I believe that there is still considerable growth ahead. We have already achieved export sales of defense equipment; aircraft components to Iraq, South Africa, Australia and Yemen; we have supplied vehicles to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Libya, and we have contracts in hand for the supply of helmets and ballistic-protection vests.

Q. Apart from the soldier what are the most important tools necessary for the SF mission and the global war on terror? Are there any particular technologies or equipment which have a higher priority in Jordan or elsewhere in the regional SOF commands?

A: I consider the use of special forces to be similar to that of the surgeon’s scalpel. To achieve the best results for the patient, it must be used carefully, accurately and timely, and in a manner which causes no undue collateral damage. The special forces then the most important tools are those which enable surgical precision;

• Information gathering, analysis and timely dissemination.
• Secure operational and tactical communication systems, which are interoperable with allies.
• Delivery and extraction systems.
• Personal equipment which offers the greatest probability that
the SF soldier will overmatch his opponent and survive the encounter.

Q. What can be done to facilitate joint and coalition operations between partner countries, especially for combined anti-terror operations? Are there tactical or strategic communications systems that would facilitate such cooperation?

A: The challenge, I believe, is to establish the structures and procedures which would enable us to deploy rapidly an appropriate set of forces and capabilities to assist any one of our partner countries in responding to a terrorist threat. This implies the capability to respond in a timely and effective manner in a combined, joint and multinational context.

I believe that there are three structures which would be formed, subject to the necessary political protocols being established defining the role, allocation of responsibilities, levels of authority and procedures for accountability.

The first of these structures is that of a joint command center. There is a clear requirement for us to be able to pool intelligence, analysis and interpretation of scenarios as they develop, and then determine and coordinate the appropriate response. Such a center would imply a radical shift to the way we currently conduct ourselves in the Middle East, with the obligation to share openly and swiftly critical intelligence which has ramification to our collective security. However, a joint command center without any assets available to respond to a threat would be a waste of resources, and would become little more than expensive talking shop. If we genuinely aspire to collective security, then our response to an external threat must be that of collective action. I believe that we require a joint rapid reaction force, so as to enable swift and credible response to a rapidly evolving situation. Such a force would need to be a very short notice to move and would need to be permanently and immediately available to the joint command center. The key components would be special forces, appropriately trained and equipped, able to move rapidly to a place of crisis and able to respond both rapidly and effectively to contain and eradicate a threat.

Whilst the effectiveness of this force would be enhanced through regular training opportunity at all levels, we must accept that there will be difficulties presented at the tactical and operational levels resulting from interoperability between equipment and procedures. It will be essential for us address this problem through cooperation and agreement on the equipment and system capabilities that we require for our special forces, particularly with regard to communications. The development of common operational and capability-requirements documents, combined with coordinated design, development and intelligent procurement policies will, in time, enable us to achieve higher levels of standardization and interoperability. This work must be matched through common operating procedures and logistic support structures. The key risk that I see is that of the difficulty we will face in assembling a series of stand-alone, legacy systems into a coherent, network-enabled force.

Q: What are the latest plans for the regional special operations training center?

A: The second phase of the design for the special forces training center was delivered successfully to us in November 2005 by Advanced Interactive Solutions [AIS]. The study was conducted with support from Jordan architectural and engineering consultants, Consolidated Consultants, Amman. The KASOTC [King Abdullah Special Operations Training Center] program [that] has been funded by U.S. government will move forward under the supervision of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers into a third phase culminating in the production of tender documentation in preparation for contract award in 2006.

KASOTC was initiated at the instruction of His Majesty the King to provide a center of excellence for the training of both national and regional special operations forces, counter-terrorism forces, security and emergency service units, and to act as the premier live-fire training center for the Middle East. The state-of-the-art center will provide professional training for all kinds of end users and provide the region with a world-class training center. ♦

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