Leveraging Technology to Support the Warfighter
Cooperation Between the Combating
Terrorism Technology Support Office and
U.S. Army Special Forces Command.
With funding from the CTTSO, the Army Rapid Equipping Force (REF), the Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO), and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (USD AT&L), Special Forces leveraged and modified interagency technologies and purpose built capabilities for irregular warfare in combat operations. Recently, CTTSO briefed USASFC representatives, including the commanding general, Major General Thomas Csrnko, on past, present and future efforts supporting USASFC. There are currently 60 ongoing initiatives that CTTSO is developing to improve SF capability.
In appreciation of this support, Major General Csrnko recently presented the CTTSO director, Edward McCallum, a plaque commemorating the two years of sustained CTTSO support to advanced Special Forces combat.
CTTSO MISSION
Over the past two decades, CTTSO’s mission has grown to encompass a collective approach to combating terrorism. The CTTSO leverages interagency technical expertise, operational experience, and interagency funding in its work with over 100 federal agencies, state and local governments, law enforcement organizations, and foreign partners. This collective approach to resource and information sharing, positions the CTTSO to gather front-line requirements that support multiple users throughout the special operations community—a distinct advantage in combating terrorism.
CTTSO takes operational requirements from warfighters and first responders; incorporates policy objectives that the Departments of State and Defense identify; and marshals the technical expertise of its program managers, subject matter experts, and developers to provide fieldable capabilities that are sustainable over the long war.
For more than two decades, CTTSO programs have supported a wide range of end users: other elements of defense involved in the combating terrorism mission; the Departments of Justice, State and Treasury; the intelligence community; the Department of Homeland Security; and the U.S. Public Health Service to name a few.
USASFC AND CTTSO JOIN FORCES
Throughout much of CTTSO history, special operations forces efforts focused on the Tier 1 special mission units. However in 2005, at the request of General Doug Brown [USSOCOM commander at the time], USSOCOM and Thomas O’Connell, ASD SO/LIC, CTTSO significantly increased the level of broad support to the SOF community.
In late 2005, CTTSO provided SOF an in-depth briefing on current and recently completed tasks. During this exchange, CTTSO briefed all of the tasks having a SOF application. Many of these tasks met SOF needs with no modifications. For the previously completed tasks, SOF requested prototypes for evaluation. For the on-going tasks, SOF identified user representatives to participate in task execution and represent SOF equities. In some cases the project scope needed to be expanded to meet specific SOF needs. The identified SOF representatives then assisted CTTSO staff in identifying the specific changes needed while CTTSO staff worked the associated contracting and finance process to meet the requirement.
SOF involvement evolved further when representatives from USASFC participated in the FY07 CTTSO Requirement meetings in January 2006. In 2006, SOF began actively participating in the CTTSO bilateral conferences with international partners Australia, Canada, Israel, the United Kingdom and Singapore. In January 2007, CTTSO subgroups reconvened to conduct the FY08 requirements meeting with SOF representatives again joining with the interagency community to discuss and prioritize mutual requirements for combating terrorism advanced technology. In addition to traditional SOF participants, the 5th, 7th, and 10th Special Forces Groups submitted several requirements for consideration. By August of 2007, one of the most successful project collaborations between CTTSO and USASFC, known as Merlin, was in the process of being transitioned to a program of record, just one of several tasks beginning the permanent technology transition from CTTSO to USASFC.
USASFC AND CTTSO— COLLABORATIVE PROCESS
Due to the ever-changing nature of combat operations, there is always concern about what the warfighter needs versus what they will actually receive. One of CTTSO’s distinct advantages to working with USASFC is direct access to the operators; the tactical operator’s community benefits because these efforts are built by the special forces community for the special forces community. Often operating “left of POM,” the Defense Department’s program objective memorandum, CTTSO has the agility to rapidly develop and deliver functional advanced technology prototypes to tactical operators for evaluation and use while the larger acquisition community is mobilizing for sustainment and support.
Given the profusion of emerging technical sophistication and adaptability on the battlefield, it is difficult to keep pace with the necessary research, development, testing, and prototyping that is essential to counter the threat. In order for CTTSO to provide timely solutions to both technical and non-technical problems, creativity is paramount. For example, CTTSO often co-opts the Army REF, an operational organization that complements the traditional acquisition community, to rapidly equip special forces with tools or requirements that can be met by available government or commercial off-the-shelf equipment. In instances where USASFC identified mature COTS products that satisfy a requirement, CTTSO engaged the Army REF to acquire these COTS tools for rapid research, acquisition and fielding. In return, CTTSO and USASFC have shared other technologies developed for the interagency with Army REF for use by Army soldiers in the global war on terror. CTTSO leverages their left of POM acquisition flexibility to technically satisfy requirements in the near term until a more suitable and systemic means to acquire and deploy needed equipment can be found. This is where CTTSO, the Army REF, JIEDDO and USD AT&L impact Special Forces.
These organizations have the ability to collaborate and effectively deliver technology and needed equipment into the field and the hands of the operator quickly. Additionally, CTTSO arranges user evaluations, training and in-field assessments directly with the operators and the developers. This operator focus ensures successful “capability builds” relevant to countering terror globally.
THE FUTURE OF CTTSO AND USASFC
With 60 tasks currently underway, CTTSO and USASFC initiatives continue to meet the requirements of the operators in theater. Another in-field success, Merlin, as previously mentioned transitioned to USASFC in 2007. Now a program of record, Merlin provides advanced instruction for ground forces to penetrate, illuminate and attack enemy networks, neutralize IEDs and conduct close-target reconnaissance.
CTTSO collaborated with military and intelligence specialists to develop the tactics, techniques and procedures in the Merlin prototype training initiative, which began as a pilot course in spring 2006. Due to Merlin’s success, USASFC expressed interest in adapting the program based on lessons learned and designing it to fit around the entire community because its tools and instruction are applicable to all U.S. forces. Many CTTSO and USASFC projects are being deployed in combat and several projects are transitioning into SOF programs of record. These leading Special Forces projects are shared and thus benefit not only USASFC, but also the Naval Special Warfare Command, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, Joint Special Operations Command and others within the interagency community. ♦