"Afghani and Iraqi military units trained by U.S. Army Special Forces performed well in their respective conflicts. This book explores what factors made those host nation units combat effective and examines whether such lessons can be scaled up to larger missions. Successes and failures are ass...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Bibliographische Detailangaben

1. Verfasser:	Sobchak, Frank K. (VerfasserIn)
Format:	Buch
Sprache:	English
Veröffentlicht:	Annapolis, Maryland Naval Institute Press [2024]
Ausgabe:	First edition
Schriftenreihe:	Transforming war
Schlagworte:	United States / Army / Special Forces / Evaluation Special forces (Military science) / Training of / Case studies Military assistance, American / Case studies Military assistance, American / Evaluation Special forces (Military science) / Evaluation Combined operations (Military science) / Evaluation Military missions / Case studies Forces spéciales (Science militaire) / Formation / Études de cas Assistance militaire américaine / Études de cas Assistance militaire américaine / Évaluation Forces spéciales (Science militaire) / Évaluation Opérations combinées (Science militaire) / Évaluation Missions militaires / Études de cas HISTORY / Military / Special Forces HISTORY / Military / United States
Zusammenfassung:	"Afghani and Iraqi military units trained by U.S. Army Special Forces performed well in their respective conflicts. This book explores what factors made those host nation units combat effective and examines whether such lessons can be scaled up to larger missions. Successes and failures are assessed and the effects of decisions made by local partners are examined in equal degree as those made by Special Forces advisors"-- " One of the most difficult security challenges of the post-Cold War era has been stabilizing failing states in an era of irregular warfare. A consistent component of the strategy to address this problem has been security force assistance where outside powers train and advise the host nation's military. Despite billions of dollars spent, the commitment of thousands of advisors, and innumerable casualties, the American efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq failed catastrophically. Nevertheless, among those colossal military disasters were pockets of success. The Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF) held back the Islamic State in 2014 long enough to allow American and allied forces to flow back into the country, and many Afghan commando units fought to the bitter end as their country disintegrated around them. What made those units successful while the larger missions ended disastrously? Author Frank K. Sobchak explores security force assistance across five case studies, examining what factors were most critical for U.S. Special Forces units to build capable partners like the ISOF and the commandos. More specifically, the book assesses the impact of five components of Special Forces advisory missions: language training and cultural awareness of the advising force; the partner force-to-advisor ratio; the advisors' ability to organize host-nation forces; whether advisors are permitted to guide in combat; and the consistency in advisor pairing. Based on the experiences of U.S. Army Special Forces in El Salvador (1981-1991), Colombia (2002-2016), the Philippines (2001-2015), Iraq (2003-2011), and Afghanistan (2007-2021), Sobchak argues that the most crucial factors in producing combat-effective partners are consistency in advisor pairing and maintaining a partner force-to-advisor ratio of twelve special forces soldiers advising a company-sized force or smaller.
Beschreibung:	xviii, 315 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates illustrations 24 cm
ISBN:	9781682471333