Unification of Elite Units under Umbrealla Command
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Would there be any benefit from placing all the elite units such as the SOF,Guards formation,Commando formation,NDU and/or other classified elite units under a single command,as in a Special Warfare Command or Special Operations Command?
Would it serve to streamline the existing force organisation of the SAF having 4 separate branches,as in Army,Navy,Air Force and Special Warfare Command?
Would there be any benefits or disadvantages,if any,resulting from such an action? -
they would have better coordination as a result of that..but i doubt so..all of them basically operates in different roles,so to put them together and expect them to work is very stupid
my 2 cents.. -
There is already a half-assed attempt to tie all 3 services together, a.k.a Joint Svc. Yes, Joint is considered a seperate branch/service set apart from the other 3 services commonly known (i.e. AF, Army, Navy). Do we see some semblance of unified command and resources? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. The 3 services are VERY VERY protective over their assets, manpower, real estate.
Going back to your question, are there advantages of having a seperate chain of command for our SF? i would say there IS a need, seeing the current climate of (terrorists threat, asymmetrical warfare, urban conflict etc. etc.). But seeing the size of our operations plus the physical size of our country, i don't think we SPECIFICALLY need an organization or branch specially for the SF.
I think this idea of having a SOC stems from the US model. Judging from the assets and sizes of their SF elements, perhaps it is needed. Memory fails me, but US has what? 2 Airborne Div, 3 Ranger Div, Delta, SEAL, Green Berets, Naval elements for support, Air elements, etc. etc. so you would need 1 X 4 Star to tie these in and make them work. In the Singapore context, do we even have enough ppl to make up a so-called Div? And how we gonna justify a BG heading this? So no BG as the head, then how? Put in a COL instead and he gets brushed aside by your other Div Comds, Fleet Comd, etc. who are generally BGs. End of the day, exercise in futility and we end up with more confusion.
I wouldn't be surprised if something gets formalized to deal with the threats i mentioned previously, but i doubt it would comprise solely of SF elements.
Comments? -
I know lah, you're thinking of something like the US Joint Special Operations Command right? For those who are unfamiliar, the JSOC comprises of
- 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment / Delta (aka Delta Force)
- 75th Ranger Regiment
- Naval Special Warfare Development Group (aka SEAL Team Six)
- 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (aka Night Stalkers)
The thing is that the US is involved in tons of things worldwide ranging from Korea to Iraq to Afghanistan & wherever else they stick their noses into. Also, the US has made tons of enemies. So for them perhaps a joint spec ops command is necessary.
S'pore on the other hand fortunately doesn't have many enemies & we don't go around "liberating" other countries. So I would think that at this moment we don't need a joint spec ops command.
And another thing, even the US JSOC does NOT comprise of all elite units. The US has MANY (almost 50 if I'm not wrong) elite units in their army/navy/airforce/marines. And they are NOT all under JSOC.
IMHO there is already a lot of overlapping of tasks. Don't talk about SAF lah, just look at the home team.
Police has the STAR unit which besides their usual land bases tasks, unknown to many ppl, also has marine capabilites aka they do shipboarding & stuff like that. And of course the Coast Guards has their STS which specialises in marine ops & is kinda like PCG's version of STAR. And both STAR & STS are also trained in counter terrorist ops. And of course RSN's NDU has combat divers also capable of marine ops & counter terrorist ops.
So basically you have 3 agencies with their own teams which are capable of the same thing. So when you have an incident, who responds & why? If we have any excess manpower, I suggest we form something like the US 77th Security Forces Squadron's Emergency Services Team to protect our airbases, naval bases & maybe even Gombak HQ.
I don't know currently what's the contingency plan. Let's say terrorists or enemy soldiers managed to infiltrate an airbase. The Field Defence Squadron I suppose is activated to apprehend them. But what if the terrorists have taken hostages? Or what if the enemy soldiers are elite forces like Rangers?
Like I said, I don't know the current procedure, but I assume they will then call for help from either CDO or SOF. But would it be too late when they arrive? At least with a unit similar to the US's Emergency Service Team, response time is faster.
The US EST is based at the airbases so response time is immediate. Its primary objectives are resolving high risk situations e.g. hostage taking, prevention of injury to responding forces, apprehension of high risk suspects, etc. -
I'm not sure where the facts about the U.S JSOC comes from but it does control all U.S military Special Operation organisations. Having said this, JSOC isn't as organise as it was intended to be either. Reasons range from conflict of interest to anything anyone can think of.
The latest unit to join the mess is from the newly formed U.S Marines Spec Ops Det1. It falls within the command of the U.S Naval Spec warfare & its ops is mostly to support U.S Navy SEALs. Its new, so the mess for them hasn't really been felt.
For S'pore to have a JSOC is not really a bad ideal but it'll have to deal with the same crap that U.S JSOC faces. If theres a pie, everyone wants the largest share of it which makes command decision all the more messy.
However, looking at the S'pore's defence budget. The military must really consider how stretch can they go to form a JSOC? The U.S JSOC ontop of its fighting units, has its own logistic elements to be independant from the mainstream organisation inorder for it to support its covert ops. This means, eg. USAF Spec Ops 160th Sqn does not only have helicopters & Spector gunships for its ops, it also has strikers/ bombers( stealth planes ) to the job or back up the other Spec Ops from other organisations.
Another thing that S'pore lacks is a full time military unit. To have a JSOC requires a large amount of resources, manpower being the most wanted. Not all the manpower has to be an operator, but this manpower needs to be there to support the operators carrying out a mission. -
1 size doesn't fits all...
you think free size meh. hahah
juz my opinion -
Aiyah... join or dun join, most important is can get the job done lah... Why fix something when it's not broken? US specs ops unite here and there mah si cannot find Osama... still need spec ops from other countries to come help them in Afghanistan...
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oso must depend on inteligence what.......
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Good point! (HUMINT) Human Intelligence is key in the war against terrorism... So theoritically, a pair of friendly and reliable old Afghan woman's eyes are better then any spec ops in finding Osama rite?Originally posted by beavan:oso must depend on inteligence what.......
Think US is slowly realising that they cannot just sent in the cavalry like in past conflicts...
Who are your highly- trained armed-to-the-teeth specs ops gonna shoot when they cannot even see the enemy? -
Actually,the inspiration for this stems from the South Korean military Special Warfar Command branch.