The US Special Operations Command’s (USSOCOM’s) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate has launched a virtual symposium to support industry efforts to identify and enable disruptive technologies providing an ‘asymmetric advantage’ for special operations forces.
Published on 23 April 2018 ahead of the annual Special Operations Forces Industry Conference (SOFIC) in Tampa, Florida, the virtual symposium features a series of videos describing USSOCOM’s interpretation of the future operating environment and its effects on science and technology.
Areas of interest are heavily weighted towards the support of small unit teams operating in Command and Control Denied or Degraded Environments (C2D2Es) over the next five to seven years.
Subject areas include: strategic and tactical signature management; contested environment situation awareness; next-generation identification and characterization; tactical communication and navigation; tactical remote systems & human-machine interfaces; and countering autonomous systems.
According to the S&T Directorate, the future operating environment will focus on the ‘convergence’ of state and non-state capabilities where the ‘threat to force and mission success increases significantly’.
Hence why the directorate is seeking technology to create and support an ‘agile, mobile and decisive’ force with information overmatch.
S&T TDWG Virtual Symposium Videos
Video presentations include:
USSOCOM S&T Overview
Future Operating Environment
Contested Environment Situational Awareness (SA)
Countering Autonomous Systems
Next-Generation Identification and Characterization
Strategic & Tactical Signature Management
Tactical Remote/Autonomous Systems & Human-Machine Interface (HMI)
Tactical Communications & Navigation
Technical Experimentation