Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1467328
as the LRRP units established at the infantry brigades and divisions. For political reasons, the superpowers also frequently resorted to using other irregular units - involving emigrants (Cuba and the attempt to overthrow the Castro regime), or even mercenaries. Special Forces played a training and advisory role in this setting. The last of the important Cold War missions, since the 1970s, were the counter-ter- rorism and hostage rescue operations. This referred both to the military units, as well as to police units, established to fit that purpose - mainly to handle the domes- tic operations. The experiences gathered during the local conflicts meant that the SOF com- ponents - initially of obscure and niche profile - started to grow, with permanent command and support structures put into place. In the US, following the failed attempt at conducting a hostage rescue operation in Iran, Joint Special Operations Command was established, with Direct Action and Counter-Terrorist elements sub- ordinated. Then, following the troublesome intervention in Granada, as further evo- lution happened, a new SOCOM operational command was established to oversee all of the special operations. The conflicts that happened later constitute proof that Special Operations Forces remain very effective. From the Western point of view, Operation "Desert Storm" has been especially important here. During that operation, the SOF component was tasked with missions assigned to it during the Cold War - however, these tasks were carried out in a desert environment, and against a different adversary. The commando units dealt with recon, hunted ballistic missile launch assets, while SOF helicopters supported the first strikes against the Iraqi radars. Furthermore, as Hussein took a lot of hostages in, used as in a role of "human shields", there was an assumption that a large-scale hostage rescue operation would also take place. This, however, did not happen. Two types of tasks - unconventional warfare in local conflicts, and CT operations, have become a vehicle that brought the SOF into the new, post-Cold War reality. When the threat posed by the Warsaw Pact armor disappeared, it turned out that new problems emerged, resulting on the grounds of the dissolution of the states that had existed before. Terrorist organizations have become much more active - primarily nationalists or religious fanatics, such as Al-Qaeda. In the 1990s, the number of MBTs ready became less important than the state's capacity to conduct a hostage rescue operation, combat drugs, and arms trade, or catch war criminals and terrorists in the Balkans, Caribbean, Asia, or Africa. At the same time, force ANALYSIS