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Corps and joint task force commanders require persistent, long-duration surveillance assets to report priority intelligence requirements from denied areas. Three assets are suited to these operations: special operations forces (SOF), unmanned aircraft systems (UASs), and long-range surveillance (LRS). Commanders have been less inclined to use organic teams from LRS companies, relying more on nonorganic SOF and UASs to collect high-priority information-largely because of the ineffective and outdated organization of the Army's LRS companies. Due at least in part to this, the Army announced that all LRS companies will be disbanded-no plan to replace the only operational-level surveillance formation has been announced. However, a no-growth reorganization of the Army's LRS units from separate companies to a consolidated battalion would provide corps commanders more effective, responsive, and predictable organic surveillance assets than nonorganic, ad hoc relationships and technology.
Special Operations Forces
Some conventional commanders may view using SOF teams for surveillance as the easiest and most effective answer to their requirements. The SOF "brand" is trusted, taken at face value, and can deliver impressive results. One of the twelve core activities of SOF is special reconnaissance (SR): "reconnaissance and surveillance actions conducted as a special operation in hostile, denied, or diplomatically and/or politically sensitive environments to collect or verify information of strategic or operational significance, employing military capabilities not normally found in conventional forces"1 Using SOF elements for SR absolves the conventional commander from training oversight of high-risk exercises. Operationally, the chance of compromise, injury, and mission failure can lead commanders to prefer using surveillance elements from outside their organization. SOF bring many assets and operational approaches not found in conventional units. These elements should be a part of corps and joint task force commanders' surveillance options.
Ostensibly, all Special Forces (SF) operational detachments-A (SFODs-A) can conduct SR, and most can infiltrate denied areas. Some have standoff airborne insertion capability. Some SFODs-A have waterborne and small-vehicle capability. The ability of every SFOD-A to conduct SR could create the false impression that abundant manned surveillance capability is available to Army forces. In addition to SF, the Ranger Reconnaissance Company (RRC) expanded from a detachment and increased its capabilities far beyond traditional reconnaissance techniques. During a Joint Readiness Training Center rotation in October 2012, an XVIII Airborne Corps deputy...