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Banner illustration for An Institutional Home for ARSOF Robotics:  Establishing a SORD-Training Company for Standards, Training, and Doctrine (Illustration by Special Warfare Journal staff.)An Institutional Home for ARSOF Robotics:
Establishing a SORD-Training Company for Standards, Training, and Doctrine

ARSOF requires a dedicated institutional organization to develop, standardize, and sustain robotics training, doctrine, experimentation, and Special Operations Robotics Detachment (SORD) support. Currently, these functions are scattered across schools, MOS pipelines, ad hoc initiatives, and unit-level efforts. Each group builds SORD capabilities independently with its own standard and its own assumptions, which means the force has many versions of "trained" and no agreed definition of it. Standardization of institutional training is an explicit role at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School (SWCS). A SORD Training and Integration Company (SORD-T) within SWCS would provide the missing connective tissue between MOS pipelines, advanced robotics courses, operational detachments, and emerging technology. This article is not focused on any singular course it presents a force-design proposal, focusing on a sustainable, neutral, institutional home for robotics capability generation.

Nov. 15, 2024

The Three Pillars of Irregular Warfare Education

Irregular Warfare education is a holistic, iterative, and lifelong learning process that has a different set of key knowledges as base requirements at certain points in an Army special operations force (ARSOF) Soldier’s career. These key knowledges are represented by three pillars of Irregular Warfare education: institutional training and professional military education, personal self-study, and unit-level experiential learning. The process used to train and educate Soldiers about Irregular Warfare —in many regards—is not unlike other education development and learning models. What is different and unique is how this education is delivered and managed.

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