Author Description

The relevance and best utilization of traditional SOF Infiltration methods are depicted for the battlefield of 2035. Through an analysis of trends in demographics, technology, diffusion of social media, and adversary capabilities, the study focuses on civilian population density and connectivity, and their relation to a SOF unit's ability to conduct time-sensitive, direct action operations. This study first outlines a typology for describing an operational environment, past or future, using the variables of population density and connectivity. Next, using the established typology, the study analyzes historical case studies of both military and non-military infiltration in environments that share characteristics with the proposed future environment, recognizing that no historical environments exist that simultaneously exhibit both the population density and connectivity of the future. The study then identifies among the case studies the characteristics that historically resulted in successful infiltration, with the goal of developing a heuristic approach to the problem of infiltration in a future environment. Finally, this thesis offers recommendations for the direction in which SOF capabilities (tactical, platform-based, and a planning mindset) should advance to conduct successful infiltration on the battlefields of 2035 and beyond.This compilation includes a reproduction of the 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.The special operations community has grown accustomed to having a technological and tactical advantage over its enemies. The majority of special operations missions take place in areas that are either sparsely populated, technologically undeveloped, or both. Remote villages of Afghanistan, Iraq, and other places lacking urban infrastructure and reliable communications capability comprise the majority of locations where special operations missions take place. Correspondingly, tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) leverag