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Air Force Special Operations Command stands up warfighting headquarters

  • Published
  • By Capt. Tom Montgomery
  • Air Force Special Operations Command Public Affairs
HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. --  Air Force Special Operations Command stood up a warfighting headquarters organization here Dec. 13, to provide worldwide Air Force special operations command and control support to combatant commanders.

The new organization, commanded by Col. Eric Fiel, joins other WFHQs as part of the Air Force initiative to replace certain numbered air forces and make them better able to command and control air, space and cyberspace.

Since AFSOC does not have an existing NAF, the current major command headquarters has been restructured to create the new WFHQ.

As a result, AFSOC moved 185 bodies to the WFHQ. The organization, known as Air Force Special Operations Forces, will be staffed at 521 people when it reaches full operational capability in 2010.

AFSOF has global responsibility and is not aligned to a specific region and is designated as the air component’s unit of execution to U.S. Special Operations Command.

AFSOF is smaller and more mobile than other warfighting headquarters. AFSOF will provide a liaison element to regional air operations centers and a forward command and control team to be the air component to a joint special operations task force commander, said Colonel Fiel.

“We’re tailored differently than the larger warfighting headquarters in that we are deployable vice operating from a fixed site, such as the five regional AOCs, said Colonel Fiel.

The new organization aims to capitalize on advances in information technology to improve command and control capabilities.

“We’re trying to design a system where our computer network is connected to the five [large, regional AOCs], so that when we blow out of town all we have to do is pick up our laptops and go,” said Colonel Fiel. “We’ll have all of the [U.S. Central Command] or [U.S. Pacific Command] data on our laptops.”

Mobile equipment is essential due to the nature of the AFSOF mission

“We have to carry our equipment so it needs to be light and it needs to be very capable. We’ll be in the field,” said the colonel.

AFSOF’s lineage is derived from the Air Force Special Air Warfare Center, established here in1962. The unit was redesignated the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Force in 1968 and inactivated in 1974.

“USAFSOF had a diverse mission. They were deploying mobile training teams to critical areas, developing tactics and techniques for counter insurgency and psychological operations,” said Mr. Clay McCutchan, AFSOF historian. “They placed major emphasis on training personnel and directing special ops activities in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam conflict,” he said.