Closer to Command, further from support – The future architecture of U.S. Special Operations

This article argues that U.S. Special Operations Forces (USSOF) are moving towards an historically distinctive operational model – networked autonomy – in which the small team at the tactical edge is imagined as both more locally self-sufficient and more tightly integrated with higher command, including the strategic level. Drawing on U.S. Special Operations Command procurement documents, a corpus not previously used in English-language USSOF scholarship, the article outlines this technological architecture across five interlocking pillars. It then discusses operational and tactical challenges inherent in networked autonomy and, ultimately, argues that emerging technologies do not merely enable special operations, but increasingly define the tactical edge, with potentially strategic and political implications.