The teams will be known as "Security Forces Advisory Teams," a senior U.S. military source tells Fox News. There will be approximately 300 teams of 10-15 Special Operators who will advise an Afghan sized battalion, the source tells Fox News, and the teams are expected to begin deploying with the next 4-5 months. "Expect to see them arriving by the end of summer," the source said. This force of between 3,000-4,000 Special Operators will essentially be the force that stabilizes Afghanistan as the number if U.S. troops in the country goes down to 68,000 in September, the source said.
While the overall campaign would still be led by conventional military, the handfuls of special operators would become the leading force to help Afghans secure the large tracts of territory won in more than a decade of U.S. combat. They would give the Afghans practical advice on how to repel attacks, intelligence to help spot the enemy and communications to help call for U.S. air support if overwhelmed by a superior force. If approved by the administration, the pared-down structure could become the enduring force that Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak indicated Tuesday at the Pentagon that his country needs, possibly long after the U.S. drawdown date of 2014.
McRaven's proposal amounts to a slimmed-down counterinsurgency strategy aimed at protecting the Afghan population as well as hunting the Taliban and Al Qaeda. It's not the counterterrorist plan advanced by Vice President Joe Biden, which would leave Afghan forces to fend for themselves while keeping U.S. special operators in protected bases from which they could hunt terrorists with minimum risk, according to a senior special operations official reached this week. Thousands of U.S. troops could remain in harm's way well after the end of combat operations in 2014, tasked with helping Afghans protect territory won by U.S. forces.
The special operations proposal was sketched out at special operations headquarters in Tampa, Florida, in mid-February, with Central Command's Gen. James Mattis and overall Afghanistan war commander Gen. John Allen taking part, according to several high-level special operations officials and other U.S. officials involved in the war planning. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the proposal has not yet been presented to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta or the White House.
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Potential Afghan war plan would replace thousands of US troops with special ops teams | Fox News
