SOCOM is one of ten combatant commands directly responsible to the Secretary of Defense. The command was established by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1987, and codified in 10 USC Section 167. As a functional command, SOCOM’s primary responsibility is to prepare the special operations forces (SOF) to carry out assigned missions. When appropriate, SOCOM may be called upon to conduct special operations activities unilaterally or provide support to other U.S. military forces. In 2003, the Secretary of Defense expanded SOCOM’s role to include leading the DOD’s GWOT operations. In this central role, SOCOM plans, directs, and executes special operations in the conduct of the GWOT in order to disrupt and destroy terrorist networks that threaten the United States, its citizens, and its interests worldwide. SOCOM also organizes, trains, and equips SOF warriors provided to the geographic combatant commanders and to the American ambassadors and their country teams. In keeping with this expanded role, DOD has begun to re-tool SOCOM from primarily a supporting command into a command responsible for planning, synchronizing, and executing missions in the GWOT. SOCOM is headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, and has four component commands, and one sub-unified command located at different military bases. The Marine Corps Special Operations Command joined SOCOM on February 24, 2006. Table 1 shows the end strength of each of the component commands. Congress created SOCOM to improve the ability of the United States to conduct special operations. Congress vested the command with the responsibility and the authority for the development and acquisition of SOF-peculiar equipment, the authority to exercise the functions of the head of agency, and the authority to execute its own budget. SOF-peculiar equipment is defined as equipment, materials, supplies, and services required for SOF activities for which there is no service-common requirement. According to SOCOM, these are limited to items and services initially designed for, or used by, SOF until adopted for service-common use by other DOD forces; modifications approved for application to standard items and services used by other DOD forces; and items and services critical for the immediate accomplishment of a SOF activity. To fund the acquisition of SOF-peculiar equipment, SOCOM was also given responsibility for supervising a separate Major Force Program-11 budget account. Congress determined that a dedicated funding mechanism was necessary because, in the past, the military departments had tended to give lower priority to SOF’s equipment needs than to their own needs. For fiscal year 2006, SOCOM’s total budget was $7.2 billion, of which $1.9 billion was for development-and-acquisition-related purposes. In acquiring SOF equipment, SOCOM falls under the same DOD acquisition policies and guidelines and workforce requirements that apply to the military departments and other defense agencies. The military departments and SOCOM are governed by DOD’s 5000 Series for the Defense Acquisition System. Similarly, each military department, along with SOCOM, has its own policies and procedures to implement higher level directives and guide the management of acquisition activities within the military departments or command. SOCOM’s acquisition workforce training and tenure is governed by the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA), enacted in 1990. The Act specifically created a formal acquisition corps and defined educational, experience, and tenure criteria needed for key positions, including program managers, contracting officers, and other personnel involved in the acquisition process. According to DOD, members of the acquisition corps may earn three progressive certification levels—basic (Level I), intermediate (Level II), and advanced (Level III). Each certification level is comprised of a combination of education, experience, and training elements. Certification recognizes the level to which a member of the acquisition workforce has achieved functional and core acquisition competencies required by a specific career field. Members of SOCOM’s acquisition workforce are required to meet the same training and certification requirements as those in the military departments. SOCOM’s approach to acquisition management also has some distinctive features. The command is unique in DOD in that it plans, funds, acquires, and sustains weapon systems all under one roof. Specifically, all the key entities involved in the acquisition life-cycle process—requirements developers, comptroller, contracting personnel, logistics planners, and program offices—are colocated. SOCOM also uses a centralized approach to assess and prioritize requirements and select programs based on competing needs and available resources. SOCOM’s customers—the SOF warriors—are directly involved in determining what weapon systems are pursued. In addition, SOCOM can arrange to transfer program management and milestone decision authority responsibilities to one of the military departments to execute the program on behalf of SOCOM. SOCOM has done this with many of its programs that involve some modification of military department-provided equipment or in cases where the military departments may have greater technical and program management expertise. Further description of how SOCOM is structured to manage its acquisitions is provided in appendix II. SOCOM has undertaken a diverse set of acquisition programs since January 2001 that are consistent with the command’s mission to address unique SOF needs and those needs for which there are no service-common requirement. SOCOM has committed about $6 billion to date on these programs. The vast majority of SOCOM’s acquisition programs are ACAT III level in size, have short acquisition cycles, and use modified commercial off-the-shelf and nondevelopmental items or modify existing service equipment and assets. In acquiring systems, SOCOM has emphasized the need for “80 percent” solutions that provide improved capabilities incrementally to the warfighter in reasonable time frames, rather than major development efforts that require advanced technologies and years of research and development. Both the ASDS and CV-22 programs were started in the 1990s. Since 2001, SOCOM has undertaken only one ACAT I level program. It was to develop a common avionics package for its fleet of transport, tanker, and gunship aircraft. SOCOM’s acquisition plans for the future—as reflected in its current Future Year Defense Program—continue to maintain its SOF-peculiar focus. SOCOM initiated 86 acquisition programs from 2001 to 2006 to meet SOF- peculiar requirements, which can be grouped into five major areas: rotary wing, fixed wing, maritime systems, information and intelligence systems, and special operations forces warrior equipment (e.g., vehicles and weapons). Table 2 shows the number and funding for these programs by each major grouping. Funding ($M) As table 3 shows, 76 of SOCOM’s 86 acquisition programs are ACAT III level in size, and the majority of these programs use nondevelopmental and commercial off-the- shelf items to meet SOF-peculiar needs. A further breakdown of these programs, depicted in table 4, indicates that most cost less than $25 million. The small number of larger, ACAT I and II level programs are fixed and rotary wing systems, costing $200 million or more. These larger programs involve modifications to existing platform systems and more substantial technology development efforts. The one ACAT I level program SOCOM initiated since 2001—the Common Avionics Architecture for Penetration (CAAP) program—is intended to provide specialized capabilities for MC-130H and AC-130H/U transport, tanker, and gunship aircraft, including low probability of detection and improved terrain following and avoidance radar. Several key examples of the types of programs SOCOM has undertaken are described below. The leaflet delivery system is an ACAT III program that was fielded by SOCOM at a cost of about $20 million. The system uses a fully reusable, commercial-off-the-shelf, unmanned aerial vehicle as a component of the autonomously guided parafoil system it has developed. The delivery system is capable of delivering leaflets or psychological operations materials to target audiences in peacetime and in war. It took SOCOM about 8 months to field this capability to the SOF warrior. It can be ground launched from the back of a high-mobility multiwheeled vehicle and air launched from a C-130, C-141, or C-17 cargo aircraft. Figure 1 below shows the leaflet delivery system. SOCOM’s current family of sniper rifles was acquired as nondevelopmental and commercial off-the-shelf items, which according to the program office, enables rapid acquisition of an initial capability as well as efficient spiral development of enhanced capabilities as mission requirements direct. SOCOM currently has four rifles in its family of sniper rifles, the MK 11—7.62mm Sniper Support Rifle, the MK 12—5.56mm Special Purpose Rifle, the MK 13—.300 Winchester Magnum, and the MK 15—.50 caliber. Each will only fire one type of ammunition and with varying effective ranges. Two of the sniper rifles, MK 11 and MK 12, will be replaced by the Sniper Support Rifle variant of the SOF Combat Assault Rifle, which is an ACAT III program consisting of a modified commercial off-the-shelf system, and is estimated to cost about $50 million. The new sniper rifle is a modular design, and the caliber of the rifle can be changed by replacing the barrel, bolt, and trigger modules. The life expectancy of the SOCOM rifles shown in figure 2 is about 5 years. Therefore, according to the SOF Warrior program office, SOF plans a phased replacement of like or enhanced capability every 5 years. SOCOM has an ACAT II program underway, estimated to cost about $200 million, which modifies the Army’s service-common CH-47 helicopter to meet its SOF-peculiar requirements.