Pakistan Expands Size, Scope of Force

By USMAN ANSARI

Pakistan's worsening security situation has increased the size and scope of its Special Forces, with greater resources and foreign examples helping establish new formations.The existing elite force, the Special Services Group (SSG), was set up as a commando-style unit and dedicated one company, Musa Co., for traditional anti-terrorist operations such as hijackings and hostage situations. This is now recognized as insufficient.Musa Co. is still tasked with anti-terrorist operations (as was seen in 2007's Red Mosque operation in Islamabad) but counterterrorist operations against al-Qaida and the Taliban necessitated raising a specialist unit, the Special Operations Task Force. As described by Usman Shabbir of the Pakistan Military Consortium, "the SOTF is a smaller outfit, taking elements from SSG with the aim of having greater mobility for an anti-terrorist role in Federally Administered Tribal Areas/North West Frontier Province area."Set up with U.S. help, the SOTF carries out miniairborne operations using Mi-17 Hip and Bell 412 helicopters operating in conjunction with Pakistan's AH-1F Cobras.These cordon-and-sweep operations usually entail the Frontier Corps - a paramilitary force raised from the local population and led by Army officers - cordoning off areas so the SOTF can catch or kill al-Qaida or Taliban terrorists.

SOTF operations include night assaults, using the Bell 412s that are equipped with night-vision goggles and which raid targets not usually equipped to fight at night. However, the decisive advantage of night operations has been negated somewhat by a shortage of goggles, and they are high on the list of equipment the Pakistani military has consistently requested from its allies.Operations are also hampered by the general shortage of rotary assets in the Army. Nevertheless, the SOTF is likely to form the core of a larger specialist airborne formation the Army hopes to raise. In this regard, it wants to acquire more transport helicopters, either the UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47 Chinook, or perhaps more Mi-17s.

The naval element of the SSG, the SSG-Navy, in recent years also has been given the role of visiting, boarding, searching and seizing. These operations are conducted in conjunction with the Navy's CTF-150 operations, and anti-terrorist operations in and around Pakistani waters.The pressing need to stop terrorists fleeing the Afghan theater, and halting the flow of arms, finances, narcotics and people that may bolster al-Qaida and Taliban operations, has required the SSG-N to have its own vessels.The SSG-N has not only been embarked on the Navy's warships when attached to CTF-150, but has been equipped with two types of fast interdiction craft, the Turkish-built Yonja Onuk MRTP-15 and larger MRTP-33. They are capable of intercepting any of the dhows and merchant vessels terrorists have used to move between South Asia and the Arabian Gulf and beyond.The rejuvenation of the Pakistani-U.S military relationship has also allowed new units to be raised for both anti-terrorist and more traditional Special Forces roles. The most notable of these is the Air Force's Special Service Wing (SSW - or the Special Operations Wing, as it is more officially known). Modeled on the U.S. Air Force's 1st Special Operations Wing, the SSW was set up to give the Air Force a Special Forces element to carry out a wide range of tasks.According to a retired Air Force officer and defense analyst, "The SSG was supposed to be a combined triservices affair. Unfortunately, it was under total control of the Army, [with the Air Force having] no representation at the decision-making level. When the PAF envisaged a few operational tasks, based on previous war experience, it was not enthusiastically supported by the Army. Logically therefore, the PAF decided to go its own way."According to Shabbir, the SSW is trained to conduct behind-the-line operations, such as raiding enemy radar and surface-to-air missile sites."For this purpose, the Air Force has also procured some Mi-17 Hips [for insertion/extraction], which have been equipped with rocket and gun pods."It has been difficult to assess much else about the unit due to the secrecy that surrounds it. Exercises have been undertaken with similar units overseas, but information as to whether the unit has been operational in anti-terrorist operations or those ongoing in Swat has not been forthcoming.

Posted in: Fighting Al Qaeda and Taliban,Pakistan