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After spending more than 20 years fighting in the wars in the Middle East, U.S. special operators are pivoting to other environments. With the potential for a conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific looming ever larger in the background, the US special operations community is focusing more and more on jungle operations.
A relatively recent exercise involving Marine Raiders highlighted the challenges and unique requirements of jungle warfare.
From the desert to the jungle
Last summer, a small team of Marine Raiders completed a jungle warfare course that addresses the challenges U.S. forces might encounter in an Indo-Pacific conflict.
Taught by special operations and law enforcement veterans at the Tactical Tracking Operations School, the course began in 2015 but really took off in 2021. The two-week course takes place on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, and is designed to take small special operations teams and teach them the necessary skills to survive and thrive in jungle operations.
The Marine Raiders trained in jungle mobility skills, such as navigating thick brush, scaling and rappelling cliffs, and traversing rivers, counter Improvised Explosive Device (IED) techniques, reaction to contact, and ambushes. Throughout the course, the special operators either tracked an adversary or prevented them from tracking the team.
“Looking at the Pacific and deployments in that region, learning these…
