09 May 2023
Tomorrow’s special operator? Less Iron Man, more 007.
![](https://cdn.asp.events/CLIENT_GSOF_827E1C71_BAE1_2174_5647BE1BC260DB9E/sites/sof-week-2023/media/libraries/news/Screen-Shot-2023-05-19-at-9.06.14-AM.png/fit-in/1440x9999/filters:no_upscale())
A couple of years after Navy SEALs raided Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, Adm. William McRaven announced a bold new vision for special operations. That vision never came to be, but 10 years later, U.S. Special Operations Command is pursuing a new list of superpowers, topped not by bulletproof suits but by something like omniscience.
"There are practical reasons for the shift in focus, not least the difficulties of recreating comic-book physics in real life. But they also reflect SOCOM’s changing expectations about where its operators will be and what roles they will play."