DDC
The Deep Development Capability.
The DDC – Deep Development Capability
The Special Operations Forces (SOF) core business lies within a complex kind of environment. The environment is often described as VUCAT (Volatile – rapidly changing situations, Uncertain – many unknowns, Complex – many components and interactions, Ambiguous – many interpretations to the situations we face, Turbulent – absence of stability coupled with conflict, disorder and confusion).
The complex environment in which we operate consists of a visible part, and another part of the conflict is invisible. The systems are often impacted far from the battlefields – if there are any. An example of such a complex environment could be the Sahel. The Sahel region faces issues that go beyond the national borders. The battlefields are volatile. We do not always clearly know who the adversaries are, what their interests are or where they are. The stakeholders’ interactions with their environment and with one another are complex.
The way the stakeholders are perceived is ambiguous; the difference between crime and terrorism is sometimes blurry.
In every mission, it is primordial to understand a conflict in depth and to be able to take the right decisions that lead to adequate actions in the specific environment. The solution is to deeply understand the human domain and dynamics.
The environment is per definition human centric – conflicts are always about people. Humans are at the origin of it, they are the actors in the conflicts and the victims of it. The human domain is therefore always the core of conflict ecosystems.
That understanding requires not only desk research, but also a direct engagement with people in that human environment, to obtain more knowledge. However, it is also and mainly about reaching effects. The human domain is not only a subject of our research, it is also an object.
The end goal is to come up with actual solutions to achieve our desired effects based on sound analysis. Therefore, it is not just about obtaining information, but mainly about doing something with that information, which is the main task of the deep development capability.
The characteristics of the Deep Development Capability (DDC) are the following:
– The capability is specialized in holistic analysis of human dynamics in order to identify opportunities.
– The capability has to be culturally diverse (language, sex, social background, age) because diversity in a team leads to a broader perspective and therefore to increased efficiency.
– The capability needs to be modular, to make it possible to adapt the critical mass depending on the mission and the environment.
The Deep Development Capability should be able to work either integrated within a Special Forces team or as an independent element.
What we look for in our candidates is a rare combination of specific qualities. There are obvious objective criteria – present before the beginning of the course – such as physical fitness, language skills, general knowledge and tactical skills (autonomy). There are also subjective criteria – telling something about the potential – such as analytical mind, creativity, curiosity and social-emotional skills (empathy and communication skills for instance).
The education path starts with a selection week. It consists into a series of physical and cognitive tests to evaluate the potential of the candidates. The candidates then start the SOF Basic Course in Marche-les-Dames to be SOF enabler badged. This part of the training is 8-weeks long and aims for the candidates to become tactically and technically autonomous to be embedded in a SOF team. The DDC member do not need to be para-commando badged.
After the tactical part of the education, the candidates start the SOF Human Domain (HD) course and the DDC specific phase of the track – around 16 weeks of courses followed by an assisted operational deployment (on-the-job training) of 4 to 6 weeks.
Based on their profile and qualities, DDC members are encouraged to develop their skills further after the official end of the education path. For example, some are formed and certified as crisis/hostage negotiators, while others are more specialized in low visibility operations in urban environments.
The DDC is a relatively new capability – the first iteration of the course took place in 2020. The capability is still in development – yet since the start actively participating in training and missions. All members of the capability have been deployed in planned as well as unforeseen operations.
The main missions and tasks, when in country as well as abroad, are described here below.
The way we deploy SOF in a VUCAT environment in an MA context has similarities with the way to deploy a small (forward) SOF element for pre-conflict sensing. In fact, pre-conflict sensing could also be depicted separately and ‘left’ of the SOF spectrum since it might be the chosen way to identify opportunities and present options to SOF on ‘how’ and ‘what’. The core mission would be to map all relevant segments of the HD, design and maintain a network of stakeholders, investigate the stakeholders or the social groups of influence and analyse the contextual variables in the environment in order to facilitate and/or execute the engagements for effect.
More than just be an additional capability within the wider context of SR, DDC is a critical enabler if Special Forces Group wishes to become proficient in SR in an urban environment or in the theatres and contexts of today and tomorrow. DDC and its female members can be more than just an ad hoc tool. The training and education DDC-members have received allow them to analyse Human systems and social groups in depth. This would be the real added value, in addition to the tactical utility of women in a low visibility-mode, when having the ambition to navigate complex environments unseen or undetected. In order to navigate such complex human environments in subtle ways, these environments need to be understood and this understanding requires substantial ‘deep diving’.
The members of the DDC are educated and trained in negotiations in a wide spectrum ranging from negotiations in permissive environments to high-risk tactical negotiations, and all of this while engaging tactical, operational and potentially strategic level stakeholders.
