{"id":12562,"date":"2019-02-08T17:54:16","date_gmt":"2019-02-08T17:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/02\/08\/fighting-terrorism-may-rely-on-secret-surrogate-forces-going-forward\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:42:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:42:33","slug":"fighting-terrorism-may-rely-on-secret-surrogate-forces-going-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2019\/02\/08\/fighting-terrorism-may-rely-on-secret-surrogate-forces-going-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Special operations launches \u2018secret surrogate\u2019 missions in new counter-terrorism strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

U.S. counter-terrorism missions <\/a>will soon place more emphasis on a little-known Pentagon program designed to help \u201csurrogate forces,\u201d rather than traditional allied units that are dependent on U.S. training, advice and assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shift comes as the Defense Department implements the 2018 National Defense Strategy<\/a>, which prioritizes near-peer adversaries like China and Russia ahead of violent extremist organizations like the Islamic State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis evolving counter-terrorism [CT] operation construct will place even greater emphasis on successful programs, such as the 127 Echo program, which provides us viable surrogate forces designed to achieve U.S. CT objectives at relatively low cost in terms of resources and especially risk to our personnel,\u201d Maj. Gen. James Hecker, vice director for operations from the joint staff, said during a congressional testimony<\/a> Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe small-footprint approach inherent in 127 Echo … in addition to lessening the need for large scale U.S. troop deployments, fosters an environment where local forces take ownership of the problem,\u201d Hecker added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 127 Echo program is rarely discussed, but it involves shifting a greater share of the burden of waging war onto local partners, while allowing Americans to retain operational control over missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a Politico expos\u00e9<\/a> from July, one active-duty Army Green Beret officer described 127 Echo programs as \u201cless, \u2018We\u2019re helping you,\u2019 and more, \u2018You\u2019re doing our bidding.’\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program is derived from U.S. Code Section 127e<\/a>, which funds classified programs to use units from African governments as surrogate teams in direct action and reconnaissance missions, Politico reported<\/a>. This is in contrast to other types of U.S. special operations missions, in which Americans assist African forces to accomplish their own objectives, and not those of the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under U.S. Code Section 127e, the legal authority that is itself not classified, the secretary of defense and his chiefs can spend up to $100 million during a fiscal year to support \u201cforeign forces, irregular forces, groups, or individuals\u201d combating terrorism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The approach pairs well with the Pentagon\u2019s desire to reduce troops in Africa over the next three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to fully realize the 2018 National Defense Strategy, the U.S. military needs to pull troops from places where they\u2019re focused on fighting violent extremist groups and shift them to focus on great power competition in places like the South China Sea or Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To address that in Africa, the Pentagon came up with an \u201cAfrica optimization model\u201d to identify how many troops can be re-tasked and from which areas, Hecker told Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done that with Africa, and we\u2019re going to do that throughout the rest of the world,\u201d Hecker said. “And realize as we pull troops, we\u2019re going to use partner forces, as well as the 127 Echo programs that we talked about, to try to maintain pressure on the enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hecker said that the distribution of forces across the counter-terrorism fight will be reviewed \u201cmonthly basically\u201d to make sure the proper amount of pressure is applied in the right places to keep \u201cU.S. and Western interests safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The effort will focus on violent extremist groups capable of plotting and carrying out attacks against Western targets, both in Europe and the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Al-Qaida, which carried out the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, is one example of a group the Pentagon wants to target. But that terror group, as well as newer and sometimes more violent ISIS affiliates, are not geographically confined to any one country.<\/p>\n\n\n\t