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Originally Posted by Jinto
Well, technically, if you were dealing with pirates you might want to have a good mix of everything. But what I wanted to hint at is that for example the Navy SEALs are certainly specialized forces, but only the DEVGRU (SEAL Team 6 does not exist anymore) is in my oppinion the elite (aka commando) unit of the Navy SEALs.
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I don't think they are simply fighting pirates anymore. Usually they don't send such high-end forces against pirates; that would be a job for the regular boarding parties on the ships; and they would only call in the troopers if the boarding parties are forced to evacuate or captured (which could be more common since they aren't extensively trained in tactics like the Dozier Drill).
Maybe they have a different doctrine outside the less deep waters of SEA.
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Furthermore the article talked about the expansion of the drones. Now, what you will definitly need for drone operation is a specialized force that can operate and maintain such drones (e.g. units from the AFSOC or ACC). However, I would not consider such units a commando unit.
Hence, the term specialized forces is less restricting for all 3 branches (especially air force).
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Drones are not as useful as having a human team on the ground; more often than not a LRRP (Long Range Recon Patrol) team with SRR (Short Range Recon - basically crawl up to the sentry and taking photos while he is looking away) specialists can acquire more intel than a simple drone.
The article talked about specifically adding commandos, but a 200% surge sounds a little atrocious for a military wanting to keep a low profile.
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Honestly, if I wanted to minimize the risk, I would increase the number of drone operations way more than actual covert operations that require commando units to be in remote locations where it is difficult to send back up.
In the case of very highly important targets the risk of using commando units might be worth it though (e.g. Osama).
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On non-lethal missions (rescue or intel), commandos don't need as much backup other than that evacuation because their profile isn't to blow as many things up as they can. Smaller teams to infiltrate and secure whatever they need are enough - slip-in-slip-out is the key.
That is what SERE training is for. Though it would be interesting to note what jungle can they live off in Africa.