Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, speaks at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, Hawaii, on May 3, 2024. MARCO GARCIA/AFP via Getty Images
INDOPACOM wants more special operators in the Pacific
“SOF’s greatest power is early leverage” in deterring conflict, Adm. Sam Paparo said.
HONOLULU, Hawaii—U.S. Indo-Pacific Command is “underinvested” in special operations forces, “and I think SOF is underinvested in PACOM,” the command’s leader said Thursday. “But the time is now to get the SOF enterprise focused on the Indo-Pacific to the extent that we can.”
Speaking at the Indo-Pacific Irregular Warfare Symposium here, Adm. Sam Paparo said “SOF’s greatest power is early leverage” in deterring conflict—which he calls the U.S. military’s “highest duty.”
Though many in the general public tend to think of special operators in terms of direct action, Paparo said, “SOF is a cognitive space. It’s an idea space.” He added that allies and partners “are absolutely indispensable to the effectiveness of special operations.”
Paparo opened with brief remarks before fielding questions on a variety of topics:
- On the strategic importance of Taiwan: “It is important to all of the nations that matters not be settled by force. This is the matter at hand in Ukraine. This is the matter at hand in the Middle East.…This unsettled matter of Taiwan—that it be settled due to the principles of self-determination, peacefully, through negotiation—also has implications for all of the countries of the Indo-Pacific.”
- On the Philippines: “The People's Republic of China claims an absurd footprint of sea space that defies logic that impinges not just on the Republic of the Philippines, but of every state within the South China Sea,” he said.
- On new technology: “I’m most excited about the combination of the ability to quickly manufacture and field unmanned capability and autonomy in that capability…I have this principle—I think we should all share it—which is to not send a human being to do a dangerous thing that you can send a machine to do.” However, there must be human morality and accountability in the process, he said.
- On information operations: “We should be in and among our adversaries, learning from them. They should never learn from us. If they are learning, it should be the wrong lessons.”