Special Reconnaissance

Special reconnaissance (SR) or Recon Team is conducted by small units of highly trained military personnel, usually from special forces units or military intelligence organizations, who operate behind enemy lines, avoiding direct combat and detection by the enemy. As a role, SR is distinct from commando operations, but both are often carried out by the same units. The SR role frequently includes covert direction of airstrikes and indirect fires, in areas deep behind enemy lines, placement of remotely monitored sensors, and preparations for other special forces. Like other special forces, SR units may also carry out direct action and unconventional warfare, including guerrilla operations.

In intelligence terms, SR is a human intelligence (HUMINT) collection discipline. Its operational control is likely to be inside a compartmented cell of the HUMINT, or possibly the operations, staff functions. Since such personnel are trained for intelligence collection as well as other missions, they will usually maintain clandestine communications to the HUMINT organization and will be systematically prepared for debriefing. They operate significantly farther forward than even the most forward friendly scouting and surveillance units.

In international law, SR is not regarded as espionage if combatants are in proper uniforms, regardless of formation, according to the Hague Convention of 1907, or the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. However, some countries do not honor these legal protections, as was the case with the Nazi "Commando Order" of World War II, which was held to be illegal at the Nuremberg Trials.

History

While SR has been a function of armies since ancient times, specialized units with this task date from the lead-up to World War II.

In 1938, the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and the War Office both set up special research departments: Section D and "Military Intelligence (Research)" to investigate possible sabotage and other ways to attack the enemy. These later merged in 1940 with the propaganda unit Department EH to form the basis of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), which would conduct irregular warfare operations in occupied Europe.

In 1941, during the North African Campaign volunteers from Allies formed, under the auspices of the British Army, the Long Range Desert Group for reconnaissance and raiding behind Italian lines and the Special Air Service a commando group.

In 1942, following the onset of the Pacific Theater of World War II, the Allied Intelligence Bureau, was set up in Australia. Drawing on personnel from Australian, British, New Zealand and other Allied forces, it included Coastwatchers and "special units" that undertook reconnaissance behind enemy lines.

During the Winter War (1939–40) and the Continuation War, which was the name of the Finnish theater of World War II active between 1941 and 1944, Finland employed several ''kaukopartio'' ("long range patrol") units.

The US Government established the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), modeled on the British SOE, in June 1942. Following the end of the war OSS became the basis for the CIA.

During the Vietnam War, respective division and brigades in-country trained their Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol members (now known as the Long Range Surveillance units). However, the US Army's 5th Special Forces Group with support from seconded Australian SASR and AATTV instructors, held an advanced course in the art of patrolling for potential Army and Marine team leaders at their Recondo School in Nha Trang, Vietnam, for the purpose of locating enemy guerrilla and main force North Vietnamese Army units, as well as artillery spotting, intelligence gathering, forward air control, and bomb damage assessment.

During the War on Terror, the US Army began to develop a limited number of special reconnaissance platoons at the battalion level of conventional infantry units. These platoons were most often composed of Ranger-qualified soldiers and given selection of advanced training in order to allow them to work in close conjunction with Special Forces and US Government Agencies.

Long range surveillance units within larger formations

Conventional infantry formations have long had dedicated reconnaissance units, such as scout platoons, that can operate forward of a main line of troops. For example, reorganized US Army brigade combat teams – now the army's "unit of action" – have or will gain reconnaissance squadrons (i.e., "light battalion"-sized units). US Army Battlefield Surveillance Brigades (BfSB) have specialized Long Range Surveillance (LRS) companies.

Long range surveillance teams operate behind enemy lines, deep within enemy territory, forward of battalion reconnaissance teams and cavalry scouts in their assigned area of interest. The duration of an LRS mission depends on equipment and supplies the team must carry, movement distance to the objective area, and resupply availability. LRS teams normally operate up to seven days without resupply depending on terrain and weather.

SR units are well armed, since they may have to defend themselves if they are detected and their exfiltration support will need time to reach them. During the 1991 Gulf War, British SAS and United States Army and Air Force Special Operations Forces (AFSOC) units were originally sent behind enemy lines to find mobile Iraqi Scud tactical ballistic missile launchers and direct airstrikes onto them. When air support was delayed, however, the patrols might attack key Scud system elements with their own weapons and explosives.

While there are obvious risks to doing so, SR-trained units can operate out of uniform. They may use motorcycles, four-wheel-drive vehicles, or multiple helicopter lifts in their area of operations, or have mountaineering or combat swimming capability. Most SR units are trained in advanced helicopter movement and at least basic parachuting; some SR will have HAHO and HALO advanced parachute capability.

SR will have more organic support capabilities, including long-range communications, possibly signals intelligence, and other means of collecting technical intelligence, and usually at least one skilled medical technician whose proficiency is greater than basic first aid.

All these organizations have special operations roles, with SR often being performed by specialists within an organization. Certain organizations are tasked for a response involving areas contaminated by chemical weapons, biological agents, or radioactivity.

Since reconnaissance is a basic military skill, "special" reconnaissance refers to the means of operating in the desired area, and the nature of the mission. In US Army doctrine, there are five basic factors:

#Physical distances: The area of operations may be well beyond the forward line of troops, and require special skills to reach the area.
#Political considerations: Clandestine insertion also may be a requirement. If there is a requirement to work with local personnel, language skills and political awareness may be critical.
#Availability of required special skills and expertise: The most basic requirement for SR is to be able to remain unobserved, which may take special skills and equipment. If there is a requirement to collect intelligence, skills anywhere from advanced photography to remote sensor operation may be required.
#Threat capabilities: This usually relates to the need to stay clandestine, potentially against an opposing force with sophisticated intelligence capabilities. Such capabilities may be organic to a force or be available from a sponsoring third country.
#Follow-on special forces missions: This is the concept of preparing for other functions, such as Unconventional Warfare (UW) (i.e., guerrilla) or Foreign Internal Defense (FID) (i.e. counter-guerrilla) operations.

Appropriate missions

Special forces units that perform SR are usually polyvalent, so SR missions may be intelligence gathering in support of another function, such as counter-insurgency, foreign internal defense (FID), guerrilla/unconventional warfare (UW), or direct action (DA).

Other missions may deal with locating targets and planning, guiding, and evaluating attacks against them.

Target analysis could go in either place. If air or missile strikes are delivered after the SR team leaves the AO, the SR aspect is intelligence, but if the strikes are to be delivered and possibly corrected and evaluated by the SR team, the SR mission is fires-related.

Intelligence related missions

Every SR mission will collect intelligence, even incidentally. Before a mission, SR teams will usually study all available and relevant information on the area of operations (AO). On their mission, they then confirm, amplify, correct, or refute this information.

Assessment, whether by clandestine SR or overt study teams, is a prerequisite for other special operations missions, such as UW or FID. DA or counter-terror (CT), usually implies clandestine SR.

Hydrographic, meteorological and geographic reconnaissance

Mission planners may not know if a given force can move over a specific route. These variables may be hydrographic, meteorological, or geographic. SR teams can resolve trafficability