Security News > 2021 > April > Navy SEALs to Shift From Counterterrorism to Global Threats
Navy SEAL platoons are beefing up capabilities in cyber and electronic warfare and unmanned systems, honing their skills to collect intelligence.
Ten years after they found and killed Osama bin Laden, U.S. Navy SEALs are undergoing a major transition to improve leadership and expand their commando capabilities to better battle threats from global powers like China and Russia.
The counterterrorism fight had its benefits, allowing the SEALs to sharpen their skills in developing intelligence networks and finding and hitting targets, said Howard, who heads Naval Special Warfare Command, which includes the SEALs and the special warfare combatant-craft crewmen.
Mike Gilday, the chief of naval operations, said the goal is to better integrate the SEALs into the Navy's missions at sea.
"As the Navy Special Warfare community returns more and more to its maritime roots, their increased integration across the Fleet - above, under, and on the sea - will unequivocally enhance our unique maritime capabilities to help us compete and win against any adversary," Gilday said in a statement to the AP. Increasing the size of the SEAL platoons will add high-tech capabilities.
Navy leaders also chafed as Navy SEALs broke away from their "Quiet professional" ethos, publicizing their participation in the raid into Pakistan that killed bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader responsible for plotting the 9/11 attacks.