Senior Special Ops Leaders Discuss Value of Partnerships, Alliances

Senior military special operations forces leaders from the U.S., Sweden and the Philippines participated in a morning panel today about the importance of SOF partnerships and alliances, as part of Special Operations Forces Week 2026 in Tampa, Florida.

During the one-hour conversation, the four participants discussed how building trust through international alliances enhances collective readiness and interoperability, making it a prerequisite for mission success in contested environments.

“I think the most important thing is to continue to build trust between partners within the alliance, [and] also between partners,” Swedish army Brig. Gen. Rickard Johansson, commander of Sweden’s special operations forces, replied after the panel was asked what the international SOF community needs to focus on most to ensure that alliances are stronger, truly integrated and capable of meeting the challenges of an increasingly complex and contested world.

“And we will continue to do that, because that is the bottom line for all activities that we are supposed to do: build trust,” Johansson added. 

Air Force Maj. Gen. Claude K. Tudor Jr., commander of U.S. Special Operations Command Africa, concurred with Johansson’s assessment, noting that his command has to monitor 53 countries on the African continent, so strong relationships with those countries’ SOF elements are vital.

“Any day that ends in a ‘y,’ you know, there could be crisis out there. And so, as we continue to go through that — in order for us to have the placement and access that we need without building huge infrastructure all over the place — it’s critical to have those relationships,” Tudor said, adding that such relationships are “very, very critical.”

The panel also discussed the need to build trust and develop strong working relationships with partners and allies to enable joint interoperability of advanced warfighting technologies.

Specifically, the leaders discussed the incorporation of abundant, attritable autonomous weapons systems — robustly designed drones that are cheap and scalable enough that commanders can tolerate losing them in combat.

Army Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers III, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command Central, explained that incorporating such technologies into the fight will make things happen fast and that SOF partners will need to be on the same page.

“Things are going to happen at a speed [where] human relationships are going to be the thing that gets you [into the fight], but it’s not going to let you execute and win. … And we’re going to need partnerships that include all of those trust aspects. … But then, on the outside of that, you’re going to need to be able to go to any one of these partners, and we’re going to have to be able to scale quickly,” Jeffers said of incorporating the weapons systems into SOF partnerships.

Jeffers cited relationships with Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Israel as good examples of countries with which the U.S. SOF community is partnering to synchronize their respective warfighting technologies.

The panelists were also asked to cite examples of how establishing a deep personal trust between their SOF community and a partner nation have directly led to a strategic success that would otherwise have been impossible.

Philippine army Maj. Gen. Ferdinand B. Napuli, commander of that country’s special operations command, pointed to the strong relationship his island nation has had with the U.S. for the past 80 years.

Specifically, he cited Exercise Balikatan, a massive annual U.S.-Philippine military drill that regularly integrates special operations forces to execute complex counterterrorism, unconventional warfare and crisis-response scenarios, as an example of the partnership, an exercise that is growing in size each year.

“Thank you, world partners, for this year. The growing number of participants in Balikatan is [warmly] felt,” Napuli said.

Johansson told the partner nation members in the audience that Sweden could not have reached a high level of military competence without their help.

“The support from a lot of partners in this room, [has] actually made us be what we have become. Thank you for that,” he said.