Cif: Fill & Download for Free

First, a little context.Army Special Operations Command is planning to disband elite Green Beret unitsIn English, Green Berets had a team of Tier 1, or 2 assets at Theater level command availability.The Groups formerly known as Delta and SEAL6 are NOT available for Theater level orders. So NOW if something happens in Africa, the Area Commander can’t access it, he has to go higher, now, to grab a Delta unit to do a job of hostage rescue etc.The good news. CIF haven’t been used since 2011. The bad news, they could have been used last year when the American Embassy in Iraq was attacked. Command assigned a regular Marine Company to do the job that CIF was made for.Now that doesn’t mean that CIF didn’t go in. It just means that the Marines got the glory, while CIF (possibly) did the job.Here is the bad news. The Green Berets started with 2 jobs. Teaching Indigs to be soldiers (and force multiply them with other assets). The other job was Direct Action.Delta and other dudes have been eating their lunch but Green Berets still had CIF.That does 2 things.1. It encourages Green Berets to stay in the fold. They don’t have to leave for Delta, they can stay within the family fold and go CIF.2. When CIF is bored, which is like every day, they can work within their, Green Beret, guys and raise their standard by teaching the latest toys and techniques to get the job done (which they pass on to the guys they are teaching aka some African tinpot’s bodyguards.)A rising tide raises all boats. The CIF loss sucks, but it’s not the end of the world.Operators from CIF will either option to go up, and train for DELTA etc. or will go back to their guys where their expertise will be invaluable for a few years.To the individuals involved, it will be a gut punch. The team that they fought so hard to join and make work, is gone. Friends will go different ways. Decisions will be made.But frankly (to quote Python) the army sucks so hard it chews.Not their worst day.

Yes to both.Within each Special Forces Group, there’s a company (consisting of six ODAs and one ODB) that’s designated the Commander’s In-extremis Force, or CIF for short. Unlike the rest of its parent SFG, CIF companies train almost exclusively for Direct Action and Hostage Rescue operations.To join a CIF, an SF soldier must attend the 8-week Special Forces Advanced Reconnaissance, Target Analysis, and Exploitation Techniques Course. Obviously that’s a mouthful, so it’s shortened to SFARTAETC, which is still huge. Anyway, SFARTAETC’s scope is classified but it’s suspected to focus almost entirely on CQB and advanced marksmanship skills.CIF companies are designed, trained, and maintained to serve as an emergency response force for the local commander (either Geographic Combatant Command or SOTF I believe). If there’s a hostage situation or an HVT that needs to be grabbed, the CIF is trained to handle it. They’re generally called upon when a SMU (like Delta or DEVGRU) is unavailable.In regards to HALO training, all Special Forces soldiers now attend Military Free Fall training at the end of the Q Course.For a while, each ODA in a company had a specific focus (MFF, SCUBA, Mountain, Mobility, etc.). It appears now, though, that every ODA will have MFF capabilities also.Hope this answers your question.

To answer your question, yes. While all ODAs have to constantly train so as to maintain their skills, the so-called special unit in SF is, in reality, the CIF that each SF Group has. The CIF is on constant alert and in constant training. Many of the individual members are just as capable as members of Delta and are often involved with highly classified missions about which the public at large has no need to know about. So don’t expect anymore info from me.