Deputizing for His Majesty King Abdullah II, the Supreme Commander of the Jordan Armed Forces - Arab Army, His Royal Highness Prince Faisal Ibn Al Hussein on Monday patronized the Special Operations Forces Conference (SOFEX), which was held a day before the opening of the SOFEX 2018, Petra news agency reported.
The three-day SOFEX 2018, which displays up-to-date defense industries and special forces and national security operations equipment, will open under the royal patronage at the King Abdullah I Air Base in Amman on Tuesday in its twelfth edition.
Taking part in the conference, which is held under the title “Hybrid Warfare in the Global Gray Zone - Ever Changing Operational Environment” and attended by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lt. General Mahmoud Freihat and Heads of security agencies, are more than 600 participants, including Defense Ministers, Chiefs of Staff, Senior Special Forces and Land and Air Forces Officers from the region.
Also attending are international security decision-makers, planners and strategists to build bridges of understanding and promote global peace.
In opening remarks, Freihat said that the General Command of the Jordanian Armed Forces, under the guidance of His Majesty the Supreme Commander, has been developing and implementing major restructuring plans of the Jordan armed forces units within a period of five years.
These plans, he pointed out, would guarantee “our armed forces the ability, effectiveness and efficiency in facing the current and future security challenges, and enhance the defense capabilities in facing conflicts and the challenges of hybrid warfares and grey zone conflicts, which requires a focus on efficiency, professionalism and training, providing resources and supporting partnerships with brotherly and friendly countries and activating alliances with International partners to meet challenges and achieve common interests.”
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said that there is a change in the environment of military operations, where hybrid operations have become the main working environment within the challenges of political coalitions and financing, tactical and technical challenges, local societal pressures and limited response time. He said the slogan under which SOFEX is held this year reflects this change, pointing to the complexity in the gray zone operations.
There is a need for deep understanding and analysis of this hybrid variable of the operational environment to ensure the success of the mission and achieve the objectives of operations, he said.
“The armament, equipment and tactical readiness will play a key role in achieving the objectives in this type of conflicts, but the decisions and policies of commanders at the operational and strategic levels will play a decisive role in the success of the mission and achieving goals,” he said.
Freihat defined the grey zone operations, the so-called shadow wars, as “the distance between peace and war that exists when some actors use various mechanisms and multiple tools to exercise force to achieve political and security objectives through many activities that are characterized with ambiguity and complexity and the wide scope of their influence.”
Disputes, according to Freihat, involve the simultaneous use of political, economic and military tools and local agents in the management of conflict relations with the rivals, in order to achieve the interests of states without engaging in a direct military confrontation, and that the activities of those involved in a conflict go beyond the boundaries of traditional competition.
