The Building Block of Special Forces Groups

The Special Forces Operational Detachment-A, or A-Team, is the fundamental building block for all Special Forces Groups. There are six A detachments in each Special Forces company. A Major or a Senior captain leads the 12-man team. Second in command is a warrant officer. Two noncommissioned officers, or NCOs, are trained in each of the five SF functional areas: weapons, engineering and demolitions, medicine, communications, and operations and intelligence, and comprise the remainder of the team. All team members are SF qualified and cross-trained in different skills as well as being multi-lingual.

Capabilities of the highly-versatile A-Team include:

• Plan and conduct Special Forces Operations separately or as part of a larger force;
• infiltrate and exfiltrate specified operational areas by air, land, or sea;
• conduct operations in remote areas and hostile environments for extended periods of time with a minimum of external direction and support;
• develop, organize, equip, train and advise or direct indigenous forces up to battalion size in special operations;
• train, advise and assist other U.S. and allied forces and agencies;
• plan and conduct unilateral SF operations;
• perform other special operations as directed by higher authority.

In the SF company, one of the six A-teams is trained in combat diving and one is trained in military free-fall parachuting. Both are used as methods of infiltration.

The detachment can serve as a manpower pool from which SF commanders organize tailored SF teams to perform specific missions. In general, A-teams are equipped with high-powered communications systems such as tactical satellite communications, burst transmission devices, high-frequency radios, and global positioning systems. Medical kits include, among other things, field surgical kits, laboratory and dental instruments and supplies, sterilizers, resuscitator-aspirators, water-testing kits, and veterinary equipment. Other key equipment includes individual and perimeter defense weapons as well as night-vision devices, and electric and non-electric demolitions. Equipment distribution is geared to conform to specific missions.

For underwater or waterborne infiltration, SCUBA (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) teams are equipped with open-circuit twin-80s SCUBA tanks, closed-circuit Dragger (re-breather) Lar-V, Zodiac boat and Klepper kayaks. Military free-fall parachuting teams use ram-air (square) parachutes and oxygen systems as well as "Stand Off" systems for HAHO (High Altitude High Opening) parachute operations.