All SOF Direct Action (DA) raids are intelligence driven. Great time, effort and detail go into developing target packages that ensure the utmost amount of accuracy with regard to the target(s), minimize risk to the operators and curtail collateral damage. Notwithstanding the intelligence effort that is invested in each DA, when the SOF operators make entry, there are no guarantees. They must always be ready to pull, or even more important, not pull, the trigger. It is this fastidiousness that has allowed SOF to continually deliver “precision SOF effects.” In fact, between May 2010 and April 2011, SOF in Afghanistan conducted 2,245 total DA missions of which 84 percent saw no shots fired, while 83 percent of the missions ended with the intended target and / or their associates being captured or killed.
 
Artwork was created in 2016.