Nunn-Cohen Amendment

The Nunn-Cohen Amendment (Title 10, Section 167, US Code ) was passed by Congress in 1987 as a supplement to the Goldwater-Nichols Act ( American federal law ) and regulated the status and funding of special forces in the United States .

background

The 1986 ratified Goldwater-Nichols Act was the legal basis for comprehensive military reform of the US, since the National Security Act of 1947. The law obliges US Department of Defense to streamline the command chains and to the establishment of the Unified Combatant Commands , joint forces of cross composite commands. At the same time, the Congress had also "suggested" a joint command for the special forces of the US armed forces in order to ensure the operational coordination of the individual special forces and to avoid a repetition of disastrous missions such as the 1983 invasion of the island of Grenada ( Operation Urgent Fury ).

The United States Department of Defense only implemented the changes required by law and ignored this "recommendation".

The law

Then brought the Democratic Senator Sam Nunn from Georgia (chairman of the Senate Defense Committee) together with the Republican Senator William Cohen from Maine (1997 Secretary of Defense) the supplementary bill, which was subsequently ratified by Congress.

The Nunn-Cohen Amendment explicitly decreed the establishment of a separate group command for the US Special Operations Forces , the US Special Operation Command (SOCOM) , which from now on will uniformly train, equip and provide all corresponding units and units (for other Unified Combatant Commands , the Special task forces in their regional area of responsibility and request them according to the chop principle), but should also lead them themselves . In addition, a separate source of funding has been established independently of the decision of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the budget planning of the other armed forces. This meant that the budget for SOCOM and all units subordinate to it was no longer financed by the maternal armed forces, but directly from a special position in the Ministry of Defense. In addition to the loss of operational control, it was no longer possible for the maternal armed forces to control their special forces, some of which were still unpopular (because they were relatively costly), “through the back door” of financing.

This de facto created a fifth armed force.

Changes and results

Due to the operational consolidation under their own high command and the financial detachment from the general armed forces budget, the special forces became completely independent of their parent armed forces. At the same time, standardized, coordinated training, equipment and organization became possible, which had a positive effect on the quality and quantity of the resources and operational capability and optimized the efficiency of the funds used. The non-existent financial competitive situation also had a beneficial effect on the acceptance of the special forces within the armed forces.

References

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ US Code: Title 10, § 167 at law.cornell.edu ( accessed July 20, 2008)

[1] US Code: Title 10, § 167 at law.cornell.edu ( accessed July 20, 2008)