gle task clearly conveys to a non-CA commander what
CA’s actual role is in Phase 0. The purpose of CA persistent engagement is to secure a strategic advantage for
the United States, to prevent future conflict, and shape
the environment for anticipated operations. OPE describes the intent of CA engagement activities to joint
force commanders far more accurately than either Nation Assistance (NA) or Support to Civil Administration (SCA). Assigning OPE as a core task of CA is also
consistent with the recent changes in ARSOF doctrine
delineating the responsibilities of Special Warfare and
Surgical Strike. OPE is one subset of the umbrella term
Preparation of the Environment (PE). The other subset
of PE is Advanced Force Operations (AFO), which are
operations conducted to refine the location of specific,
identified targets and further develop the operational
environment for near-term missions. AFO supports
targeting for kinetic Surgical Strike operations while
OPE includes the development of networks and collection of information by CA that could support the
Special Warfare missions of Unconventional Warfare
and Foreign Internal Defense.
The Phase 0 mission will also require additions to
the current active duty CA training pipeline of selection, language, regional studies and core CA skills.
Persistent engagement involves small teams operating in uncertain environments outside a traditional
military support structure. Author David Kilcullen
describes the capability as “early entry or high threat
humanitarian and governance teams.”14 CA teams
have the ability to go places where Department of
State civilians cannot without a large protective detail. Tactical proficiency for a CA team must be on par
with a Special Forces Operational Detachment-Alpha
(ODA), though the focus will be different. While an
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