14 February 2026

CIA, SOCOM gearing up for rapid capability assessment with an eye toward ‘field-forward’ ops

Jon Harper

CIA personnel and American special operations forces are preparing for a collaboration event with members of industry and other subject matter experts in pursuit of new capabilities that could support so-called “field-forward” operations.

The spy agency and SOF community are known to have worked closely together during the Global War on Terror. Today, with the proliferation of emerging technologies, these secretive arms of the U.S. government are trying to prepare for future ops in more “data-dense” environments.

U.S. Special Operations Command’s Science and Technology Directorate and the CIA’s S&T organization are collaborating with the SOFWERX and ICWERX innovation hubs to host the upcoming “Rapid Capability Assessment” in Chantilly, Virginia, which is slated for April, according to a special notice posted online.

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