Global SOF and USSOCOM are pleased to confirm that SOF Week will proceed as planned. While we anticipate some impact on overall attendance due to recent U.S. Government travel restrictions, the event will bring together attendees from USSOCOM headquarters, U.S. SOF Command Team leaders, and government and military representatives from over 60 countries. The conference agenda will feature an incredible slate of senior leaders from across the global SOF network, and SOF Week remains a critical opportunity to advance force modernization, the value of special operations worldwide, and the importance of partnerships.
The senior leadership from USSOCOM and Global SOF have shared their insights on the value of SOF Week 2025:
General Bryan P. Fenton
Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command
With eight decades of experience, our nation’s Special Operations Forces embody the warrior ethos. As America’s irregular warfare experts – we alter our adversaries’ decisions below the threshold of conflict to prevent war, but we do not do this alone. Our entire team – across the Department of Defense, the interagency, allies and partners, academia, and industry – demonstrates the power of partnership to ensure our warfighters’ readiness. SOF Week provides a venue for the team of teams to gather for collaboration, education, and modernization in support of national defense priorities.
Ms. Melissa Johnson
Acquisition Executive, U.S. Special Operations Command
For U.S. Special Operations Command, people are our number one priority. To support them across the spectrum of conflict now and into the future, we need the right capabilities in the right hands, and we need it at the speed of SOF. SOF Week is an incredible opportunity to bring together SOF operators, international partners, industry, and the acquisition community to drive collaboration in an expanding ecosystem. This collaboration enables rapid solutions and fields leading edge capabilities for our Special Operations Forces.
Mr. Stu Bradin
President & CEO, Global SOF
If you look around right now you can only think that the world is on fire. When people hear that, they may cringe. But the reality is this: There are a lot of regional conflicts that can easily spread. There are criminal and terrorist organizations growing in size and capability, and they are ALL destabilizing nations and regions. Irregular Warfare (IW) is alive and well, and I do not see that enough militaries are making the changes required to operate in IW.
Most of the legacy Cold War capabilities were built to operate in mass, and they are burning in wheat fields or have limited use in large urban areas. IW is minimizing our old legacy systems and opening the door to new requirements that are going to change how our formations fight. Conventional formations have to be lighter, faster and more lethal, and SOF, Cyber, Intelligence, Information and Economic Warfare are the critical functions that should not be afterthoughts in operational planning.
This leads me to assess the defense capabilities we see in today’s market. SOF values people above all else, but it also seeks the best capabilities on earth – they need cutting edge technology that gives them a decisive advantage. This is GSOF’s third year supporting SOF Week, and the event has changed as SOF has changed. If you walk the exhibit floor you will see new capabilities and technology that is not seen at other military expos. Most of the technology is truly amazing (and complicated, to be sure), but it is easy to see the operational value to our SOF.
SOF Week 2024 had 711 exhibitors and 529 of those did not exhibit in 2023. SOF Week 2025 is attracting new capabilities of interest to USSOCOM. These new exhibitors have made SOF Week popular with other government organizations, and many of our international partners as well. SOF Week is bringing international partners, industry partners and US SOF leaders to Tampa for an event that is truly unique – this is the Global Convention for SOF and we are grateful to be a part of it.
USSOCOM and GSOF have made changes to reduce costs to the government to meet recent US Department of Defense guidance. These changes will not change the value of SOF Week, and we are expecting another great turn out for 2025.
The value of SOF is rising and if you seek to learn more about what SOF is doing and where it is headed then I would encourage you to attend. Our registration numbers are up over 2024 so please register soon. We look forward to seeing you at SOF Week 2025!