The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) of the United States Congress has produced a 146-page publication on entitled The U.S. Military’s Force Structure: A Primer dated July 2016. The size and complexity of the U.S military can make it difficult to determine how the costs are distributed among the components. This primer has to guide one through what costs how much in the U.S. military. It describes how each of the three military departments (Navy, Army, Air Force) is organized into major combat units. It also analyzes defense-wide costs – such as the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) based at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. The section on special operations starts at page 111 and ends at page 113.
Of course, one has to remember that it was probably ‘bean-counters’ preparing the report so be prepared for inaccuracies such as:
“Special forces are a fairly small set of units that perform direct-action missions (small, short-duration raids, ambushes, or assaults in hostile territory, such as the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan). SF units include the units most commonly associated in the public’s mind with special operations, such as the Army’s Green Berets and Rangers and the Navy’s Sea, Air, and Land forces (known as SEALs).”
You can access the document on the CBO website.
www.cbo.gov/publication/51535
