The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the United States Navy's primary special operations force and a component of the United States Naval Special Warfare Command. Among the SEALs' main functions are conducting small-unit special operation missions in maritime, jungle, urban, arctic, mountainous, and desert environments. SEALs are typically ordered to capture or kill high-level targets, or to gather intelligence behind enemy lines. SEAL team personnel are hand-selected, highly trained, and possess a high degree of proficiency in unconventional warfare (UW), direct action (DA), and special reconnaissance (SR), among other tasks like sabotage, demolition, intelligence gathering, and hydrographic reconnaissance, training, and advising friendly militaries or other forces. All active SEALs are members of the U.S. Navy.
The United States Naval Special Warfare Command (USNSWC), also known as NAVSPECWARCOM and WARCOM, is the naval component of United States Special Operations Command, the unified command that oversees and conducts the nation's special operations and missions.
Joint Expeditionary Base–Little Creek (JEB–LC), formerly known as Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek and commonly called simply Little Creek, is the major operating base for the Amphibious Forces in the United States Navy's Atlantic Fleet. The mission of the Naval Amphibious Base is to provide required support services to over 15,000 personnel of the 27 homeported ships and 78 resident and/or supported activities. The base's combination of operational, support, and training facilities are geared predominantly to amphibious operations, making the base unique among bases of the United States and Allied Navies.
Naval Air Station North Island or NAS North Island, at the north end of the Coronado peninsula on San Diego Bay in San Diego, California, is part of the largest aerospace-industrial complex in the United States Navy – Naval Base Coronado (NBC), and the home port of several aircraft carriers of the United States Navy.
United States Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal technicians render safe all types of ordnance, including improvised, chemical, biological, and nuclear. They perform land and underwater location, identification, render-safe, and recovery of foreign and domestic ordnance. They conduct demolition of hazardous munitions, pyrotechnics, and retrograde explosives using detonation and burning techniques. They forward deploy and fully integrate with the various Combatant Commanders, Special Operations Forces (SOF), and various warfare units within the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Army. They are also called upon to support military and civilian law enforcement agencies, as well as the Secret Service.
Beach Jumpers were U.S. Navy special warfare units organized during World War II by Lieutenant Douglas Fairbanks Jr. They specialized in deception and psychological warfare. The units were active from 1943 to 1946 and 1951 to 1972.
The Special Actions Detachment or DAE is the tier one special force maritime unit of the Portuguese Navy. It is part of the Portuguese Marine Corps. Raised in 1985, the DAE is one of the smallest special forces units within the Portuguese Armed Forces. It is responsible for conducting air-sea rescue, amphibious reconnaissance, amphibious warfare, black operation, bomb disposal, CBRN defense, coastal raiding, counterterrorism, direct action, executive protection, hostage rescue, irregular warfare, ISTAR, long-range penetration, JTAC, manhunt high-value target, maritime sabotage, mountain rescue, naval boarding, operation behind high risk enemy lines, special operations, special reconnaissance, tracking targets, underwater demolition, unconventional warfare, other missions in support of Portuguese and NATO armed forces. DAE's mission and training are similar to their American counterparts DEVGRU and the British SBS. DAE often trains with them alongside other SMU counter-terror units.
Rear Admiral Draper Laurence Kauffman was an American underwater demolition expert, who served during the 1960s as 44th Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy. During World War II, he organized the first U.S. Navy Combat Demolition Units from which the SEALs and Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) would evolve. His wartime service also included participation in the invasions of Saipan, Tinian, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.
The Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC) is an echelon III command of the United States Navy, which serves as the single functional command to centrally manage current and future readiness, resources, manning, training and equipping of the United States Navy's 21,000 expeditionary forces who are currently serving in every theater of operation. The NECC was established in January 2006. NECC is a subordinate command of the Navy's Fleet Forces Command.
Naval Base Coronado (NBC) is a consolidated Navy installation encompassing eight military facilities stretching from San Clemente Island, located 70 miles west of San Diego, California, in Los Angeles County, California, to Mountain Warfare Training Camp Michael Monsoor and Camp Morena, located 60 miles east of San Diego.
The US employs divers in several branches of the armed forces, including the navy, army, marines, air force and coast guard.
The Special Warfare Combat Crewmen (SWCC ) are United States Naval Special Warfare Command personnel who operate and maintain small craft for special operations missions, particularly those of U.S. Navy SEALs. Their rating is Special Warfare Boat Operator (SB).
The Operational Test and Evaluation Force (OPTEVFOR) is an independent and objective agency within the United States Navy for the operational testing and evaluation (OT&E) of naval aviation, surface warfare, submarine warfare, C4I, cryptologic, and space systems in support Navy and Department of Defense acquisition programs.
Timothy Gerard "Tim" Szymanski is a retired United States Navy vice admiral who last served as deputy commander of United States Special Operations Command from October 15, 2018 to December 2021. He is the former commander of United States Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, California.
Helicopter Maritime Strike Weapons School Pacific (HSMWSP) is a United States Navy helicopter training squadron based at NAS North Island, Coronado, California. HSMWSP provides advanced air combat weapons and tactics training and standardization for ten Pacific Fleet HSM squadrons composed of MH-60R and MQ-8B aircraft.
The Navy Region Southwest is one of eleven current naval regions responsible to Commander, Navy Installations Command for the operation and management of Naval shore installations in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico. It is headquartered across from Broadway Pier in downtown San Diego. The command also serves as the regional coordinator for the Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, headquartered in Hawaii, coordinating support for bases in Southern California and Nevada.
Sean Averell Pybus is a retired United States Navy vice admiral who last served as the deputy Commander, United States Special Operations Command from 2014 to 2016. He previously served as the Commander, Naval Special Warfare Command from 2011 to 2013.
Keith Bently Davids is a retired American United States Navy special warfare officer with the rank of rear admiral. He served as the commander of Naval Special Warfare Command from 2022 to 2024. He was the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command South, United States Southern Command from 2020 to 2022. Previously, he served as director of the White House Military Office during the first presidency of Donald Trump. Earlier in his career, he was commanding officer of the Naval Special Warfare Center and SEAL Team One.
