[Discord]
Written by DeveloperNes
Pipeline
ISA's selection and training process is definitely not public, however we do know a few basic things about it. First, we know that the selection process is not open to everyone, second, we know that a majority of ISA operators came from US Army Special Forces.
Organization/Jobs
From the 1986 document declassification, we know ISA's organization looks like this:
If you can't really make sense of it, I don't blame you, so here is the breakdown of what you need to know:
- Command Group: At the top, this is the headquarters unit for ISA. It includes personnel with different ranks and roles, such as officers (O6, O5, etc.), warrant officers (WO), enlisted members (E8, E9), and a "GS" designation, which is a civilian government service employee. The numbers probably mean the amount of people for each rank or role.
- P&A Directorate: Possibly stands for Personnel and Administration.
- Intelligence Directorate: Probably handles intelligence gathering and analysis.
- Operations (OPNS) Directorate: This could be the core of operational planning and execution.
- CJA: Could stand for "Command Judge Advocate," which would be a legal advisor or team responsible for handling legal stuff.
- MISO: Stands for Military Information Support Operations, which handles psyops.
- SSO: Likely stands for Special Security Officer, who manage classified documents.
- SIGINT SQ (Signals Intelligence Squadron): Self Explanitory.
- The Operations Squadron, or OPNS SQDN, is in charge of planning and executing ISA's missions. It is divided into smaller troops (such as Troop A, B, C, and D).
- COMMO SQDN (Communications Squadron): This squadron is clearly focused on communications. The FWD COMMO TROOP (Forward Communications Troop) within this squadron could handle communications close near the operations or embedded in the operations element.
- Exploitation T: This team probably does something like analyzing or exploiting captured enemy stuff (like technology or documents probably) to get intel.
Firearms
There are very few photos of ISA online, and the ones we do have aren't even completely confirmed, however based on the limited information, I'd say that ISA uses quad rail HK416 considering their counterparts at CIA SOG seem quite fond of it, it's also possible they use the M4A1 URGI of Rangers and ODA or the HK416D SMR of 24th STS and CAG, but it's unlikely in my opinion. For sidarms, they most likely just use the standard issue Glock 19 for almost all USSOCOM personnel.
Gear
I have literally zero idea on the specifics, but make sure you base your kits around this: What are they doing? If they are doing a HUMINT gathering operation, why would they be in regular operator kit? Units like early GWOT CAG, CIA SOG, and ISA all use local weapons and equipment to blend in most of the time, however if they are doing a quick infil-exfil or AFO operation, I'd say they probably use pretty average gear.
Tactics
ISA is NOT a direct action force, they have two main operations capabilities. Facilitating other tier 1 units (specifically CAG and DEVGRU), and collecting intelligence via SIGINT and HUMINT. The second one is more self explanitory, so I'll be focusing on the first main capability. ISA can infil, sustain, and exfil a tier 1 unit for a mission, they don't always do all of these every time, but they have in the past, sometimes they just do sustain or just exfil, they also do something known as Advance Force Operations or "AFO". Advance Force Operations are operations where a unit will move in ahead of the main force in order to set conditions for the smooth execution of a mission. In practice, this could be picking the locks on the external doors of a building, last minute confirmation of the location of a hostage or other HVT, or maybe some kind of recce/overwatch.