Quora Answer: How Would a Military Stealthily Insert a Special Operations Team into a Country with Tight Security?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “How would a military stealthily insert a special operations team into another country or region with tight security and advanced security systems, without that region being aware of it?” 

Many people have proposed HALO insertions.  HALO insertions work in an environment where the insertion force either has air dominance, or the security level is low.  In a region of high security, the aircraft will be picked up, even if it is a long way for the ground landing zone, and there will be a welcome party.  When HALO was first pioneered, decades ago, the idea was that the opening was well below radar detection range.  The falling human body has a low infrared signature and negligible radar cross section.  That is lost once the chute opens.  Modern radar can detect that chute.  There is a limit as to how high a human being must be to open that chute, without dying on landing.  That limitation is physics. 

The best way to insert a team into an operational theatre is actually from the ground.  If the area is near the coast, then sea may be preferable.  Some special operations teams are inserted as civilians: aid workers, diplomatic team, trade delegations, whatever.  Done properly, that is the best cover.  In Operation Spring of Youth, in 1973, they were inserted via naval landing, on the beach and dressed in drag. 

In most planned operations, insertion is one of the easier parts of the operation.  Done properly, the enemy may not even know there is a team in country, or where it is operating.  It is once the mission gets hot, and the shooting starts, where it gets complicated.  Exfiltration is often one of the most dangerous and difficult parts of the mission to plan.