America's Army: Special Forces launched

The US Army has today announced the release of America's Army: Special Forces - Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS). The game, which focuses on the specialized role of the Army's Special Forces in the war against terrorism, is the first installment in a planned Special Forces series that will be accessible only to players who have successfully completed the training missions in the original America's Army: Operations.

Players who are eligible for the SFAS process will have the opportunity to learn about the capabilities of a Special Forces A-Team and to complete training exercises involving vehicle and weapon identification and escape and evasion. Only players who successfully complete the SFAS courses while maintaining an honor rating of at least 15 will get to participate in new multiplayer missions as a Green Beret.

"The America's Army game is an extremely popular vehicle allowing young people to explore soldiering in today's US Army," said Col. Casey Wardynski, originator and director of the America's Army game project. "America's Army is a realistic reflection of the Army, its soldiers, and their missions. America's Army: Special Forces showcases the Army's elite and highly skilled Special Forces soldiers, who are an integral force fighting the global war on terrorism."

The six new single- and multiplayer missions included with America's Army: Special Forces include a combat search and rescue (CSAR) of a downed helicopter pilot, the rescue of a wounded Resistance leader from a hospital in an urban area, a nighttime reconnaissance mission to identify enemy aviation, and a new version of the popular America's Army: Operations Pipeline map. Players who successfully complete the SFAS process will have the option to participate in the new missions as part of a Special Forces team alongside indigenous forces made up of other players--mirroring the way that Green Berets operate alongside other countries' forces in real life.

"Due to recent actions in the global war on terrorism, there is great public interest in the role of Special Forces," said Maj. Christopher Chambers, the project's deputy director who deployed to Afghanistan and served with elements of the 20th Special Forces Group as part of research for the Special Forces version of America's Army. "The soldiers in Special Forces units are a reflection of the Army within which they serve. They are courageous, intelligent, resourceful, and dedicated individuals. Special Forces units are compact and multifaceted. Special Forces 10-man detachments are microcosms of larger Army fighting teams, including medical, information technology/communications, intelligence, engineering, and weapons experts. America's Army players will gain insights on the roles played by these elite Soldiers and perspectives into the ways soldiers with a wide range of expertise combine to make the Army the world's premier land force."

The second installment of the game will be titled America's Army: Special Forces - Qualification Course (Q-Course), and it's currently scheduled for release in the spring next year. The Q-Course will allow players to access more specialized roles within the Special Forces so that in addition to the 18B-Weapons Specialist, they can train as an 18C-Engineer, 18D-Medic, 18E-Communications Sergeant, or 18F-Intelligence Sergeant. Also planned for inclusion in a future release of America's Army: Special Forces is an option for players to learn about high-altitude, low-opening (HALO) parachute insertion techniques and overmatch capabilities that enable Special Forces to defeat much larger hostile forces.

Both America's Army: Operations and the first installment of America's Army: Special Forces are available for free from local Army recruiting stations or can be downloaded from the game's official Web site. For more information on America's Army, check out our full review of the original game.