Direct action (military)

In the context of special operations, the United States Department of Defense defines direct action (DA) as: "Short-duration strikes and other small-scale offensive actions conducted as a special operation in hostile, denied, or politically sensitive environments and which employ specialized military capabilities to seize, destroy, capture, exploit, recover, or damage designated targets. Direct action differs from conventional offensive actions in the level of physical and political risk, operational techniques, and the degree of discriminate and precise use of force to achieve specific objectives."

The United States military and many of its allies consider DA one of the basic special operations missions. Some units specialize in it, such as the 75th Ranger Regiment, while other units, such as US Army Special Forces, have DA capabilities but focus more on other operations. Unconventional warfare, special reconnaissance and direct action roles have merged through the decades and are typically performed primarily by the same units. For instance, while United States special operations forces were originally created for unconventional warfare (UW) missions and gradually added other capabilities, the United States Navy SEALs, and the UK Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Service (SBS) continue to perform a primary DA role with special reconnaissance (SR) as original missions. The SEALs, SAS, and SBS added additional capabilities over time, responding to the needs of modern conflict. Russian Spetsnaz are also DA and SR units.

Under the US Central Intelligence Agency's National Clandestine Service, there is a Special Activities Division that operates without apparent national identification, for plausible deniability. The Joint Special Operations Command and the frequently-renamed Intelligence Support Activity are similar units.

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