The new task force works closely with Special Operations Joint Task Force-Afghanistan, which oversees commandos in that country. This relationship was clear from the January release, which announced that Brig. Gen. Mark C. Schwartz, then deputy commander of SOJTF-B, was going to become deputy commander for SOJTF-A.

The 2013 SOCOM factbook lists one of SOJTF-A’s subordinate units in Afghanistan only as “task force.” According to SOCOM, that task force goes around Afghanistan hunting the Taliban, Al Qaeda and the terrorist Al Haqqani Networks. It is very likely that this unit is actually the Joint Special Operations Command task force in Afghanistan.

JSOC handles the most secret and dangerous commando missions all over the world, including the 2011 raid to kill Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan.

SOJTF-A formed in Afghanistan in 2012 after years of work by U.S. and allied war planners trying to unify the special operations scene there. Army Maj. Gen. Tony Thomas, the unit’s commander, said at a press conference last May that SOJTF-A “began as a unilateral U.S. initiative.” But it undeniably has taken on an international flavor.

After standing up, SOJTF-A merged with NATO. The alliance wanted to keep its Special Operations Forces—from countries such as Albania, Romania and others—under a NATO commander, rather than a leader from the U.S.

But America is part of NATO, so an American officer can count as a NATO commander. SOJTF-A’s top officer is now also the commander of the NATO Special Operations Component Command-Afghanistan.

This leads the unit to be referred to commonly by the mouthful of an acronym NSOCC-A/SOJTF-A. Unwieldy acronym aside, what matters is that all U.S. and NATO commandos in Afghanistan now answer to the same person. That streamlines command and control and facilitates the smooth running of an increasingly secretive, commando-led conflict.