Sofia, Bulgaria – This week, the Multi-Domain Operations and Special Operations Forces (MDO SOF) Conference, co-organized by Allied Command Transformation (ACT) and Allied Special Operations Forces Command (SOFCOM) and hosted by the NATO Crisis Management and Disaster Response Centre of Excellence headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria brought together NATO and Allied leaders, innovators, and military experts. They turned lessons from the SOF community into concrete steps to accelerate the Alliance’s delivery of faster, more coherent effects across all domains synchronized with non-military activities.
The Guiding Question
The event focused on one crucial question: What can the Alliance learn from Special Operations Forces to make Multi-Domain Operations more tangible?
The world is becoming more complex, and with that complexity come new challenges that test our strengths in new ways. Special Operations Forces show us what adaptability looks like, uniting conventional, cyberspace, and space capabilities to drive innovation and shape NATO’s future.
– Vice Admiral Simon Asquith
Chief of Staff at Allied Command Transformation
Why SOF practice matters for transformation
With the Alliance’s goal of becoming Multi-Domain Operations (MDO)-enabled by 2030, the conference explored how Special Operations Forces’ (SOF) experience operating across domains, with speed, precision, and agility can inform NATO’s transformation.
The SOF community has long embodied the mindset and integration that MDO now demands, combining military, and civilian instruments of power to generate converging effects from the tactical to the strategic level. Their success rests not on mass or technology alone, but on trust, adaptability, and interoperability, qualities that give decision advantage in dynamic environments.
We can’t afford to view the modern battlespace through a single lens. Winning today demands a holistic approach — one that fuses intelligence, battlefield awareness, resilient communications, and precision effects across every domain. Special Operations Forces have long operated this way, integrating with the joint force, partners across governments, civilian experts, and cutting-edge technology to create unity of effort and effect. We do this on land, at sea, in the air, in cyberspace, throughout the electromagnetic spectrum, and in space. That’s the mindset NATO must embrace to truly deliver Multi-Domain Operations.
– Major General Tony Turner
Deputy Commander of Allied Special Operations Forces Command
From analysis to action
Deliberations centred on how to turn integration into routine practice rather than an exception. Participants compared recent exercises across all domains, identified friction points, and agreed where special operations mindset can increase the Alliance’s capacity to deliver effects, at scale and speed. The following priorities framed the working sessions and the actions that follow:
- Synchronising Military and Non-Military Actors and Activities
Participants examined how SOF and Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) capabilities can bridge the gap between national, Alliance, and civilian efforts, ensuring unity of purpose and resilient coordination across all domains with civilian effect providers. - Command, Control, and Interoperability Across Domains
Participants discussed modernising command and control (C2) to match the tempo of MDO, where effects unfold across time, space, and diverse environments at speed. - Operating in the Cognitive Dimension
Participants examined how SOF integrates strategic communications capabilities and cyber tools to shape the information environment, strengthen Allied cognitive resilience, and disrupt adversary influence.
Why this matters now
Participants converted these insights into next actions for doctrine, training and exercise, data standards, and experimentation pathways, with clear owners and timelines to speed adoption. With the next steps defined, the question now turns to who must carry them forward. Progress depends on national follow-through. Vice Admiral Asquith put it plainly: “These conferences bring together key players from across the Alliance, but the work doesn’t end here. Each nation has specific capability targets to meet, and the next step is simple: follow through. Every Ally has a role to play in making Multi-Domain Operations a reality.”
Next steps: Croatia 2026
The next major Multi-Domain Operations Conference will be held in Croatia in October 2026. It will track progress on the actions set in Sofia this week and push the next round of trials that turn concepts into fielded capability.
As the Alliance advances toward becoming MDO-enabled by 2030, one message from this MDO SOF Conference resonates clearly: Success will depend not only on better systems, but on integration, interoperability, and a shared mindset that allows NATO to think and act as one.