US Army’s 8th Psychological Operations Group inactivated

The Army officially inactivated the 8th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne) in a ceremony at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on Sept. 29.

“I could not be prouder of the men and women that stand before us today and those that came before us to inactivate the unit,” Col. Robert Cusick, the group’s commanding officer, said. “8th PSYOP Group introduced new concepts that will remain for years to come.”

8th POG, nicknamed the “Phantom Knights,” was formally activated on Nov. 16, 2013, after operating provisionally for two years. It was one of four Army PSYOP groups , including the active-duty 4th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne) and the Army Reserve’s 2nd and 7th Psychological Operations Groups.

The term “inactivation” signifies that the group is being decommissioned for an indeterminate period during some form of restructuring and reorganization — not necessarily that it is being deactivated or dissolved.

The 8th POG included the 3rd PSYOP Battalion (Airborne) and the 9th PSYOP Battalion (Airborne). The 3rd POB influences print, radio and broadcast information operations around the world, while the 9th POB is typically involved in operations like dropping leaflets and cultivating local communities where Special Forces may be operating.

The Information Warfare Center , organized in 2020 , was also under the aegis of the 8th PG. The IWC combines intelligence operations and information warfare specifically for Army Special Forces.

The inactivation comes just two months after the Army activated Delta Company , 7th Psychological Operations Battalion. The 7th was previously assigned to the 4th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne) but is now under the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne). That group is focused on psychological operations primarily under U.S. Africa Command’s purview.

Some military officials and analysts have argued that the U.S. needs to overhaul its approach to psychological operations and information warfare groups — hence the Delta Company activation and the retirement of the 8th POG.

“What is most concerning is not simply that adversaries invest in information warfare, but that they can often employ it faster and more coherently than we can respond,” Maj. Ryan Walters, an active-duty U.S. Army Psychological Operations officer, wrote in Small Wars Journal in January. “In practice, adversaries win by compressing the time between sensing, shaping, and exploiting, while U.S. forces remain constrained by approval latency, fragmented execution, and inconsistent assessment. The result is a temporal mismatch in which effects arrive after decisions are already made.”

9 月 29 日，美国陆军在北卡罗来纳州布拉格堡举行仪式，正式解散了第 8 心理作战大队（空降）。

“我为今天站在我们面前的各位官兵，以及之前为解散该部队而付出努力的各位官兵感到无比自豪，”该部队指挥官罗伯特·库西克上校说道。“第8心理战大队引入的新理念将在未来多年继续发挥作用。”

第8心理作战大队，绰号“幻影骑士”，在临时运作两年后，于2013年11月16日正式成立。它是陆军四个心理作战大队之一，其他三个大队分别是现役的第4心理作战大队（空降）和陆军预备役的第2和第7心理作战大队。

“停用”一词表示该团体在进行某种形式的重组和改组期间，将在一段不确定的时间内停止运作——并不一定意味着该团体将被停用或解散。

第8心理战大队下辖第3空降心理战营和第9空降心理战营。第3空降心理战营负责在全球范围内开展印刷、广播和电视信息宣传活动，而第9空降心理战营则主要参与散发传单、在特种部队可能活动的地区开展社区宣传等行动。

信息战中心成立于2020年，也隶属于第8集团军司令部。该中心将情报行动和信息战相结合，专门服务于陆军特种部队。

此次解散距离陆军组建第7心理作战营Delta连仅两个月。第7心理作战营此前隶属于第4心理作战大队（空降），现已划归第3特种部队大队（空降）。该大队主要负责美国非洲司令部管辖下的心理作战行动。

一些军事官员和分析人士认为，美国需要彻底改革其心理战和信息战部队的作战方式——因此才有了三角洲连的成立和第 8 心理战大队的退役。

“最令人担忧的不仅是对手在信息战上的投入，更是他们往往能够比我们更快、更有效地运用信息战，”美国陆军现役心理作战军官瑞安·沃尔特斯少校一月份在《小型战争期刊》上撰文写道。“实际上，对手通过缩短感知、塑造和利用信息之间的时间取胜，而美军则仍然受到审批延迟、执行碎片化和评估不一致的限制。其结果是时间上的错位，行动效果往往在决策做出之后才显现。”