Special Operations Forces consist of specially educated and equipped special operators. They conduct special operations which aims to accomplish strategic objectives where the use of conventional forces would create unacceptable risks for failure. Despite the strategic value of special forces, there are few theories that can guide them to success. McRaven’s theory of relative superiority is one of them. The theory consists of 6 principles and McRaven claims that an adequate integration of all 6 is required for mission success. Operation Neptune Spear was successful without fulfilling all the principles, this implies that some substitution is possible among them. This study investigates the interaction amongst the principles with the intention to demonstrate how the success was possible.
The outcome of the study shows that the special operators already were technologically and numerically superior, so they were never required to achieve relative superiority to be successful. Nevertheless, the results indicates that McRaven’s principles interact both in a positive and negative way. The study concludes that integrating McRaven’s principles in a special operation is suitable regardless of the requirement.