In this exclusive edition of In the Shadows, Scripps News correspondent Jason Bellini travels halfway around the world for unprecedented access to America’s most secretive warriors — the U.S. Special Forces — as they prepare for a conflict no one wants, but everyone is training for: a potential showdown in the Pacific.

We embed with U.S. Special Forces in Australia during Talisman Sabre, the massive 19-nation war game testing how quickly allies could respond if China moved on Taiwan or its neighbors. Then, aboard the AC-130J “Ghostrider,” the flying gunship that protects elite teams below, we witness a rare night mission — precision, power, and restraint fused at 10,000 feet.

Back in the United States, Bellini is granted exclusive access to the Army’s new unmanned warfare course, where Rangers and Green Berets are learning to fight with drones — lessons drawn directly from Ukraine’s tech-driven battlefield.

U.S. Special Operations Command, a 70,000-person force built for the shadows, is shifting from counter-terrorism to great-power competition. In a region where China’s military expansion and drone dominance are reshaping the balance of power, America’s quietest warriors are racing to adapt — from the skies above Sydney to the forests of North Carolina.

From midnight boat raids to thermal imagery and the thrum of the Ghostrider’s guns, this episode captures a military in metamorphosis — evolving to out-think and out-fight in a world where wars begin with signals, sensors, and seconds.