WASHINGTON – War is going back under wraps — that’s the next-generation plan put forth by the special operations commander who led the Osama bin Laden raid and embraced at the highest levels of the Pentagon and the White House.

Big armies and the land invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan will be replaced by fast and light special operations raids that leave little trace, or better yet, raids by friendly local forces the U.S. has trained, helping fight mutual enemies side by side.

U.S. officials say that’s the plan offered by special operations chief Adm. Bill McRaven, who started working last fall to sell defense leaders on a plan to beef up his Theater Special Operations commands to reposition staff and equipment for the post-Iraq and Afghanistan wars era.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta shared few details in the new Pentagon budget he outlined Thursday, but officials explained the nascent plan to The Associated Press.

As the overall military force shrinks and special operations troops return from their 10-raid-a-night tempo in Iraq and Afghanistan, they’ll be redeployed. They’ll focus on special operations units in areas somewhat neglected during the decade-long focus on al-Qaida because there were simply too few of them to go around, according to a senior defense official and other current and former U.S. officials briefed on the program.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the details are still being worked out.

While the idea is to work and train with foreign armies, the invigorated network would reinforce special operations units in regions such as the Pacific Rim.

That would enable them to launch splashy, unilateral raids like the one McRaven commanded last year that killed bin Laden in Pakistan — and the one Tuesday that rescued an American hostage and her Danish colleague.

The senior defense official, however, emphasized that the new plan would mean special operations troops could increase cooperation with foreign armies, working with them to defeat local threats instead of the U.S. shouldering such fights.

The idea tracks with the White House goal to transform the U.S. military into a smaller, more agile force, able to respond to a variety of threats beyond traditional military enemies.