SCARS was initially developed during a tour of real combat in Vietnam between 1968 and 1969. Jerry L. Petersen, then a soldier in the elite Army Reaction Force, found that the close combat training he had received in boot camp was nearly useless during real field encounters. The margin for error was too thin for a system that relied on trial and error. He then decided to formulate a better way to train for, and successfully execute close combat.

The immediate and core goal of this new system was to instill a purely fear-free psychology within the student called the Offensive Mind-Set. Petersen would study this phenomenon for 20 years, as he aimed to create a process to totally eliminate fear. It was not a control exercise; it was a process of elimination to a natural human instinct. This process also made SCARS the first system of martial arts based purely on scientific principles.

A person possessed of the Offensive Mind-Set will act rather than react. The goal of training in the Offensive Mind-Set is the total elimination of fear through physical development and a system of Neural Offensive Linguistics. The idea behind this practice is an increase in performance and positive thinking. Fear is the basis of hesitation and defensive, reactive thinking. SCARS trains you mentally and physically to overcome hesitation and reactive thinking.

In 1994, Petersen presented his fully formed SCARS combat science to the United States Navy Special Warfare Command (SEALS), and it was soon after officially approved and implemented as the standard for close combat by the Navy Department of Education (CNET).