SBS

UK Special Forces breakdown: The Special Air Service (SAS)

The Special Air Service (SAS) is the British Army’s most distinguished and renowned special forces unit. From the moment operators of the 22 SAS emerged on the balconies of the Iranian embassy in London in 1980, the SAS became famous both at home and overseas. Their motto, “Who Dares Wins,” has become an influential and recognizable quotation the world over.

Over the years, the regiment has conducted every type of warfare: counterterrorism, counter-narcotics, high-profile raids, covert operations, training nations’ militaries, and, at times, serving as straight-up guns for hire. The SAS is widely considered among the finest SF regiments in the world today. Many countries around the world have modeled their own special forces on the SAS or have had the regiment develop theirs for them.

Special Air Service Organization

The 22nd Special Air Service Regiment includes four active ‘saber’ squadrons—A, B, D, and G—each of which is made up of around 60 men. Each squadron contains up to four troops, with each troop specializing in specific areas of expertise.

Two reserve regiments, 21 and 23, are staffed by civilians. One of the more famous writers and a member of the infamous Bravo Two Zero patrol, Chris Ryan, began his army career in the territorial regiment before passing selection for 22 SAS. A small group of regular 22 veterans and civilian volunteers make up L-Detachment, a reserves element assigned to 22 SAS. The mystery operator from the Nairobi mall attack belonged to this unit and is most likely a former 22 operator.

Roles of the Special Air Service

The regiment has a wide range of responsibilities, each requiring specific training. Sabre Squadron is responsible for counterterrorism duties. Maintaining a team on a constant state of alert at all times, squadrons rotate through this role on a six-month basis.

Sneaking into enemy terrain to collect intelligence about military strengths and movements is not as sexy as leaping across embassy balconies, but intelligence gathering is still a vital facet of the regiment’s responsibilities. The regiment utilized this skill set to great success in the desolate highlands of the Falkland Islands and the shrubberies of northern Ireland. Later, the SRR would take on this role, though the SAS are still involved in carrying out their own reconnaissance operations.

Surgical attacks behind enemy lines and sabotage were among the first roles fulfilled by the regiment at the onset of World War II. They’d carry out daring sabotage missions behind German lines, originally in North Africa and later deep in the European theater. The regiment continues to uphold that practice and are professionals at infiltration far into enemy territory.

The regiment also has a mastery of close protection (CP) duties, having established many of today’s standard protocols themselves. In current times, much of U.K. military CP work is undertaken by specialized military police components.

Over the years the SAS has shared their expertise with friendly nations, helping them to develop their special forces. These are known as team jobs within the regiment. The U.K. government finds these efforts to be beneficial from a political and financial perspective, and they also bolster the prestige of the regiment. In recent times, this responsibility has shifted to either the Special Forces Support Group or the 21 and 23 reserve SAS.

Smaller elements within the SAS

Counter Revolutionary Warfare (CRW) Wing: The CRW Wing is a specialized group established during the 1970s to train the SAS for its counterterrorism responsibilities. CRW developed advanced pistol shooting skills, explosive entry methods, and room-clearing drills for the anti-terrorist team. This wing is responsible for teaching whichever squadron is on counterterrorism standby duties.

Operations Research Wing: The Operations Research Wing involves two or more mature SAS guys whose duty it is to evaluate and improve new equipment, weapons, and capabilities. Working with MOD technicians and scientists, the cell came up with the concept of the stun grenade/flashbang.

Revolutionary Warfare Wing (RWW): The RWW or The Wing is an elite organization of individually selected SAS operators tasked with supporting Secret Intelligence Service operations. They’re joined by detachments from other elite forces: the Special Boat Service, Joint Support Group, and Special Reconnaissance Regiment. This shadowy group is often referred to as The Increment.

Special Air Service History

Lieutenant Colonel Sir Archibald David Stirling designed the Special Air Service in 1941 and developed it as a desert raiding force. The regiment inserted behind German lines in North Africa, carrying out sabotage missions and wreaking destruction along Rommel’s supply channels. The SAS has a long, esteemed history, but perhaps the most crucial piece of information about the unit is this: They’ve been involved in almost every major conflict since 1941, and they are hard as f*&^.

Feature image courtesy of the UK Ministry of Defence

Article written by Jamie Read for NEWSREP

The Suarez Covert 12 – The Ultimate Not a Shotgun

I like shotguns…like a lot. You may have noticed I also have an affinity for the so-called “Not a shotgun” firearms. These “Not a Shotguns” are guns like the Remington Tac 14 and Mossberg Shockwave. Gabe Suarez of Suarez International has been a big fan of these “Not a Shotgun” NFA free short barreled guns.

He has his own line of extensively customized “Not a Shotgun” firearms known as the Stakeout. Suarez International also has the Tomahawk, a 20 gauge model, as well as the Amphibian. They also offer packages, where you can send your Shockwave or Tac 14 in and have him apply a variety of upgrades, including NPE finishes, porting, rifle sights, and more.

He even built his own side folding brace which is built to be robust and durable. Most recently he released his newest “Not a Shotgun” the Covert 12.

Enter The Covert 12

As you can see the Covert 12 is an interesting design, that’s quite a bit different than your standard “Not a Firearm.” I’ll let Suarez International take over from here with the details and stats going on right now.

The 870 Covert-12 is 27.5″ long with a 8.5” barrel, and is the smallest and most portable 12 ga you will find. The dimensions make it far easier to keep with you than even a stock tac-14 weapon. And it is just as legal as any other firearm.

This weapon is built on Remington Model 870 Tac-14. This is a NON-NFA, Completely Compliant and Legal ‘Firearm’ (technically not a shotgun). Transfers as “Other” on 4473. All potential buyers and users should check their state and local laws for legality, as well as ensure their recipient FFL has been educated on the non-NFA nature of this product.

Covert-12 Details:

-Remington 870 Barrel 8.5″ – Optionally ported for recoil reduction.
-Bolt and Action Bar components tuned, polished, and finsihed in NP3.
-Trigger group tuned for a crisp break, new springs added.
-Steel Extractor installed for increased reliability.
-Folding metal foregrip
-Suarez Safety installed to improve engagement from Safe to Fire positions.
–Weapon has a 3+1 Capacity
-NP3 Follower Follower.
-Brass front bead – Fiber Optic front sight in Green is optional.
-Cerakote rust resistant finish for lubricity and durability under all conditions.
-Rigid Magazine Tube Sling Mount.
-SB Tactical Fixed Brace is standard – Folding Brace is optional.
-Available as complete weapons or built on your Tac-14.

I like that the industry is pushing this concept forward and and anything that pushes against the NFA is a good idea in my eyes.

Why Rucking Is Becoming More Popular with the Civilian Populace

Special Operations Forces are all the rage these days, from the recent films of “Lone Survivor” and “Zero Dark Thirty” in which Navy SEALs are the protagonists as well as “Black Hawk Down” where the Delta Force operators are, America can’t get enough.

So, if you aren’t going to enlist in the Armed Forces and actually become an operator, now the new rage is working out like one. And nothing builds character more than toting that rucksack around the woods and building up endurance and muscle by toting the pain pill. So everywhere you turn now the benefits of rucking are being touted as a healthy alternative to just plain old running.

Rucking is a way to exercise in a highly efficient manner, as it targets several key areas of fitness at the same time. You can transform your body with rucking in many ways, including:

building up your muscles, particularly your shoulders, core, and back

shedding fat as you burn three times as many calories as you could walking without the backpack and get the same benefits of running and jogging (with less risk of injury)

improving your overall posture as you strengthen your back muscles

relieving and preventing back pain

strengthening your hip and posture stability, making you less injury prone in general

Rucking effectively allows you to combine aerobic training and strength training while slicing your workout to a fraction of the time. The more you go rucking, the more you can notice its impact on the rest of your health. Your posture as you sit at your office desk is better. Your stamina is improved during your other workouts. Your pesky back pain decreases or vanishes entirely. Rucking provides lasting benefits affecting many areas of your health.

While we agree wholeheartedly that rucking is a great exercise (see our video tomorrow), it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. And of course, I can’t wait to bump into another guy on the trail who is “just like Special Ops” because he rucks a few times a week. Heavens help us, we’ve gone mainstream.

To read the entire article from American Grit, click here:

Photo courtesy US Army

Don’t Get Lost! Practical Exercise With Modified Resection

In our previous Land Navigation article, we talked about Resection, which is invaluable at finding your exact location if you’re unsure of where you are but can see and identify points in the distance.

As you’ll remember Resection is the method for finding your exact location on a map by determining the grid azimuth to at two or more well-defined locations that can be pinpointed on the map. For greater accuracy, the desired method of resection would be to use three or more well-defined locations.

We spoke about the three methods but I received an email from a prospective Special Operations candidate named Jim who was confused about what constituted a Modified Resection problem and how one would use this method effectively.

Good question Jim, here is a scenario that can and does frequently happen. You’re moving along on your azimuth through wooded but fairly flat terrain with few terrain features but enough foliage to keep you from seeing very far in the distance.

You cross a large linear terrain feature, a road, a creek bed or in my case for the purpose of our practical exercise today a railroad line. Now if you are close to your point, you could be to the left or the right of where you need to go. If you can see a point in the far distance, you can shoot an azimuth to it and pinpoint your exact location.

Now we’ll revisit the exact sequence for pinpointing your location using the modified resection method we spoke about the other day.

Modified Resection Method:

The modified method is the least preferred method but is useful in certain situations. If you’re not certain of your exact location but are located on a linear terrain feature such as a road, creek or similar body of water, this can pinpoint your position.

Orient the map using a compass and/or by terrain association.
Locate a point in the distance that can be easily identified on the ground and on the map.
Determine the magnetic azimuth from your location to the distant known point.
Convert the magnetic azimuth to a grid azimuth.
Convert the grid azimuth to a back azimuth, using the add or subtract 180 accordingly depending on the degrees.
Using a protractor, draw a line for the back azimuth on the map from the known position back toward your unknown position.

Your location is where the line on the map crosses the linear feature. Determine the grid coordinates to the desired accuracy, for our purposes an eight-digit grid coordinate.

For our video demonstration, practical exercise, we were moving along our azimuth and came across a railroad track. Just barely visible in the far distance is a wind turbine that sits high upon a hilltop. Once we are able to locate the wind turbine on the map, we take an azimuth, using our compass, and determine the grid azimuth.

Then we draw a back azimuth using the “more than 180 degrees subtract 180 or less than 180 degrees add 180” rule and draw a line on our map. Where the line intersects the railroad line is our exact location.

If this were close to our point during a Land Navigation course, this would be a prime attack point as you’d have a very good place to search for the point. However, if you’re still far from your point, it is a great place to check your exact location and ensure that you’re heading on the correct azimuth.

Check out the short video and see how it works out. Thanks for the question Jim and if anyone else has any more questions, feel free to email me [email protected] or at my Twitter account @SteveB7SFG

Courtesy of Special Operations.com and written by STEVE BALESTRIERI

Rucking Through Varied Terrain, Maintaining the Pace Tips

We’ve been revisiting some of the posts we’ve made earlier and are getting out and doing refresher exercises, getting some land navigation and other tasks in. This one will deal with everyone is SF’s favorite pastime …Rucking.

Everyone has their own tips of the trade and the vast majority of them are good. The main thing is that you have to find what works best for you. What I’m doing here is just giving you the benefits of my own experiences and hopefully, they’ll work for you. They did for me.

I recently got an email from Sean T. who asked a good question about rucksack marching and specifically in how the load was packed. He wrote, “I’ve read numerous articles about how the load of your rucksack should be distributed over your hips. I’m having issue [sic] with rubbing on my hips and low back pain. Is it because I’ve packed the weight too low?”

I take it from Sean’s message that he took the “distribute the weight over the hips” bit to mean that he was packing his load down low. No, and it is a common mistake among beginners and people carrying heavy rucks for the first time.

Your weight should be packed up high between the shoulder blades. If your ruck has radio pouch up high, that is where the sandbag or weight plates belongs. I prefer sandbags because it will mold to your pack and back and doesn’t have any sharp edges that can rub you on a ruck.

The guys over at GoRUCK sell some nice molded plates that will do the trick and they take all the guess work out of it. But like I said, I prefer the sand routine but use whatever works for you. In the video below, I have a 45-pound bag in my small ruck that I use for short hikes that we take with us.

We covered boots at length in our earlier article. I have several broken in pairs that I take on hikes depending upon the conditions. For the purposes of this exercise, I wore my heavier duty Merrell Sawtooth boots. We had a bunch of rain that dropped over an inch overnight and it was still misting out there on the day we did the video. Later we got another inch plus. The trail was muddy, very deep in places and the Sawtooth’s deeper tread pattern was probably a bit better for that day.

Water and staying hydrated is very important even on a day where it is a bit raw out and is raining on you. You’ll still sweat and dehydration is a killer. On this particular day, although it was raining a bit, we still drank constantly, keeping the hydration level up.

The trail we used is a closed loop so it was up-down with very little flat terrain involved. When rucking it is best to lean forward and getting the arm swing going from side to side rather than a typical running type swing back and forth.

When it comes to increasing speed, I don’t recommend that you run with a rucksack on your back while in training. They’ll be times in your selection course or the qualification course that you’ll have to make up time or want to pick your pace, especially on the downhill slopes. At those times, you’re going to have to do what you must, but for training purposes don’t do it. Learn to increase your speed without running. Running with a ruck will hurt your knees and back…take it from the guy with two arthritic knees.

I like to lengthen my stride on the downhill slopes, some guys will tell you the exact opposite. Again, find out what works for you and stick to it. But the bottom line is, don’t resort to running to increase your speed. You’re going to have to learn to ruck quickly without running sooner or later, and there’s no time like the present.

The standard is a 15-minute mile pace to pass the courses, you should be aiming to go lower than that. We were keeping a 14:30 pace on our practical exercise video, which means we’ll have to step it up as well. Back in the day, I used to maintain a 13-minute per mile pace which would bring myself in with around 20-25 minutes to spare on a 12-miler.

On one certification 20-miler at Ft. Bragg, our team maintained a 13-minute mile pace for the entire length of the course and that was with two 7-8 minute breaks built in to change socks and catch a breather. Of course, since the movement wasn’t considered tactical and was mapped out along a road, our communications supervisor strapped a boom box atop his rucksack and we rocked to AC-DC and Metallica. Much better than the sound of boots scuffling for 20 miles. We ended up with the best time in the battalion that night…the staff when learning of the music…were not amused. Always look for an edge, right?

If anyone else has any questions, feel free to send them along to [email protected] and I’ll be glad to answer them and we may use it in our next video.

Courtesy of Special Operations.com and written by STEVE BALESTRIERI

Photo courtesy of US Army

SOF Selection PT Preparation 4.13.2017

UBRR training day followed by a ruck march. Are you keeping a log of your times on your runs and rucks? And with the warmer weather upon us, you should be paying much stricter attention to hydration during the rucks.

Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 20 pushups

3 x 20 sit ups

3 x 20 crunches

3 x 20 dips or until muscle failure

3 x 20 side planks

4-mile rucksack march (45-pound minimum) over varied terrain, note your time

Stretch well after completion

Courtesy of Special Operations.com and written by STEVE BALESTRIERI