Tag: Special Forces

Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. Qassem Soleimani. War with Iran. The Afghan papers. These are some of the more important topics that have been trending in defense and foreign policy news. Russia and China, conversely, have been conspicuous in their absence. But, arguably, these two countries are the most important long-term threats to U.S. national security. […]

Airmen aspiring to attend and complete the suckfest called Ranger School have to first complete an assessment course that evaluates their potential and prepares them for the real deal. The Air Force Ranger Assessment Course has been around for a few years. It is a three-week course that sharpens basic soldiering tasks, including land navigation, […]

I don’t know why there is such an adversarial relationship between Special Forces and the MP community or when it started. No doubt it was from the earliest days of the O.S.S. when our earliest operators had to return to the flagpole and some guy couldn’t help but try to bust his chops over some […]

There is a certain culture found in the special operations community. These guys are considered to be some of the toughest, strongest, smartest, and most capable individuals in the U.S. military. It is common knowledge that if you need to make a bad guy disappear or to rescue someone from a hostile environment, that one […]

Facing a concerning shortage in special operations personnel, the U.S. military grapples with the reality that, despite the high costs and rigorous standards of training, fewer young Americans are stepping up to join the elite ranks, possibly due to growing societal comfort and diminishing physical and mental aptitude.

Note: This is part five of a multi-part series exploring the various units within the U.K. Special Forces (UKSF). 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, […]

Note: This is part four of a multi-part series exploring the various units within the U.K. Special Forces (UKSF). The Special Forces Support Group (SFSG) is a fairly new special forces unit. Officially formed on 3 April 2006, the SFSG is based on a core segment of the soldiers from the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment […]

Note: This is part three of a multi-part series exploring the various units within the U.K. Special Forces (UKSF). The Special Boat Service (SBS), one of the oldest Special Forces regiments, is the U.K.’s premier naval counter-terrorism unit (CT). The unit is tasked with addressing assaults on U.K.’s maritime interests. Over the years the SBS […]

This is the first part of a multi-part series exploring the various units within the U.K. Special Forces (UKSF). The Special Air Service (SAS) is widely recognized the world over and is often erroneously considered the only special operations unit Britain has. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In this series, we’ll cover the […]

Special Forces soldiers from the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) received dozens of combat medals, among them three Silver Stars, the nation’s third-highest award for valor under fire, for their actions during a single deployment to Afghanistan. In addition to the three Silver Stars, during the six-month deployment, the 2nd Battalion, 7th SFG operators received […]

Well, in an earlier piece, I tried to tell you that open war with Iran is a really, really remote possibility. Now we’ll flip-flop it a bit (that’s the beauty of the internet) and assume that war between the United States and Iran isn’t only possible, but we will attempt to outline how it might […]

U.S. Army Special Operation Soldiers with 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) fire M224 handheld 60mm mortar system at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center (MCAGCC), Twentynine Palms, Calif., Oct. 16, 2019. The Green Berets used the MCAGCC training areas to refine detachment tactics and prepare for combat operations