Special Air Service Regiment

Great Britain

Great Britain's SASR is widely considered to be the world's best in ending hijack and hostage situations with minimum loss of innocent lives. Its prowess was made known to the world in May 1980, when the SASR rescued 19 hostages held in the Iranian embassy in London within minutes. Time magazine named Great Britain's SASR the world's toughest antiterrorist commando unit.

The British SASR grew out of the Long Range Desert Group, which was active in the North African desert during World War II. Lieutenant David Stirling transformed the group into the military arm of the British security forces, encompassing high-level land, air, and water operations, including communication, medical, and survivalist skills. Most other elite commando units, including the U.S. Navy SEALs, are modeled after the British SASR.

Since World War II, the unit has put down insurgencies in Malaya and Oman, has taken part in the Falklands War in the 1980s, and has engaged the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Ulster, killing more than two dozen IRA members during the 1970s and 1980s. More recently, the SASR has been deployed to Bosnia and Afghanistan.

Australia

The Australian SASR was formed in July 1957. Its first mission, in February 1965, was to quell insurgencies in Borneo. The Australian SASR also spent more than six years in Vietnam, where members earned the name “ma rung”—phantoms of the jungle—for their stealthy maneuvers.

After Vietnam, the SASR, which forms a significant part of Australia's armed forces, took on dual roles: “green” for standard Army responsibilities; “black” for counterterrorist actions. Each unit spends one rotation in “black,” during which they are permanently on-call.

Each of the three SASR squadrons is comprised of three troops: a boat troop with expertise in submarine operations, an airborne troop with specialized parachuting capabilities, and ground specialists for jungle warfare and long-range desert reconnaissance. Australian SASR personnel are nicknamed “chicken stranglers” for their ability to live off the land in enemy territories.

SASR units often cross train with other elite counterterrorism outfits, including the British SASR, U.S. Navy SEALs, and Germany's Grenzschutzgruppe 9 (GSG-9). They have worked alongside U.S. forces during Operation Desert Storm and Operation Enduring Freedom, and have two permanent assignments at U.S. Army bases in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Virginia. Since its inception, the unit has maintained a close relationship to the British SASR, on which it is modeled. The two SASR forces have engaged in various joint operations, including in Northern Ireland and Bosnia.