Special Air Service Regiment

Great Britain

Great Britain's SAS is widely considered to be the best in the world 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 SAS rescued 19 hostages held in the Iranian embassy in London in a matter of minutes. Time magazine named Great Britain's SAS the world's toughest anti-terrorist commando unit.

The SAS is organized into four “sabre” squadrons—A, B, D, and G—with 60 soldiers in each. Each sabre squad rotates through counterterrorism duties every six months. In addition, squadrons specialize in intelligence gathering, forward air control, behind-the-lines sabotage, close protection, and training foreign militaries. Soldiers are usually deployed in four-man patrols, and each member has a primary area of expertise: communications, medical, linguistics, forward air control, or demolition.

SAS candidates undergo a grueling screening process. They must pass endurance tests, jungle training, and escape, evasion, and tactical questioning. Only about 10 percent of any training class passes the screening. Women cannot serve in the SAS.

The British SAS grew out of the Long Range Desert Group, which was active in the North African desert during World War II. Stirling transformed the group into the military arm of the British security forces, encompassing high-level land, air, and water operations, with communication, medical, and survivalist skills.

Since World War II, the unit has put down insurgencies in British-held Malaya, taken part in the Falklands War in the 1980s, and engaged the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Ulster, killing more than two dozen IRA members during the 1970s and 1980s. SAS troops took part in the UN coalition deployed to Bosnia in the 1990s and later returned to help in the hunt for war criminals.

Task Force Black, the SAS operation in Iraq, ran from 2003 to 2009. Altogether, the 150 men who served in the task force killed or captured approximately 3,500 insurgents. General Stanley McChrystal, who headed the Joint Special Operations Command in Iraq and later commanded NATO forces in Afghanistan, praised the professionalism of the SAS forces saying they were “essential. Could not have done it without them,” in regard to defeating the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, winning control of Baghdad, and neutralizing suicide bombers.

Many of the SAS forces that served in Iraq moved on to Afghanistan in 2009. There they focused on assassinating as many senior Taliban as possible. McChrystal pointed out several unique SAS skills: “They understand the sweep of history. They know the history of British forces not just in Afghanistan but the history of British successful counter-insurgencies…. There's a particularly strong understanding of things beyond tactics.” The SAS paid a high price for its vaunted service in Afghanistan. The almost daily operations left 70 troops incapacitated or dead, making the campaign the SAS's worst in terms of losses in 60 years.

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