WoW, 8 months is pretty impressive but there is offcourse a difference between jungle warfare and desert warfare and i dont believe that you can survive in the desert for a long time becausse off... The lack of natural resources that are necessary to survive on your own.

Did you guys know that Colonel Charles Beckwith (he formed the us army's 1st Special Operational Detachment = delta force) was a US Special Forces veteran who served with the SAS in the early 1960s.
Under Beckwith's command the Delta Force structure, selection and philosophy closely mirrored that of the sas.
However, it is thought that since he relinquished command these have been futher refined to take into account Delta's more specialist role. (The role of a counter-terrorist force)
The sas is more an elite fighting force that fights in actual wars, but a small part of this force is also specialised in the counter-terrorist role.

Wich Foreign Units have been trained or established by the sas: Spain's Grupo Especial de Operaciones (GEO), NOCS (Italian swat), DELTA FORCE, Singapore's Police Tactical Unit, Philippines Aviation Security Commando, Pakistan's Special Services Group, Sri Lanka's Army Commando Squadron, Malaysia's Special Strike Unit, Bahrain's U-Group, Jordan's Special Forces Battalion, Oman's Sultan's Special Force and Morocco's GIGN.
Germany's GSG 9 also is what it is today thanks to the SAS.

SAS MOTTO: 'Who Dares Wins' invented by the founder of the SAS, David Stirling, in 1941.

The only way to really settle this is to gather the best teams in the world together and have a fight to the death. Last man standing wins the title for his unit.

Spetsnaz (Spetsialnoye nasranie) is a general term for "Special Forces, SpecOps" in Russian.

Currently, there are three types of spetsnaz units known: Spetsnaz FSB (counter-terrorist and anti- deversant), Spetsnaz MVD and Spetsnaz GRU (army spetsnaz).

Spetsnaz FSB has two groups of special forces, "Alfa" team (A) and "Vega" team (B) (formerly used to be known as "Vympel"). The Alfa team specializes in counter-terrorism, and it is one of the most respected CT units in the world. The Vega team is a relatively new squad, made of members of the original "Vega" squad (that used to belong to MVD, before the USSR demise), and veterans of "Vympel", one of the most feared saboteur group in the cold war. The new Vega squad is now responsible for anti-diversant operations, mainly concerned with the security of atomic energy plants.

Spetsnaz MVD has some Spetsnaz of the Interior Troops units, like "Vityaz", "Rus", "Rosich", "Skif", "Grom", etc. Basically you can think of them as Russian Rangers. They are highly trained, well equiped troops of army spetsnaz soldiers. For example, the unit "Rus" had participated in many combats in Chechnya, and its few casualties were justified with hundreds of Chechen rebels killed (approximately, 1 to 200). Their missions can vary from just reconnaissance missions, to an assault, or even they (especially "Vityaz") sometimes serve as the back up team during the counter-terrorist operations of Alfa.

Spetsnaz GRU are considered the most secret units and most skilled soldiers of the Russian Army. They are shadow warriors of GRU (National Reconissance Agency). Not only they are one of the best infantry in the world (in the mid 1990s, there was a competition in Alaska, USA, of Spetsnaz GRU and US Rangers. Rangers managed to be first only in one competition - lifting weights. Spetsnaz GRU was better in any other aspect, including running, target shooting, stealth, etc), they also have one of the best combat divers in the world. The units of spetsnaz GRU have no official names, such as of Spetsnaz MVD. So, they have only numbers, for example, "18th Brigade of Spetsnaz". Little to nothing is actually known about the operations of Spetsnaz GRU, but it is known that the units were heavily participating in wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya.

Rumors say that the most secret agency, SVR (Sluzhba Vneshnej Razvedki, Russian analogue of American CIA) has also its own Spetsnaz unit, called "Zaslon". but nothing is known about them so far, and of course the Russian government will not acknowledge the existence of this group officialy.

The Spetsnaz are a worthy adversary in combat!
I have a tape wich shows fragments of the spetsnaz training and i most say: IMPRESSIVE.
Those guys can fight! You can see a spetsnaz jumping thru a window and while in mid air he knocks out a guard.
Its the same stuff you see in Jackie Chan movies but these guys do it for real.
Spetsnaz where also highly trained in infiltrating nato military installations and offcourse destroying them.
It is said that was the spetsnaz involved from the beginning in the Afghanistan war the soviets probably would have won.
But what is the current state of the Spetsnaz's?
I heared that they were involved in the rescue of those hostages at that opera building in Moskou.

Unfortunately for the Spteznaz their hostage rescue reputation is in the toilet. They haven't had one hostage rescue operation where their hasn't been some loss of civilian life and most times it is a large loss. Just look at the Chechan hostage outcomes during the first and second chechan wars.

Originally posted by mad scientist
Well we've been hearing many things about the US Special Forces, but are they really the best and which unit is the best ? Or does another country possess the best ?

US Navy SEALs? SAS? Pussies compared to the Norwegian FSK. At least: When these guys compete peacefully with the other special forces of this world, they tend to win... And they look scarier too Also: the New Telemark Bataljon, a new semi professional branch of the Norwegian Defence Forces are quite tough too. The first generation is now trained and operative for international peacekeeping operations and other official operations the Norwegian gov needs them for.

Another thing: Some years back, someone I know who was doing his duty in the Norwegian HM the King's Garde was standing honour guard in Paris during some sort of parade, alongside with the French La Légion Étrangère, and the weather was soooo nice and it was extremely hot: Dispite the fact that the Norwegian Garde's uniforms are made of about 5mm thick black wool, none of them fell due to the heat, but the French mercinaries fell like flies, only dressed in kaki cotton... Hehe. Quite amusing... And: If you ever get the chance to see the Norwegian HMKG's Drill Troop some day, do that, they're amazing: Noone above, noone beside.

And who would believe me being a passifist after this post... Under normal circumstances I am a passifist and never went to the army, but I strongly believe some conflicts here in this world can only be solved through the use of force.

Some US Army general (or whatever rank) once said:
"Officers don't die, they just fade away"
Cool quote I think... Does anyone know who said it?

Blessings,
Mikromarius

general Macarthur i think. I dont know exactly how his name is written but i saw a biography movie about him once and at the and he says that quote when he speaks to students at West Point.
At least i think he did or was it in another part of the movie.

The absolute best special forces of all worlds is the Legions of Arch Michael and Arch Gabriel. These two princes have been fighting back to back since before our solar system was born. These guys are awesome and would kick even FSK's butt. They both have wings, and it is said that while Arch Gabriel needs two flights to reach the Earth, Arch Michael only needs one The story doesn't say why... But you're more likely to meet Arch Gabriel here on Earth, for Michael is normally occupied with praying for the souls of the elect by the altair in Heaven.

"Michael the highest, Gabriel the mightiest"

Blessings,
Mikromarius

Its got to be the SBS they do every thing that the sas do only better and in water or as a royal marine put it a thinking sas

My vote for best unit best equiped to handle arctic conditions goes to the Royal Dutch Marines. Capable of sea- and airborne assault, they are hardened for this climate every year in Norway. Yet, they remain versatile by also training on the Dutch Antilles. Operational readiness is continuously tested there as they are also involved in the war against drugs. Having a long standing tradition as the small country's thoughest men, they are ready to handle any situation anywhere.

the human species. We have the best special forces, come on why else don't you think the aliens havn't tried anything yet?!

well I`m not sure I`d like a bet on something like this. Whose best? I reckon from the spetsnatz to the Aussie SAS theres not much to tell its probably down to the man in the moment.

pah, load of rubbish the best force in the world is quite obviously the British SBS. Talk about doing a job quietly! Like the Spetnatz but without the book deals

Delta force? Eddie Murphy would do a better job...

I already said something about this, but here goes.

The best are by far the USAF ParaRescue, these guys often train with those they may potentially save. So if multiple cross training helps define best. Then these guys are the best of the best of the best! Almost said Sir but that would sound like MIB. I liked that movie, too bad the bug died.

[Edited on 5-6-2003 by ADVISOR]

The difference between recon battalions and force recon is the mission. As stated earlier, Force Recon is theatre level, Army, higher level very deep recons. The recon battalions are closer to the battle area and assigned to divisions, amphip groups.

Force Recon conducts some of the deepest and most treacherous reconaissance behind enemy lines. Hence the name "Recon", the entire unit is specifically trained for reconaissance while laying objectiveness to anti-terrorism. As well as anti-terrorism, (not to be misinterpreted as counter-terrorism) Force Recon conducts small unit raids like that of the notorious US Navy SEALs, hostage rescue, demolitions of targets, evacuation of American citizens from hostile environments, not to mention a variety of other things. I was once told Force Recon training was a more grueling event than BUD/s, whether you lay merit to this claim is your decision.

From my experience, Italian GIS is the most successful unit to date. Not having failed a mission. However the determining success of a mission is very subjective. I believe the underlying cruciality in the determining of a successful mission is based upon Primary Object (PO) completeness.

[Edited on 10-3-2004 by SicilianMandolin]

British SAS
Definitely the best, anyone else is just 2nd rate compared to these guys.

And yes, its personal with me

It is the ZULU NATION.

canada's JTF2 need i say more?

Originally posted by pokerbob

Don't rank them, thank them!!

Well said. We owe all the armed forces a debt of gratitude regardless of where you live. The SF-types go in and smoothe the way for the non-SF folks (like I was).

Honor and respect to them always.

Wish i had of seen this post wen it started.

I am gonna say British SBS aswell the SAS are total crap compared to those guys.