Does the british sas really compare with the US and Aussie special forces? ?

Question

Ive read that the US and Aussie special forces are insanely good.

Answer 1

No they don't compare. Why? Because they're different tier levels.

The Special Forces community in the US Military is a lot bigger than you think. The lowest tier over a conventional unit such as the 82nd Airborne Division or 1st Marine Division would be the 75th Ranger Regiment, Marine Force Recon, etc.

Next would be actual Army Special Force, which are all the 18 series MOS's.

After that, you would have CAG, which is 1st SFOD-D or more commonly known as Delta Force. Delta Force is America's elite counter-terrorist force and they are modeled after the SAS from their mission set to their unit organization. CAG is one of the elite counter-terrorism units (along with everything else they do) in the world, and are right on par with the SAS. Is either one of them better? Nobody could tell you that because nobody here is either one of them, and if they were, they wouldn't know much about the other unit. I've had the chance to work with each of them on a few missions in Iraq, and they are top notch.

But comparing SAS to Special Forces is along the lines of comparing apples to oranges. But comparing them to other top tier units such as CAG ... they're all really freakin' good and you can't get much of a better answer than that.

Answer 2

SevN has it about right.

The SAS came into existence in WWII and was the model and the trainer for the Aussie SAS which still uses the Brit SAS input to this day.

Beckwith was seconded from the green berets to the SAS in 1962 for a year and on his return pestered the pentagon for years to set up Delta force. But it was not until 19 November 1979 that authority was given to set it up.  Delta was then trained and set up based on the SAS model with some additional input from GSG9.

The SEALS came into existence during WWII and  both the SEALS and the British SBS developed along similar lines.  Both work and train together but the SEALS took a lot from the SAS and SBS and the SBS did indeed set up the sniper school.

SEAL team 6 - THE JEDI - Counter terrorist unit is now attached to DELTA Force.

America however were never really happy with the concept of special forces until the gulf war.  Schwarzkopf did not want special forces at all until in the first days of the war the SBS went deep into Iraq, blew up the underground communications network and on their return placed a yard of the fiber optic cable on his desk.  From that moment on Special forces got their chance!

All the allied special forces train together, exchange information, technology and techniques and are on a par with each other.

Answer 3

the british SAS is more of an anti terrorist organization in fact they were formed in response to the 1972 munich olympic games whereas the us SPEC OPS is more of an elite behind the enemy lines force where the perform hostage rescues ordnance missions fire missions etc. i don't know to much about the aussies but i would bet they are pretty good in desert mountainous regions.

Answer 4

Jesse R, The primary mission of Delta Force, which is part of the US military is Counter Terrorism.  One of the main missions of the Navy SEALs is Counter Terrorism.  Do some research.  SEALs can trace back to Underwater Demolition as far back as 1943.  Delta traces back to about 1977, and trained in conjunction with British SAS.  

I can't speak for the Aussies, but it is widely known that SAS is considered some of the finest troops in the world.

Answer 5

they dont just compare, they outclass any fighting force on the planet, the australian SAS would probably be second. american SF are often glamourised by hollywood but the SAS are still a step above the rest. apparently there is a 10 day torture test just to get in. ppl are generally pretty unaware of their operations in sierra leone, afghanistan and iraq. put it this way, when 3 US citizens were taken hostage in iraq, the SAS were asked to lead the rescue mission, not US special forces.

Answer 6

Who were they based on and trained by?!!

Charlie Beckwith based Delta force entirely  on the SAS after having served with them on exchange.  Lots of input was used from the SAS and SBS!

The Seals developed at the same time as the SBS but again have used the SBS and SAS input and in fact the SEAL sniper school was set up by the SBS!!

The Australian SAS is of course entirely Based on the SAS concept and received a huge input from the SAS.

But in today's modern world it would be very hard to differentiate between any of them as they all train in the same way, work together and exchange technology and techniques!!

Answer 7

you bet ur a** they are and for the guyabove me the us sf also operate in counter terrorists ops as well its called delta force and they specialize in hostage rescue