British Rangers?

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mike_golf RE:British Rangers? - Yimmy 12/22/2004 3:04:23 PM

The US military defines 75th Ranger Regiment as "Special Operations capable". They are assigned to SOCOM rather than FORSCOM. The Rangers are commandos, not high quality light infantry. Different training, different missions, different capabilities. They are not a Delta/SAS or SEAL/SBS type unit, although they can, and do, perform some of those types of missions at times.

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Yimmy RE:British Rangers? - Yimmy 12/22/2004 7:48:00 PM

"The US military defines 75th Ranger Regiment as "Special Operations capable"" **** If the UK labeled soldiers as "special forces", going by the quality America does, 90% of our military would be special forces.

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joe6pack RE:British Rangers? - Yimmy 12/22/2004 8:25:30 PM

"If the UK labeled soldiers as "special forces", going by the quality America does, 90% of our military would be special forces." Well, there is a difference between what the military lables special forces and what the media does. There is also a difference between being Ranger qualified and being in a Ranger battalion. There are a fair number of US infantry out their with Ranger tabs that never served in the 75th. Although, now that you mention it, I think SOCOM has become rather large.. It may well comparible in size to the UK military ;-) (just kidding)

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mike_golf RE:British Rangers? - Yimmy 12/22/2004 9:26:22 PM

The Rangers are more than just a high quality light infantry regiment. They are not "special forces" in the sense that Army Special Forces, Delta and the SEAL's are. But they are a special operations unit that can perform missions that no normal light infantry or parachute regiment can. I agree that SOCOM has reached a silly size and that there are units out there being called "special forces" that aren't. Air Force Air Commandos and Marine Force Recon come to mind. Having a Ranger tab (meaning you have been to Ranger school) does not mean you are part of a Ranger battalion or that you are part of a special operations unit. There's a lot of things I will agree with you Brits on about our military and yours, but the Ranger Regiment is one of the few areas I think you are way off base. Have you ever worked with or trained with a Ranger company? Probably not, if I recall you aren't in the military currently.

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John Barry RE:British Rangers? - Yimmy 12/23/2004 4:31:21 AM

?The Rangers are more than just a high quality light infantry regiment. They are not "special forces" in the sense that Army Special Forces, Delta and the SEAL's are. But they are a special operations unit that can perform missions that no normal light infantry or parachute regiment can.? To me it does seems a question of Quality of the unit not special capability. What missions can a Ranger battalion do that a parachute battalion can?t? What missions have the Ranger battalions undertaken since 1974 that a parachute battalion couldn?t also have done? A parachute battalion could have seized the airports in Grenada and Panama? A parachute battalion could have seize and held the airstrip in the 1980 Iranian hostage rescue. A parachute battalion could have fast roped in to support Delta in Somalia? Five capabilities listed for the 75th Ranger Regiment (from www.globalsecurity.org) · Infiltrating and exfiltrating by land, sea and air; · Conducting direct action operations; · Conducting raids; · Recovery of personnel and special equipment; · Conducting conventional or special light-infantry operations Of the five capabilities listed for the Ranger Regiment it seems like only the fourth, recovery of personnel and special equipment, is beyond a parachute battalion. Even the Recovery mission, are the Rangers going to do it or is Delta going to be in the lead with the Rangers supporting them? Granted the Rangers can carry out the missions better then the 82nd can, but that?s a question of quality, not capability. Of course that could lead to the question ?how good would the 82nd be if 1800 of the best troops and leaders weren?t skimmed off the top and concentrated in the three Ranger battalions??

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Ad RE:British Rangers? 12/23/2004 8:30:19 AM

They don?t like it. As we?re not impressed with the current Brigade Badge either for 16th AA; the Bellerphon was traditional and represented something of historical significance; this screaming Budgie is a lame duck indeed.

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S.C.P RE:British Rangers? - Yimmy 12/23/2004 8:48:02 AM

Good Point Joe, British soldiers are definatley more highly trained than our friends in the US. They have to be, we are a much smaller country. Likewise the US have such numbers that they don't need to be aswell trained. On most SAS missions the classic 4 - 8 man patrol is used, where as the Americans use like 16 - 20 - not very discreet, but hey more fire power :). As far as traing standards go I think the British Royal Marine Commandos(green berets) are at the same level as the US green Berets, also the the British Paras have always been able to take on the role of both airbourne and ranger type duties. Smaller population being one reason for this. I don't mean to be to be nasty but I think the US marines would be lucky to be put on the same level as many regular British Army regiments. But it has to be said that although UK infantry forces, elite and regular maybe more highly trained than their US counter parts. The US troops always have better weapons and are disperced more. The British have only recently adopted the Minimi. And mounted weapons the americans have plenty of Browning 50 calibres and GPMG's(i belive the M60 is being phased out). Only recently in Iraq has the UK military been more generous in handing out more GPMG's,Brownings,grenade launchers,Minimi's etc..

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jastayme3 RE:British Rangers? 12/23/2004 10:24:16 PM

Rangers are American. Name it something with a British twang. French would say "Chausers" and Germans "Jagaers". How about "Reivers"?

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jastayme3 RE:British Rangers? 12/23/2004 10:25:54 PM

Rangers are American. Name it something with a British twang. French would say "Chausers" and Germans "Jagaers". How about "Reivers"? -------------------------------- From the old border-raiders that is.

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