It has occured to me, why haven't the SAS or SBS been able to free the prisoners? Surely, we could of easily fielded 20-30 SAS in order to save them?

Wow, what arrogance. Dude, come on.

 

First,  the prisoners are deep into Iran and being guarded by 100 or so revolutionary guard members, with even more Iranian soldiers/guards in static position guarding the base. I don't know this stuff for a fact, but it's probable to 99%.

 

Second, it would take weeks (even months) to develope a viable plan to succeed. Potential problems - 1) how are we going to get them into Iran and to the target without being noticed or spotted? 2) How are they going to get through the defenses and to the hostages without the Iranians killing the hostages as well? 3) How are they going to assault the compound (ie: what kind of breaching changers will be needed, etc)? How are they going to extract the hostages?

 

Third, 20-30 SAS guys? Jesus, you have to be kidding me. It would take a combined effort of all of the SAS command structure and alot of SAS guys involved, with about 50 actually going on the op.

 

This mission would be extremely difficult to pull off succesfully. Mission planning would take probably 3-4 weeks, then they would rehearse for about 1 week or so, then the SAS guys would have to be positioned (take 1-3 days), then the mission would start...and I'm probably being conservative. About 6 weeks all in all. And their are so many legit holdups that the British government would have to answer...I mean, do they have any actionable intel on the target? Politically, what would the cost be? Should negotiations be given more time? What is the chance of success...is it high enough to risk it? Are we ready for war if the Iranians do something crazy in response?

I'd LOL, but your serious..........

Maybe with beards , train tickets and Koran in hand ?..



Cheers .

50 guys GOP?, how about every able guy in the SAS, plus the SBS and the SFSG.......and they probably still would not have enough men, the sailors/RM's are being held in a very secure IRG base, they have thousands not hundreds of men there, plus air defences, the base if they are smart doesn't have an airfield close to it, the Isrealis proved holding people at airfilds is dumb, it's probably close to a major city, don't want to hold them out in the boonies, it would take too much time to get support there if anything went down

I was thinking 50 SAS guys, of course the SFSG would have to go (that is a given)...just like the Rangers had to go when CAG went into Desert One. The SAS would kick in doors, the SFSG would provide security, and most likely...they'd all die. I'm just entertaining this idea, honestly I think it's about as suicidal as a mission can get. Mogadishu doesn't have ANYTHING on this mission. You put Light infantry (or SOF) up against armor...surrounded by thousands of pissed of enemies... in the middle of a hostile country, and it could and probably would be a massacre.

 

The whole idea of "sparing" 20-30 SAS operators pisses me off, because it is so arrogant and suicidal. Let's spare 30 SAS and send them up into the middle of (probably) Tehran, so they can kick the ass of (probably) 2,000 guards and 10,000 soldiers within a 15 mile radius (with tanks, helicopters, vehicles, anti-air guns, BMP's, etc). Remember that great movie! The SAS went up against an army and killed all of them!!! and remember? Those who dare, win!!! Unfortunately, I think WAY too many officers and higher ups have this unrealistic expectations, and way too many times it gets the SOF dudes killed.

 

 

downtown tehran is not downtown entebbe...

 

 

Indeed...traffic is much worse, the smog is a bitch, plus parking is a nightmare........

If they drive anything like the Taiwanese, Indonesians and Malays, then its hell on earth...... :)