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The Elite Guys MD. SADAT HUSSAIN RAFSANJANI Hardly we believe or not in black operations conducted by foreign governments but the fact of matter is without Special Forces the national security of a country is considered almost vulnerable nowadays. Maybe the commando units of the army are the best and the boldest but Special Forces operates only when special situation occurred like hostage situation, anti-terrorism, breach and raid and especially clandestine missions. History The term was first coined during the World War I period when hit and run, sabotage and other common battle field tactics became a necessity. The root can be traced in Chinese doctrines, Jiang Ziya, a strategist mentioned in his book Six Secret Teachings about a special group of unit who are specialized in battlefield tactics. Hamilcar Barca from Sicily in 249 BC used to train special offensive units. In Japan, Ninjas are considered the night assassins were the ancient special units. In 1901 during the Boer War, the British military founded the multinational force called Bushveldt Carbineers, it was formed in South Africa, was considered the first modern Special Force in the world history of military. Day by day, multi nations started to adopt the newfound military unit. Russia- The Eastern Hulk Believe it or not, Special Forces are the toughest guys in the world as they are really trained hard. But the training may vary according to the state to state, that is some of them are called the most trained and some of them are called most experienced but in brief they are designated the one word, “Best”. For instance, all modern Russian special force is called Spetsnaz, an umbrella term broadly used for all active duty special trained operatives currently serving. Spetsnaz means special purpose; this represents a number of groups: Red Berets, Alpha group, MVD, Vympel etc. The training facilities provided by Red Berets are extremely tough. Actually, the most fitted persons, sorted through a competition holds twice a year supervised by ex-Vityaz instructors (another special force of the MVD), are awarded with this cap. The competition consists of various physical and firearms tests, 12 km cross country running in full battle uniform, 12 minutes hand to hand fighting with three opponents, mock up raiding into building, hostage situation tackle etc. Only 10% survives till the last day of course due to the harsh and extreme condition of the competition. The ALPHA established in 1971 group is mainly operates to storm building or Plane during hostage rescue attempt, counter-terrorism activities and sabotage while the Vympel was founded in 1981 for covert operation just like the CIA’s Special Activities Division. Vympel was the established with the joining of Cascade and Zenith unit of KGB. Today more than 700 men are serving in Russian as ALPHA operatives, mostly in Moscow but the number of Vympel members is unknown. Both of them receive same trainings are very furtive due to the nature of the job. Every operative receives a basic physical training especially in martial art and physical conditioning. Eventually they become able to break concrete grids with bear hands, heads and other body parts. In special purpose groups, personnel are only authorized to train themselves harder rather than joining bodybuilding or gym training. Knife fighting skills are taught heavily in the unit. They are often taught to use everyday object like jacket, belts, umbrella and pen as the weapon of choice in real life situation. Extreme training like ability to resistant in the shockwave during explosion, rope climbing, catch a moving vehicle from the front while in motion, dragged by a speedy vehicle while hands are roped and attached to the back of the car, hand to hand combat in water are also taught. Two third of the unit takes mountaineering training and it’s a matter of great respect that while they get trained in the mountain they still sweats a lot. One of them said once “Every boy wants to be a ninja without getting sweat”. The amount of pain cadets are given during training can be strenuous and fatal. Most notable training they receive is the interrogation training, a resistant training to develop pain ignoring skill. In this training a cadet is bided in to a chair and tortured by the superior officers. This training is especially given to the FSB (modern day KGB) operatives. A fair list of weapons used by the Spetsnaz can be found here www.membser.shaw.ca and www.militaryfactory.com USA- The Western Brat The westerns like UK or USA have a number of Special Forces. The elite team of USA is Navy Seal refers Sea, Air and Land Teams under the Naval Special Warfare Command and Special Operation Command. They are also considered best of the best due to the long spanned harsh training methodology they receive. The emergence of Navy Seals can be traced back to the Vietnam War when John F Kennedy felt the necessity of a special warfare and tactical team in 1961. The underwater demolition team was considered as the primary influence of founding a joint force. Later the team which first invaded the Cuba was called Seal Team. After that a lot of operations were undertaken by this new found group. “Only easy day was yesterday” and “It pays to be a winner” are the main motto of this green faces. The teams are dividing in east coast and west coast basis. Today there exists ten Seal Teams, designates as Seal team 1 to 10, vehicle delivery teams one and two. Only Seal Team 6 is called DEVGRU because it was officially dissolved in 1987, among the others it is the secret military unit. A Seal Team member is called formally Frogmen. The selection process for Navy Seal is extremely strenuous as 90% drops out from the first course called Basic Underwater Demolition (BUD) that lasts for 24 weeks. But before that one have to pass the screen test by running 2.4km, minimum 50 push-ups in 2 minutes, 50 sits ups in 2 minutes, 6 pull ups for no time limit. After getting passed one can take the BUD course where he is trained in sea shore. Excessive physical training is given here, sometimes called Hells Week. Training includes running in the sand, telephone pole carry, floating in the water called endure surf torture, drown proofing that is the trainees have their arms and foot binned while survive to breadth in the water, battle in the pool. After that there comes the Seal Qualification Training (SQT). Most of the advance training likes Parachute Jumping, Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE), Tactical Combat, Medicine, Close Quarter Battle and Hand to Hand Combat are notable ones. The parachute jumping they are taught are of two types HAHO (High altitude high opening) and Halo (High altitude low opening). HAHO employs to open parachute when at the 27,000 feet above the ground at least and HALO requires 15,000 feet. HALO enables stealthy insertion by defeating the RADAR. To avoid health risk, a jumper has to flush Nitrogen from his bloodstreams and takes 100% Oxygen. A little presence of Nitrogen in blood can create Decompression Sickness that can paralyze a jumper. A jumper is called Leap Frog. Passing the course one get ahead to take part in Seal Troops Training where real life combat skills like door breaching, sniping, advance diving skill, air operation training, rope skills are taught. This can take 12 to 18 months. At last after passing TRP, they face two 6 months course called unit integration and squadron integration program. It takes approximately 30 months for a seal to join his active duty and finish his course. 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