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Unfinished business - Australia SASR

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  • Unfinished business - Australia SASR

    Unfinished business

    Five years after the military operation began to oust the Taliban from Afghanistan, the war continues against a resurgent enemy but without Australia's SAS forces. Patrick Walters investigates the future of the secretive regiment October 06, 2006

    New era: Australian special-forces soldiers in Afghanistan before their withdrawal last week


    WHEN the last of Australia's famed Special Air Service task group pulled out of Afghanistan's Oruzgan province a week ago they left some of their coalition partners feeling bereft. Their local knowledge or "situational awareness" - gleaned from a year of constant activity in the province - was unmatched even by US special forces which had been in and out of Oruzgan before the SAS arrived. "The SAS know the environment there better than anyone else. Even the US special forces never feel safe unless the SAS are in the area," observed one US Government defence source this week in tribute to the Perth-based regiment.

    Since September 2005 a squadron of about 100 SAS troops had formed the backbone of an Australian special forces task group deep inside Oruzgan, arguably one of the most dangerous provinces in Afghanistan and long a haven for Taliban fighters. Tomorrow marks the fifth anniversary of the US-led war in Afghanistan.

    Right from the start of its second deployment to Afghanistan (the first was in 2001-02) the SAS went on the offensive using its specialist long-range surveillance and Pashtun language skills to establish the whereabouts of Taliban fighters in the vicinity of their base at Tarin Kowt.

    With some patrols lasting more than 25 days the SAS probed the stark mountains and deeply etched valleys that make Oruzgan an ideal base for guerilla warfare.

    Of the 395 days they spent in Afghanistan, the SAS troops operated remotely from Tarin Kowt for 306 days conducting more than 100 patrols and missions with US coalition forces.

    Special forces commander Major General Mike Hindmarsh said last week the SAS and 4RAR commandos had been involved in 139 combat incidents, from minor skirmishes to pitched battles against a resurgent Taliban.

    The SAS ended its year-long assignment last week with a handful of wounded, several gallantry medals, but not one fatality.

    Following the recent withdrawal the worry is that Australia's newly deployed reconstruction task force will not have the "eyes and ears" at a time when their enemy is steadily gaining strength.

    The threat to NATO's 30,000-strong force is growing inexorably in Afghanistan. In the past six months well-equipped Taliban fighters have surprised coalition commanders with their audacity. Large-scale ambushes of US forces by as many as 400 Taliban fighters have taken place.

    Defence chiefs say the SAS soldiers "need a rest" after their arduous 12-month sojourn in Afghanistan. But some senior army sources argue an SAS presence must be retained in Oruzgan, not just to help Australia's 400-strong reconstruction force at Tarin Kowt but to give coalition forces greater confidence in their stabilisation mission.

    As the SAS approaches its 50th anniversary, the reputation of the secretive regiment stands higher than ever, built on outstanding operational deployments over the past decade.

    From East Timor to Tampa and from Afghanistan to Iraq, the SAS has become the "force of choice" for the ADF and the Government in tackling the most difficult and sensitive national security roles.

    The 500-strong SAS regiment is now arguably more versatile and certainly better equipped than ever before.

    After years of debate about the wisdom of establishing a special-forces unit, the Menzies government announced the formation of a small 160-strong Special Air Service company in April 1957. Campbell Barracks, in the Perth suburb of Swanbourne, was chosen as the regiment's home. As a small, elite, highly specialised unit the SAS is restlessly innovative and constantly thinking about new ways of conducting unconventional warfare.

    Today's recruits must pass a gruelling three-week selection course before going on to receive a year's specialised training.

    As distinguished military historian and official SAS biographer David Horner points out, each member of the regiment is a specialist-medic, signaller, explosives expert, linguist. "Yet the ideal SAS soldier is not a loner. He must operate effectively within a close-knit, small team - the patrol."

    Indeed, says Horner, the relationships within an SAS patrol team are intensely intimate. "The soldiers live together constantly, rarely speaking, except in whispers. They know each other's moods and rely on each other for survival."

    Most SAS recruits are generally in their late 20s, older than regular army soldiers. With specialist allowances an SAS trooper earns about $100,000.

    Expanded to become a full regiment in 1964, the SAS saw distinguished service in Borneo conducting deep cross-border patrols against Indonesian forces attempting to destabilise the newly created Malaysian state.

    In more than six years in Vietnam, the SAS consolidated its reputation as an outstanding surveillance force, conducting nearly 1200 patrols and accounting for 492 enemy dead.

    In the post-Vietnam years of the 1970s and '80s, when overseas deployments were few and budgets were cut, the SAS had lean years. But a new focus was found when the regiment developed a specialised counter-terrorism and hostage-recovery capability.

    Protecting the 2000 Sydney Olympics was one of the SAS's biggest and most successful operations, and it's already gearing up for next year's Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation leaders meeting, also in Sydney.

    By far the biggest number of fatalities in the regiment have been incurred in training rather than combat. In June 1996 the SAS suffered its biggest loss when 15 soldiers were killed in the night-time collision of two Black Hawk helicopters engaged in counter-terrorism training near Townsville.

    During the '90s the SAS developed a composite special-forces task group with a separate command structure that became the model for recent deployments such as Afghanistan.

    The upswing in operations later in the decade convinced the Howard Government to restructure the special forces. The enlarged 2000-strong force now includes 4RAR commandos, chemical-warfare specialists and a separate special-operations command headed by a major general.

    First trialled in Kuwait in 1998, the idea of a squadron-sized task force able to deploy at short notice is now standard, with East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan in 2001-02 the most recent examples. Since then the concept has evolved to include other special-forces troops, principally 4RAR commandos.

    The recently returned 200-strong task group in Afghanistan has seen the commandos gradually assume a more prominent role in assault and ready reaction missions leaving the SAS to focus on its original long-range reconnaissance task in war-fighting.

    Always at the cutting edge in terms of equipment and tactics, the SAS has pioneered many capabilities and operating procedures adopted by the regular army.

    The accelerated operational tempo of the SAS since the late '90s has dramatically raised its profile with Australia's two closest military allies, the US and Britain.

    The 2001-02 Afghanistan deployment and the 2003 Iraq war, when a small SAS force secured a large chunk of western Iraq for the coalition, has drawn the regiment closer to its British and American counterparts.

    "They have seen what we can do and they acknowledge the competency of the unit as a whole," says one senior army source.

    In recent years the SAS has adopted the use of high technology, including sophisticated communications links in concert with the US to become a more lethal fighting force.

    The weapon systems now used by the SAS, including the Javelin missile, give it much greater combat punch. Combined with the US military's enormous investment in high-technology intelligence gathering and superior firepower the SAS becomes an even more valuable asset against unconventional foes such as the Taliban.

    With the highest operational tempo in its history, maintaining the SAS at full strength is a constant challenge. In the wake of the Iraq war, dozens of SAS members resigned to take up more lucrative roles with private security firms in Iraq and neighbouring countries. With their highly marketable skills many former members of the regiment have carved out successful careers in the private sector.

    This week The Australian reported that 20 SAS logistical and signal support staff who served in Iraq were angry at being excluded from a Unit Citation for Gallantry, the first award of its kind. Members of the regiment described a culture of "have and have nots" which caused some to leave.

    Jeff Sengelman, a brigadier and deputy commanding officer of special operations, says the SAS is not quarantined from the recruitment and retention measures which affect the rest of the army. But he says the SAS is not experiencing the same high separation rates that followed the fall of Baghdad in 2003. "Recruitment and retention is the best it's been for five years but it remains a challenge."

    "Who Dares Wins" is the oft-quoted motto of the SAS. Now as it prepares to enter its second half-century the regiment will further hone its "black" counter-terrorism skills in the face of the global Islamist threat.

    One senior defence source with long experience of the SAS says the regiment will continue to push into special-operations warfare. "They are stepping off into the distance in terms of what they are," he said.

    If new, unconventional security threats arise it is likely the government of the day will turn to the SAS and the special forces. "Unusual things could happen. That's what we have the SAS for," says Horner.

    Patrick Walters is The Australian's national security editor.
    http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...-31477,00.html
    To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway
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