Talk:Australian Special Air Service Regiment

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[edit] SAS vs SASR

Why does this article abbreviate Special Air Service Regiment to SASR, instead of SAS? Practically every reference to the Australian SAS that I can find is SAS not SASR. The New Zealand Special Air Service Regiment is SAS, as is the British. The news papers and books refer to it as the Australian SAS. So why the difference here? Puff Of Hot Air (talk) 03:22, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

The Defence website calls them SASR. See [1] Ebglider91 (talk) 11:44, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Anon edits

Whoever it was editing from 212.238.154.110, thankyou. Especially for removal of that shrine like crap, it really needed to go.

There's still work to be done, of course, but the current revision is well and truly heading in the right direction.

--BenM 03:47, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] POV

  • I think that the following statement "The Australian SAS regiment, based on, but vastly superior to the British original" should be reworded or backed up with evidence. It looks like a typical my mum's better than your mum argument (in that almost every country believe's that their military/army/special forces are the best in the world, but can never back it up). - Bambul 03:55, 10 June 2005 (UTC)
I concur. I've heard that the training is (or was originally) based on a combination of the British SAS and the Gurkha training, but what that has resulted in I've got no experience in judging. --BenM 20:10, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Sources

Here's the closest I can find to an official site for the SASR. --BenM 21:00, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)

The SASR are a special forces regiment, naturally they aren't going to make any sites telling the public what they're up to. I think there is an amount of consideration by readers when they look for things like this, as most of the information on them is secret. 58.165.63.114 04:55, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Not necessarily - David Horner's book on the SASR goes into great detail on the Regiment's history, organisation and tactics. The SASR isn't as secretive as is often assumed (it's based in suburban Perth for instance!). --Nick Dowling 06:17, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, it's HQ is in suburban Perth. They don't bloody train there though, except for march and drill, which the troopers aren't fans of but still do. They have several training centres spread acorss the country, and you can't just lob in and say G'day. They are secretive. Former troops don't tend to write as many books on their time in the regiment compared to the British SAS (Well, there are some around but up to date tactics are never discussed) No one knows the full structure of the training and spec op methods employed by the regiment. Watching a few videos on youtube doesn't teach you a thing. Most of the videos claiming to be of SASR troops training etc are of 4RAR cmdo and TAG East operators, although there are a sprinkling of SAS troopers in the CT unit. Hell, there are some videos claiming to be SOF operators when they are clearly Reg infanry battalions, including the Paratroopers of 3RAR. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 165.69.142.1 (talk) 06:50, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Operations

I've removed the following section:

The SAS were the spearhead of operations in Somalia (1994), Rwanda 1994, Cambodia, North Korea, Vietnam, Borneo, Yemen,Chechnya, Bougainville, United Arab Emirates, Laos, East Timor (1999-2000), Upper Volta, Libya, Sydney Olympics (2000), Afghanistan (2001), Northern Ireland, Barbados, Solomon Islands, and Iraq (2003 to present).

Some of these look extremely suspect to me. Northern Ireland? Barbados? Chechnya? UAE? I think these need some sources. Obviously some are genuine and need to be readded. -- Necrothesp 00:13, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

East Timor is definite and so is Cambodia (there were some interesting rescues during some turmoil there in around the early 90s or so - I recall seeing it on the news, but not the year). Laos is probably just confusion ofer the Kerry and Kay Danes espionage charges (Kerry Danes was on a leave of absence from the SASR and working as a security consultant with Lao Securicor when he and his wife were arrested). They were definitely in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan too (it was in the media). Not sure about the recent activity in the Solomon Islands, I think that might've been the 3rd RAR.
There was an SAS troop (plus) in Solomon Islands. In every operation the ADF is involved in, especially invovling ground elements the SAS is there. Eyes and ears, hearts and minds, VIP protection etc. As for some of the conflicts named here, for some it would involve individual troopers on exchange with another nations SOF. The SAS did `things' in the period between Vietnam and the early 90s, it's just not for the public to know.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 165.69.142.1 (talk) 06:57, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
Of course, I'm going from memory here, no sources. --BenM 16:16, 7 August 2005 (UTC)
Sydney Olympics, vietnam, cambodia, korea are certinaly in (isn't hard to find in google).
Of course they're genuine, but since several on the list are almost certainly spurious it seemed more sensible to remove the whole list and let someone add a sensible list. -- Necrothesp 14:54, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Bin Laden

I've just removed the following statement from the 'Operations' section: "In Afghanistan, Australian SAS allegedly discovered Osama Bin Laden and called in US air support, but US fire missed their target."

As this incident seems rather unlikely to have occured (surely the Americans would have stopped at nothing to kill or capture Bin Laden if he'd been detected) it should only be reinstated if a credible source can be provided. --Nick Dowling 08:07, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

I was there and it happened.

That's the trouble with this. So much to tell but no access to sources :)


Actually there is a report that details SASR called in for an Air Strike on " High Value Target" while performing blocking missions in afgan. However the actual target was never confirmed or was never released to public. The book was Hells Halfpipe or something like that, written by members of US Marines paratroopers 101st (?) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.208.48.213 (talk) 12:26, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Winged dagger emblem

I find it a bit hard to believe that exactly the same winged dagger symbol is used for the British and Australian SAS. I would have expected some variation, for distinctiveness if nothing else. Currently, the same image, Image:Sas_badge.gif, is used for both. --Saforrest 23:16, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

If you look at the image of the Australian SAS beret in the article the Australian cap badge looks identical. --Nick Dowling 23:44, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

You will notice that the rendering of the badge is quite different between Australian and UK regiments - UK has a woven/embroidered fabric badge whereas Australian is a bi-metal/anodised metal badge. The UK badge is also more stylised. By the way, the same embroidered hat badge is used by both NZ and UK SAS. Spuddie1 07:18, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm almost certain it's a flaming dagger anyway. Often misinterpreted as Wings. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.222.113.68 (talk) 12:15, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] 500:1?

The statistic that the SASR achieved a 500:1 kill ratio in Vietnam often turns up in articles on the Regiment, but I've never seen a citation for the source of this claim (eg, the Defence or military history publication where this statistic was released). As the SASR's role in Vietnam was reconnaissance (which generally meant avoiding combat) the statistic seems rather unlikely. --Nick Dowling 07:48, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

As no-one has been able to provide a source for this, I've removed the claim. Could I suggest that it stay removed until it can be cited? --Nick Dowling 07:26, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

The SAS can confirm they killed 492 enemy. This doesn't include those who died later from the wounds they recieved. The SAS only lost one trooper in combat and several others died in hospital. Tat equals 500:1. The Veit Cong greatly feared the SAS. One VC prisoner that was interrogatted by the Australians said that his unit was worried about the 'Australian commandos' but not so much by the American and South Vietnamiese special forces.

Do you have a source which can be cited to confirm this? --Nick Dowling 11:20, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

The book SAS Phantoms of the Jungle by David Horner and Vietnam Australias Ten Year War by Richard Pelvin

[edit] Training

I've deleted a lot of infomation in the section on training because there was not enough citation. Goldfishsoldier 23:31, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. --Nick Dowling 09:39, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

I've added info about Selection and referencesEbglider91 (talk) 12:55, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Military Exchanges

I believe the Australian SASR do exchanges with the British SBS, but I have no sources other than what I've seen. Can someone confirm?The Bryce (talk) 07:40, 20 November 2007 (UTC)