https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/b...ment-k0kfckkw3
Army creates Ranger regiment to free up Special Forces
Hundreds of highly trained soldiers will be moved into a new special operations brigade that will deploy into hostile territory as part of a significant
restructuring of the army.
The Ranger Regiment will comprise four battalions of about 250 personnel who will be specially selected from across the infantry and will take over dangerous missions normally carried out by Special Forces. Their role, modelled on the Green Berets, the US army’s unconventional warfare specialists, will include carrying out cyberattacks and electronic warfare and gathering intelligence backed by
new technology such as drones.
The announcement of the 1,000-strong brigade came as military chiefs sought to defend looming cuts to the army by insisting that the new force would be more lethal.
Soldiers in the Rangers will undergo a selection process that will test their fighting skills as well as “brain power” and they will be expected to be “older and wiser”, having carried out at least a couple of tours. “What this entails is highly trained empowered specialists at the heart of army operations,” said Major Tom Foulkes-Arnold, 36, as the army carried out a mock exercise to show how they will operate in a future conflict.
The military wants to free up elite Special Forces troops so they can carry out the riskiest missions and have other specialised forces carry out their traditional roles. It is one of the changes to the army that will be announced in the defence command paper published on Monday that will outline cuts and investments to the military. Under the plans, the Rangers will support foreign nations or proxies with training or on dangerous counterterrorism operations and will then pass on information they have gathered to a new-look Royal Marine Commando force that will carry out the fighting.
Small teams of commandos, described as “Special Force minus” by Dan Cheesman, chief technology officer, will be given state-of-the-art technology such as drones that can deliver supplies and flying grenades.
The grenade drones, which he compared to the Quidditch “snitch” in
Harry Potter, can be flown through holes in the walls of enemy compounds and take out insurgent fighters on the battlefield. The grenades were developed by DefendTex, an Australian company, have a maximum range of 12.5 miles and can fly in a swarm with other drones.
Speaking at a demonstration of the two new special operations forces at Bovington military camp in Dorset, the head of the army, General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, said that the first Ranger battalion would be ready by Christmas and could deploy to east Africa next year.
Mozambique and Somalia are believed to be two of the countries under consideration for the first deployment.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...nade-launchers
