That's somewhat insulting. Pretty much all NATO members would be perfectly able to do the same and many have done on countless occasions. Not least the Israelis and British special forces have examples in the last 50 years.

on this scale, I doubt it? Yes, Entebbe, what else?

BONKEY, 10/10 for loyalty to brand, 1/10 for reality.

The U.S. is unique in the amount of effort that can be put towards CSAR activity. The cost in equipment and personnel is enormous on all of these types of missions. Israel is good at clandestine activities, and also apparently getting lots of experience at attacking civilian population centres, these are not the skills necessary for what the CSAR crews do. I doubt that any other country would politically support such actions. Once upon a time, there was SAR capability in the UK, air-sea-rescue, etc, but that was long ago. Even within the maritime rescue that the UK has today, it is a civil program, not so much armed.

I’m not fan of Donnie and he’s made a royal mess of it, but time for counterfactual,

iran has every incentive based on its history of dominating the Persian Gulf for millennia to want to return to tha5 position. It’s has been on a near-messianic mission to oppose the US in the region, killed a thousand in Iraq, is viciously opposed to Arab domination backed by US power and is religiously out of step with Sunni Arabs in every way. They have witnessed US power, have successfully opposed it in Iraq in many ways. Lastly, they know the history of North Korea’s nuclear path—slow rolled Western opposition, lots of negotiations, lots of threats but eventually nuclear armed NOK won’t be attacked. Why would the Iranians NOT seek and acquire nuclear weapons? It’s totally in their interests.

Now, a nuclear armed Iran says, “the straits are closed except for who pays and we permit transit passage. They are in same place as today but cannot be militarily opposed. They don’t even have to nuke the US or Gulf states or Israel. Just say UNCLOS doesn’t apply to the Straits of Hormuz, pay us.

That’s the real threat.

Do please find some examples of successful extractions on this scale and with this degree of intrinsic difficulty.
A list will do, assume the Forum is knowledgeable and can join dots.

That would be the loss of a significant percentage of the UK's entire air force.

The UK would never be so cavalier with their assets or forces. Some might consider that a weakness, others, common sense.

Yes, and from the prior administration, we have the vivid example of donating $85 Billion dollars worth of advance weaponry & aviation equipment to the islamic fanatics upon our withdrawal from Bagram AFB. The costs and consequences of that inadvertent donation can't be quantified - would have been much better to have destroyed it all.

I didn’t mean to insult you or my NATO colleagues. I think we may have to agree to disagree.

The US has the right kit in the right numbers to pull this off. With appropriately trained operators (aircrew or otherwise).

Something smaller scale-yeah i’d agree. But something of this scale, in my opinion would need multiple NATO partners to achieve.

How many C130’s can the RAF afford to lose in just one CSAR Op? Slightly tongue in cheek but i hope you see what i mean?

Hardly a question when the RAF no longer operates the C-130..... and A400's might be argued as being unsuitable anyway....?

Maybe some C295W's wouldn't be a bad idea though........ :).but given the MOD's 2 types per fleet policy even that isn't going to happen.

Hi GeeRam. That was actually precisely my point.

Here’s the starter for your list: Op Barras Sierra Leone 2000

Well done to those that did.

Ward Carroll session with former US SF SMSgt Jack Murphy who broke the story of the successful completion of the mission from his contacts hours before it was officially confirmed

A couple you might be interested in,from long ago,and far away,.
Rotorheads,,Page 15, 17 Mar 2025,Thread ;`Underslung loads in emergency`,page2;
#25;#29;#40..

The SF C-295 seen low flying in X videos yesterday managed to recover 2 of the MH-6M that would fit - that's why only 2 of 4 had to be destroyed.
76 aircraft involved - started with 4 x B-1B dropping 96 x GBU-31 to keep heads down!
16 x A-10s on task + another 14 on ground alert.
40 x 1000-lb bombs from B-1Bs used to destroy the stranded aircraft.

The Iranian treatment of the US hostages 46 years ago was not exactly a model of compassion and kindness - and they were civilians.
Getting their military bombed out of existence on a daily basis is not exactly conducive to good treatment of captured enemy.

Moran flight out of Fairford: https://www.pprune.org/military-avia...l#post12064785

Hard to see why you’re attempting to compare UK and US forces. They are very different countries and UK’s forces are intended for defence of the UK and its interests with NATO and other allies. They are not intended for invading other countries. Maybe you’d do better comparing the US with countries having similar foreign policies.

On the flip side:

As much as the Iranian TV/Internet is in places down, I wonder what the local media coverage of the downed F15 was?

One would assume that the hunt for the missing crew member was being mentioned (even by social media of the Iranian troops talking to families etc about their 'mission'..)?

Then that sinking feeling of telling the big knobs that the enemy flew in to get the pilot, big !!!! fight and then flew away.....