I was a failed BUDS candidate back in the late 90s but never lost my fascination with the SpecWar communituy.

I've watched the limited amount of documentaries available on SAS initial training and they all 3 have the same Q course and all 3 have the same dismal retention levels. In fact it's the training for the Army's CAG was modled from DAD selection back in th late 70s.

The candidate pool is smaller for rhe Aussies and New Zelanders and the number of publicly released operatiions is much more limited but they had an exemplary record in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A part of me sees them as lesser chapters of a flagship fraternity, but is that fair? If they can survive SAS selection they should be every bit as good as the Britts, right?

Willie Apiata won the Victorian Cross recently

I've been living in Australia for a decade and I'd put it like this:

The NZ and AUS - SAS - guys are probably every bit as good as the Brits. But, it's the scale.
NZ only has a population of 4 million. AUS has a population around 24 million. UK is 65 million.

So, for every NZ SAS badass, there might be 20 Brits who are just as good.

I don't know anything about their TO&E / force structure so I don't know if there are 10 people in NZ SAS, or 100.

From the AUS SAS troops I've spoken with, they're badass but... there is still a healthy respect for the Americans. We are the best.

To put things in perspective, if you watch a Norwegian show called "Nobel", it profiles a unit fo the Norwegian Special Forces. Combine that with the Norwegian show called "Occupied" and what you figure out pretty quickly is that in a country of 4 million people, there might be about 12 trigger pullers.

So, Australia has some good operators but, there's probably 25 of them or whatever.

The USA with 325 million or the UK with 65 million people is going to be able to field a much larger force.

I guess I'll leave it like this. The Aussies that are real good are real good. But that's like a handful of folks. Same goes in my line of work - IT, or Sports, or Military or whatever pursuit.

Example, in my work, I've got a gigantic "bear" gay Aussie dude who I would absolutely want on my team out of anybody in the world - along with a Frenchman, a German and a handful of Americans. But I wouldn't want a team full of only Aussies or Kiwis.

...........and it's not only the quality of the operators themselves that's important, it's also the strategic logistics, mobility, communications and intel structures that puts well-equipped, well-trained shooters in the right place at the right time at any place on the globe that's crucial, too. The US has a huge advantage in that regard.

HollywoodBQ said:

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Example, in my work, I've got a

gigantic "bear" gay Aussie dude

who I would absolutely want on my team out of anybody in the world - along with a Frenchman, a German and a handful of Americans.

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74OA said:

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...........and it's not only the quality of the operators themselves that's important, it's also the strategic logistics, mobility, communications and intel structures that puts well-equipped, well-trained shooters in the right place at the right time at any place on the globe that's crucial, too. The US has a huge advantage in that regard.

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For sure. We can talk all we want about how good our "shooters" are but... without the supply trains, medical, resupply, air support, etc., they wouldn't last very long.

The Last Cobra Commander said:

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HollywoodBQ said:

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Example, in my work, I've got a

gigantic "bear" gay Aussie dude

who I would absolutely want on my team out of anybody in the world - along with a Frenchman, a German and a handful of Americans.

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Are you new to the "bear" culture?
Or, are you surprised that a Saudi Arabian style conservative like me would choose somebody from that lifestyle to be on my handpicked team of experts at my work?

Back to the original topic, my point is that when we're talking about very small numbers of people with highly specialized skills, there is going to be lots of variability in who fits that profile.

As another example, I think MMA is a dumb sport but, I get it. And if you look at where they get fighters for that sport, they could be from anywhere. There are probably more Americans and Brazilians who want to participate but, you could get a good fighter from Ireland, The Philippines, Australia, wherever.