SPECIAL FORCES NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today we're going to be looking at single Special Forces
news of the week. Here we go ranges on Fort
Benning and there aren't long enough now for the Army's
new sniper rifle. With the Mk twenty two precision sniper rifle,
soldiers are expected to hit targets up to fifteen hundred
meters away, five hundred meters farther than they could with
the previous rifle. The Army is updating its sniper training

(00:23):
range at Fort Benning to accommodate its newest sniper rifle again.
The MK twenty two is a multi caliber bolt action
sniper rifle that was designed to replace the Army's M
twenty ten or M one ten or M one oz
seven rifles. According to the Army's program, the Army's current
generation of sniper rifles have an effective range of nearly
one thousand meters, but the new Mk twenty two can
reach targets between fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred meters away.

(00:49):
This will allow, of course, soldiers to use the Mk
twenty two to the fullest extent, which helps them train
specific sniper skills like calculating ballistics, estimating distances, and actually
hitting targets. Firing at targets with the weapons system. Maximum
effective range requires snipers to be absolutely precise with their
ballistic calculations to accommodate for atmospheric conditions, primarily wind speed
and temperature. It also requires snipers to be absolute with

(01:12):
the range estimation skills. Further engagement also challenges the sniper's
ability to detect targets and apply target recognition skills. This
is one of the reasons the importance of having a
longer range. The MK twenty two rifle can swap between
these three barrels to use three types of ammunition, the
typical seven point six to two millimeter two new calibers

(01:33):
three hundred and the three thirty eight norma magnum rounds,
which can be switched out depending on the type of mission.
But the shortest barrel the rifle can use standard seven
to sixty two's for targets as far as one thousand meters.
Two longer barrels accommodate the three hundred and ms regular
round and the three thirty eight armour piercing around for
shots up to fifteen hundred meters away. A marksmanship instructor

(01:57):
are one of the largest Spaces told the website Task
and Purpose that some soldiers with the U MK twenty
two have not yet received the three hundred or three
thirty eight. The Army signed one hundred and fifty seven
million dollar contract with six Hour to produce the type
of ammunition in June twenty twenty two. Sniper rifle was
being adopted by the Marine Corps, which announced in November
twenty twenty four that have been fielded to all of

(02:17):
its infantry and recon units and training schools. Let's also
look at another story in regards to special ops. The
Defense Secretary came out with news and addresses adequate support
for special ops. Pete Hegzath, during remarks he gave what

(02:37):
the annual SOFT Convention in Tampa noted that presidentially directed
SOFT missions have increased by over two hundred percent in
the past three years. Not only has SOFT been used
more than anybody else over the last twenty years, but
even just in the last four years. So the funding
needs to match that which you will see in this budget.
Though the specific amount of spending for the SOFT community
and the President's budget has not yet been disclosed, it
would presumably be more than the fiscal year twenty two,

(03:00):
twenty five. When asked how his department was able to
determine this by specific financial needs, heggs that it requires
direct contact. We start by listening to those units. We
ask what they're facing, what they need, what their families need,
and then we resource it. He also said that the
quality of SOFT training has to be commensurate with adequate funding,
and that overall morale and high adherence to standards in
the SOFT community are necessary from mission accomplishment. There's a

(03:23):
reason they said they looked at the schoolhouses of some
of where the most elite of special operation forces and
ensure that standards have not eroded. Including that SEC Difference
says that I guess he increases morale and wants to
increase unit cohesion because the SOFT operators know they're as
capable as they can possibly be. The Secretary has voices
support for SOFT on numerous occasions. The best gift I

(03:46):
can give you is getting up every day, working as
hard as I can with my staffs ensure you have
everything you need, he told the operators at the attendance.
So you can see that they're focusing on SOFT. Hopefully
that will increase and our final story is actually coming
from Singapore. They have a new piece of equipment of
the deployed and new combatant Craft Underwater to support special
forces and steath beach landings. The Singaporean Navy introduces Combatant

(04:10):
Craft Underwater CCU, which is operated by the Naval Diving
Unit Special Boat Group. The vessels intended for time sensitive
maritime counter transfer counter terrorism operations and enables the insertion
of a special forces team using the sea as cover.
The CCU is a semi submersible tactical dry diving vehicle
believed to be based on JFD Carrier Seal, a craft

(04:32):
already in use with the US Navy Seals and the
UK Special Boat Service. The CCU can be deployed from
surface vessels just as landing platform docks or the upcoming
multi role combat vessels. The CCU supports covert underwater and
surface missions and is intended for shallow water operations including
ship interceptions and beach landings by combat divers. The Republic

(04:55):
of Singapore Navy demonstrated the capabilities of its vehicle, which
can be transported by various means and o operated in
multi multiple deployment modes. The platform is part of a
broader effort to expand the operational flexibility of Singapore's Naval
Diving Unit support of maritime security missions. The Naval Diving
Unit the NDU of Singapore is the maritime special forces

(05:15):
formation responsible for conducting operations by sea, air and land
under the command of the Special Operations Task Force. The
unit was established about fifty years ago. The JFD Carrio Sera,
which serves as the apparent basis for the CCU, is
a tactical diving vehicle capable of operating in surface, semi

(05:36):
submerged and fully submerged configurations. Measures about ten and a
half meters in length and two and a quarter meters
in beam and one and a half meters in height
that is designed to carry two crew members and six
combat divers along with equipment from mission specific tasks totally
in neutral buoyant payload of up to one thousand kilos,
the craft weighs about four thousand kilograms in surface mode.

(05:58):
Is powered by a three forty five horsepower water controlled
diesel engine coupled with a Kongsberg water jet, allowing for
high speed transits of up to thirty knots with a
three speed of twenty five knots and submerge operations, it
switches to electric thrusters powered by two kilowatt battery packs,
enabling speeds of over five knots and a cruising speed
of four. The CCU has been presented as capable of

(06:22):
conducting various insertion and extraction missions in literal environments that
can be deployed from multiple host platforms, including surface vessels
such as landing platform docks or the upcoming as I
mentioned earlier, multi roll combat vessels. It also may be
mounted behind the fin of submarines like to Type two
to eighteen SG. It can also be air dropped using

(06:43):
the Seal Air delivery system, which includes an aluminum transport
frame and a clustered canopy parachute deployment method. When deploying,
the craft is a surface range of one hundred and
fifty NA miles, extendable by seventy five additional nautical miles
with auxiliary fuelbags. It submerged range fifteen nautical whiles, which
can also be doubled. So this is some of the

(07:06):
preliminary If you want to get the rest of the story,
you can go to Army Recognition dot com to find
more about that story. That's it for today. Hopefully enjoy
this update on special forces