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Harshness of training-def Russians. Not to undermine SEAL training, but the things Russians go thru would simply be illegal in the West and you would see plenty of lawsuits for wrongful deaths, which happen quite a bit during the Russian spec ops training. Over there it's whatever though-you die, well, too bad.
Regarding combat experience-even though U.S. is always meddling in world affairs and sending troops everywhere, I still say Russians have more only because of never ending unrest in Southern Russia with constant terrorist attacks and guerrilla warfare they have to face with Chechens and others. Their training is real combat on a daily basis on their home soil, similar to Israel in this sense and not only when some world conflict erupts.
Successful op-Amin palace in Afghanistan in 1979-a raid that still has no analogues today, which even Russian commanders thought was crazy and considered suicide. The palace was on a high ground with 360 degrees view so very difficult to approach and enter in one piece. 54 KGB special ops with the support of 600 GRU Spetsnaz from outside, cleared the palace killing up to 2,500 President Amin's guards, Amin and his family in 43 minutes. When the palace was being cleared by KGB operatives, the ratio of Russians to Afghans was 1 to 10, while GRU surrounded the palace to keep potential reinforcements from interfering. Nobody knew what happened though because of the swiftness and the fact that Russians cut all the power in the area, isolating Amin. That's how the invasion started and the Afghan regime was replaced just like that. Unfortunately, this was all ultimately worthless and for nothing, but that's another story. Other successes include neutralizing all the major regional terrorists, especially all the once responsible for terrorist attacks in Russia over the years.
Another candidate for a successful op would be 2002 Moscow theater siege by Chechen terrorists, BUT:
The assault itself was successful when they pumped the gas thru AC pipes to subdue the terrorists. The FSB Alpha team then cleared the building in minutes, killing most of the 50 terrorists and preventing the explosion (the building got rigged). However, due to incompetence of Russian medics and lack of communication with them from the authorities who failed to tell them about the gas, 130 out of about 800 hostages ended up dying because the fumes were too strong and caused a deadly body reaction. Because of this, overall outcome is a failure.
2004 Beslan school siege was a complete failure though. 380 kids died.
US-the most notable op would be of course the Bin Laden killing. Biggest failure-Iran embassy. The most financed and technologically advanced military in the world. Like was said-much practice in the recent years. Training is tough and sophisticated.
Israel-Probably more real world practice than all mentioned above, surrounded by people who wanna eradicate them. Constant conflicts. Financial, logistical support and inter training with American units. Complemented with Mossad, one the best intel agencies, if not the best. Neutralized countless terrorists, including tracking and killing most of the perpetrators of the Munich attack.
So I think it's a tie between U.S. (technology and sophistication) and Russia (harshest training), with Israel close second, just because they are a much smaller country, which has much less resources and people to pick the elite from.
Nobody else is on the level though. I don't think British SAS can stack up either anymore. They are not as active as these 3, therefore less exp, despite them contributing to Iraq or Afghan, I don't think it's enough.
Last edited by OleSchoolFool; 02-09-2012 at 08:44 PM..
in my opinion the best special forces units are the navy seals, russian spetznaz, israeli commandos, and british sas. if i were in a war, these are the people i would call on for special missions that needed to be done quickly and quietly.
Not to take anything away from Spetznas but performing kata and choreographed fight scenes doesn't have a damn thing to do with the real world and really isn't a good demonstration of their skill.
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