They will be given funds and time to prepare for “high-risk tasks”
Special units of the British Armed Forces will prepare to counter the actions of Russia and China in different parts of the world. British Royal Marines Brigadier Mark Totten said this in an interview with The Times on Saturday.
According to Totten, within the framework of the new approach to the national security the Special Airborne Service (SAS) and the Special Boat Service (SBS), which are part of the British army and navy respectively, will concentrate on the deterrence of “major state adversaries”. Totten indicated that these units will be given the means and time to prepare for “high-risk missions” that require “detailed design and training.”
It is noted that the traditional role of the SAS and SBS in the light of their reorientation will take over the Royal Marines, which will create a special unit of 4,000 soldiers. The new unit will be led by Totten himself.
“We will allow the SAS and SBS to focus on the more complex and integrated tasks of confronting Russia and China. It requires real expertise, so they will have more time and more manpower resources. We, in turn, can carry out some of their tasks, for example, to combat maritime terrorism”, – he stressed.
According to a military source of The Times, SAS and SBS may also be assigned the task of training the naval forces of several states in the basin of the South China Sea for protection against the threat from China. The publication informs that the Army’s special units may act jointly with the United Kingdom’s Foreign Intelligence Service MI6 in highly classified operations, for example, in surveillance of Chinese and Russian reconnaissance and military formations.