M.I.5/M.I.6/SAS

[Maestro]

Greetings ladies and gentlemen.

I'm lost with British Intelligence. Can someone help ? What's the difference between the M.I.5, the M.I.6 and the SAS ?

I know the M.I.5 is also called the "Home Office" and is in charge of intelligence (Military Intelligence bureau number 5), but what's the difference with the M.I.6 (if ever it really exist) ?

I read on an other thread that SAS also do Intelligence work. So what's the difference between those three Corps ?

[102first_hussars]

The SAS has nothing to do with those other guys, The SAS Special Air Service are elite airbourne comandos, whereas the others are intelligience
agency's.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Exactly. The SAS are like the Navy Seals or Special Forces of the United States and the GSG9 of Germany. Military Elite Special Operations Forces. MI6 is like the CIA from the United States.

[Nonskimmer]

As I understand it, MI5 is responsible for domestic security and counter-espionage while MI6 is the primary foreign intelligence service.

Anyone?

[lesofprimus]

That about sums it up, correctly...

[Gnomey]

Yeah that is how it goes NS.

[trackend]

After you mentioned the SAS I noticed at the top of the page a pop up online SAS course, I thought that must be why the Bravo two zero episode was such a **** up if The Regiment these days does its training online.
Fortunately it's not the same SAS but a stats course

[the lancaster kicks ass]

i would also like to point out at this point that the SAS are the world's most elite fighting unit

[cheddar cheese]

Other than the SBS, but thats another story

[Maestro]

Oh... Thanks for the help.

[lesofprimus]

i would also like to point out at this point that the SAS are the world's most elite fighting unit

Other than the SBS, but thats another story

I disagree.... I believe the Israeli Special Forces are probably the most elite, followed quite closely by the US Navy SEALs... The SAS, while extremely effective and highly trained, are not quite as elite as the first two...

Remember tho, the differences are quite miniscule... A normal everyday Joe like urselves would not be able to tell the difference.... Its all about the tempo at which certain services operate...

The Israelis, obviously, operate at a tempo that no other special services unit operate at...

The thing with Special Warfare types is that the longer and harder they serve, the better and more elite they are....

[102first_hussars]

I agree on certain aspects of what your saying but you really cant compare them, SF from around the world are usually brought up for a mainly specific purpose, SEALs gotta be Stealthy, SAS have to be quick and unforgiving(Same goes for Delta Force), JTF-2 well they take alot after SAS but we add a Canadian ingredient to it,

Isreal's army is specifacly designed for to handle its own problems with the PLO, so really how would those tactics play out on UN training in say Europe?, The point is they are different so its hard to compare.

[cheddar cheese]

I was forgetting about the Israeli's les, I remember you speaking of them a while back...

[evangilder]

I would agree with Les. The Israelis don't mess around, they can't afford to.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Im with Les on this also. The Isrealis take **** from no one and there SF have lots of training and are constantly on there toes. They are the most elite in my opinion also.