U.S. Navy SEALs Vs. British SAS

SEALs Vs. SAS! Who wins?

  • U.S. Navy SEALs

    Votes: 14 13.2%
  • British SAS

    Votes: 78 73.6%
  • Draw

    Votes: 9 8.5%
  • Both sides wiped out

    Votes: 5 4.7%

  • Total voters
    106

Anaxagoras

Banned
In a battle between a U.S. Navy SEAL tema (i.e. 120 men) against a comparatively-sized force of British SAS, who would emerge the victor? Both are armed and equipped in their respective fashion and the battle takes place in... well, wherever.
 
This sounds like a Clive Cussler novel I read that had this same situation (I can't remember the title, through).
 
Wrong forum for something like this ... put it in chat, I suppose.

In any case, I think it's extremely difficult to compare special operations groups in an objective way. Every team has its own way of doing things, not to mention the distinct reasons that each exist. The SEALs, the SAS, Sayeret Matkal, GIS, Marine Recon, GIGN, USAF Pararescue, the USCG AST teams, etc. all have a particular reason why they were created and often have organization-specific ways of ingress, operations, and egress. IMHO you can't make blanket assumptions like, "the SEALs are better than the SAS!" unless you have insider knowledge of how they do things. If that was the case, chances are you wouldn't be posting here.
 
The SAS would correctly identify the SEAL team and avoiding discovery avert the conflict. ;)
Personally, I think they'd correctly identify each other and proceed to cooperatively take over a small, under-militarized nation ... like Canada.
 

Krall

Banned
Wrong forum for something like this ... put it in chat, I suppose.

In any case, I think it's extremely difficult to compare special operations groups in an objective way. Every team has its own way of doing things, not to mention the distinct reasons that each exist. The SEALs, the SAS, Sayeret Matkal, GIS, Marine Recon, GIGN, USAF Pararescue, the USCG AST teams, etc. all have a particular reason why they were created and often have organization-specific ways of ingress, operations, and egress. IMHO you can't make blanket assumptions like, "the SEALs are better than the SAS!" unless you have insider knowledge of how they do things. If that was the case, chances are you wouldn't be posting here.

Agreed, they're meant for different sorts of missions. A better 'fight' would be between Delta Force and the SAS, since Delta Force is based off the SAS and is meant for the same type of missions.
 

Chris

Banned
Natually, I voted for Britain;)

More seriously, as others have pointed out, what reason do they have to fight? I don't mean a war - that's assumed by the OP - but the situation; they're not matched.

Chris
 
This sounds like a Clive Cussler novel I read that had this same situation (I can't remember the title, through).

As noted, that was Night Probe. It was Royal Marines (and a character who is supposed to be James Bond) vs US Marines (and Dirk Pitt) IIRC.

It is one of Clive Cussler's better works IMO.

It's also rubbish IMO. As it says on Wikipedia "Criticism (of the book) revolves around the primary plot point, the sale of Canada to the United States by Great Britain. The book fails to reconcile the fact that at the time of the (supposed) Treaty, Canada was a British Dominion with its own government, and as a result would not have been in a position where it could have been sold to the USA by Great Britain."

Which is all a bit OT.:p

IMO the SAS and SEALs would never have some kind of large scale stand up fight (even given the obvious problem of why) because large scale stand up fights are not their role.

Also the SBS is the British equivalent to the SEALs anyway. Delta Force is the SAS equivalent IIRC.

Something like US Marines vs Royal Marines or US paratroopers vs British paratroopers would be a better comparison (if you like that sort of thing).

BTW this is an interesting article on the differences between US and British SF as demonstrated in Iraq: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2461368.ece
 
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It goes against my very British essence to say: the SEALs would win, I guess. As far as I know, the SAS isn't geared towards or trained for large scale engagements such as this, whilst the SEALs are.
 
It goes against my very British essence to say: the SEALs would win, I guess. As far as I know, the SAS isn't geared towards or trained for large scale engagements such as this, whilst the SEALs are.

AFAIK the SEALs aren't either. As far as I'm concerned part of the entire mission of special operations is to avoid large-scale engagements.
 
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