WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2007-02-26 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
Cape Argus (Cape Town)
February 24, 2007
Cape Town
THE NUMBER of soldiers on active service with South Africa’s elite commandos, its Special Forces, is not enough to staff even one full company, according to defence analyst Leon Engelbrecht.
In his unauthorised manuscript, A Guide to the SANDF, he notes that this lack of “recces”, as reconnaissance operators are nicknamed, is one area in which the armed forces are currently weak. Another is in army and airforce transport equipment.
Engelbrecht notes that 5 Special Forces Regiment, with a focus on land warfare and based at Phalaborwa in Limpopo, was founded in 1976 and that “its post-2002 structure provides for two operational commandos and a training wing”.
The other regiment, 4 Special Forces Regiment, with a focus on seaward operations and based at Saldanha, was founded in 1978. By 1995 it “consisted of three operational commandos (companies) and a Special Forces Amphibious and Urban School”.
Special Forces also has a headquarters unit, based at Speskop, south-west of Pretoria; a Special Forces School based at Murrayhill, north of Pretoria; and a Special Forces Supply Unit based at Wallmansthal, north of Pretoria.
“All Special Forces have consistently cited quality over quantity. As a result, Special Forces units tend to be smaller than similarly-named regular units,” Engelbrecht wrote.
“The SANDF is, perhaps understandably, coy about the numbers; the more so as they appear to be on the lower side of what could be expected from so large a structure.
“In 1978 (as the bush war intensified), a commando’s table of organisation and equipment (TO&E) provided for 21 officers and 100 other ranks.”
Subtracting headquarters and support staff, this left “six officers and 69 other ranks organised into three Reconnaissance Groups … and four small teams, each … with four operators under command”.
But, he noted: “Anecdotal evidence suggests that around the time of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (October 2002) there were only about 50 operators available to support the police Special Task Force in protecting the conference and its dignitaries, including several heads of state and government.
“The age of some of the participants was also noteworthy: one warrant officer was in his 40s and several others were in their 30s.
“Based on available TO&E, there are insufficient operators for even one commando. But at least five are provided for, in addition to training and headquarters posts that would have to be filled by more mature operators.
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“Recruiting standards are high and training tough as well as long in duration,” he wrote, so “it is disconcerting to hear from defence advisers that the Special Forces have recently performed below expectation in combined exercises with their foreign peers.
“Has a shortage of new blood and too many training exercises for the old hands left the Special Forces stale?”
The Special Forces League had not responded at the time of going to press.
Source: All Africa
URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/200702240163.htm…br>
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