"5 key differences between Delta Force and SEAL Team 6" Topic

"SEAL Team 6, officially known as United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), and Delta Force, officially known as 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D), are the most highly trained elite forces in the U.S. military.

Both are Special Missions Units (SMU) under the control of the secretive Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), they perform various clandestine and highly classified missions around the world. Each unit can equally perform various types of operations but their primary mission is counter-terrorism.

Both are Special Missions Units (SMU) under the control of the secretive Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), they perform various clandestine and highly classified missions around the world. Each unit can equally perform various types of operations but their primary mission is counter-terrorism.

So what's the difference between the two? Delta Force recently took out ISIS bad guy Abu Sayyaf in Syria; DevGru took out al Qaeda bad guy Osama Bin Laden a few years ago. Same-same, right?

Wrong…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Seems to me that the USA loves having uplication of effort in al lthings, from SpecFor to Intelligence Agencies.

Can't help wondering if this is wise.

… bug (duplicate record deleted) …

Bangorstu,

The US and larger Commonwealth countries have similar Intelligence agencies Internal (FBI/Homeland Security, MI5, ASIO/AFP, CSIS/RCMP, …), External(CIA,MI6,ASIS, .. ) and Military(NSA,GCHQ, DSD(AGSD), …). and apologies for all those I left out.

And similar SpecFor specialisations – Why does the UK have Army SAS and Navy SBS and Royal Marines Commando? Different missions. Australia has Army SAS, Army Commando plus Navy Clearance Dive Teams. Similar but different.

We all lack the population and budgets to be able to support as diverse a range of organisations as our US colleagues.

Have a great day, Foxtrot

My Take and I certainly could be wrong, I think all the US SF or SMUs have forgotten what thier primary mission is.
They got caught up in a very public Game of Direct action missions and lost focus on the core missions they were created to carry out. IE Delta Direct action,and Multi environment anti terrorist missions. USASF the recruitment and training of native troops in Areas dominated by forces hostile to US National security interests and stay behind missions. SEAL Beach reconnaissance,Destruction of hostile coastal infrastructure underwater demolition. US Army Rangers Long range reconnaissance missions. Marine force Recon Short and long range reconnaissance and Raiding..CIA SAD/DAG Dag is not a separate part of but one of the missions performed by SAD. Its Direct action missions focus on the capture or retrieval of HVIA and hard Intell media.

Your take doesn't seem too far from the mark trance. How much of it is driven by fears of funding cuts if not in the public view.

The big difference is Delta is US ARMY and the SEALs are USN … Both are the best of the best …

US Army Rangers Long range reconnaissance missions.

That is only one of the missions on the RANGER menu. They are an Elite Light Infantry unit trained in all types of Commando ops. Long Range recon is one of the many. Raids is another … The fact that the US among other Western power has various Spec Ops, Commando, intel agencies, etc. … Just gives the bad guys that much more for them to worry about … Besides Drones, which based on the recently released intel taken from UBLs farewell party. They few fears Drones almost above all else. And the Drones have chalked up quite a bodycount. Including leadership …

"The best of the best"; some might choose to contest that;).

Oh I'm sure … that is the problem with statements like that. But it won't stop me from saying so …

Foxtrot,

Just to correct something in your 11:25 post:

GCHQ is not military intelligence; it is a government signals intelligence and information assurance agency. The NSA would also come under the same description rather than being "military".

As to why why the SBS exists? The answer is simple: the SAS need something to look up to;).

Now, Londongamer, that's not nice!

The real difference between Seals and Delta Force is Chuck Norris.

Yeah, those poor SEALs are stuck with Charlie Sheen, Mark Wahlberg and Bradley Cooper as their Hollywood representatives.

Even the Green Berets had "The Duke."

coastal2,

I know;).

Ref London gamer and FoxtrotPapaRomeo

While several of the agencies mentioned across the western spectrum of intelligence have analogous set ups and tasks to agencies in the other countries they do not map directly across one on the other.

GCHQ and NSA for example are certainly both Sigint agencies and Inf Assurance – new buzzword for the old InfoSec/Comsec agencies (still the responsibility of CESG – nominally a sister agency/part of GCHQ) but they have differences.

NSA is traditionally (and still) headed up by a military officer. Never in the case of GCHQ. It reflects and perpetuates a different mind set, approach and responsibility.

NSA is much more military focused/integrated although GCHQ has followed them along this path to an extent in the last couple of decades. It always worked closely with the military in strategic interests but had a wider focus. Many parts became closer to the military oddly enough after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The main reason for the proliferation of agencies in the the UK (and no doubt the US too)is empire building.

Domestically, Security Service/Special Branch/Various iterations of the serious and organised crime agency/customs/various police 'funnies' -SPG/Demonstrations squad etc all fought turf wars for responsibility and therefore resources funding – and continue to, where they have not been seen off (RUC Special Branch not replaced in PSNI -SS took over).

Similar concerns exercise military bosses – I want my special forces toy to play with too or I'm not going to get respect.

Yes there are serious threats out there – but the real infighting is about POWER!

(PS – Londongamer – SAS/SBS – how true

Don't forget … the SEALs had Demi Moore as GI Jane ! I have yet to find a reason to waste the time and watch that, BTW !

Legion, you are missing out. Very entertaining movie.

GI Jane is worth watching if you can get past its fantasy of "equal opportunity for women" and that women can meet the physical demands of SEAL training. It's basically Top Gun in a different context.

Gwydion,

I completely agree about a large part of the proliferation being down to both empire building and status.

Regarding the NSA, its status is somewhat unusual in that, although it is headed by a military officer and forms part of the Department of Defense, it reports to the Director of National Intelligence, a civilian.

It's analogous to the DoD (Pentagon) under the SecDef (a civilian) even though the various services are headed by their chiefs of staff (military officers) in the JCS.

Mitochondria
Legion, you are missing out. Very entertaining movie.

28mm Fanatik
GI Jane is worth watching if you can get past its fantasy of "equal opportunity for women" and that women can meet the physical demands of SEAL training. It's basically Top Gun in a different context.

I prefer to see Miss Moore in some of her more revealing movies …

re: GI Jane: That was SERE school, not SEAL school. SERE is for aircrew types, it's Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape school.

We've already hit the big difference between SEAL Team 6 and Delta: Navy versus Army.

Second biggest difference is typical method of insertion. SEALs tend to sneak in from the water, Delta by land or air. Not that SEALs don't parachute, or that Delta doesn't snorkel/scuba, but that SEAL Team 6 tends to swim to work and that Delta tends to walk or parachute.

SEALs in general do beach recon for the Marines (even though Marines have Recon to do that to make sure that they always have someone available to do it).

But SEAL Team 6 and Delta were created in the aftermath of the Iranian hostage crisis primarily as counter-terrorist units. They've both played "Red Cell" and pretended to be terrorists to find gaps in security.