SAS SECRET OP TO TAKE DOWN KIM JONG-UN

UNLIKE any other branch of our military, Special Forces such as the SAS have few complaints about resources. They are able to short-circuit the onerous standard Ministry of Defence procurement process and buy what they need to facilitate operations, from small arms to weapon-sights and light radios.

Generally, defence chiefs ensure they get what they need.

As a result, private jets are sometimes used to transport their ammunition when no RAF aircraft are available.

A former Special Forces officer revealed that this happens for selection exercises, which take place in Brunei. That means flying out 100-plus people for six weeks and ‘sometimes the RAF simply don’t have the capacity and Special Forces have to charter a civilian jet’.

The bill for such flights can run to half a million pounds, because of the nature of the cargo. ‘You need a lot of ammunition, which means a special aircraft in case there is a fire, and very expensive insurance. Plus, you have to give the pilots danger money. It all adds up.’

There is, however, no culture of casual extravagance. The source stressed that the hiring of private jets was always a last resort and efforts are always made to secure the most competitive quote.

To those in parts of the Armed Forces with overstretched budgets, this special treatment may provoke envy.

Such is the sensitivity of Special Forces operations, however, that there would be no mercy for politicians or military leaders who penny-pinched at their expense. After all, these men epitomise all that the British military does best.

Which is why this year, as the bitter diplomatic row blew up between Kim Jong-un and President Trump over Kim’s missile tests, they were drawing up contingency plans to go to North Korea.

Had the mutual chest-beating and trading of insults between the two leaders ended in military action, the plan was for UK Special Forces supported by Royal Marines to team up with U.S. Navy SEALs in an operation to neutralise dozens of North Korean weapons sites.

‘The Americans didn’t fancy it, so we were going to take the lead,’ according to a well-placed Special Forces source.

In a sign of how seriously the MoD took this possibility, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson ordered a stockpile of anthrax vaccines for troops that could be sent to the Korean peninsula.