The SBS’S very special boat...
BRITAIN’S elite Special Boat Service has acquired a fleet of new state-of the-art vessels that can evade radar.
The six fast boats, which cost £3million each, will join a special maritime operations squadron with duties in the UK and in support of wider special forces tasks in the Middle East.
The move is proof that military chiefs are continuing to invest in our strapped and over-used Special Forces even as they contemplate cuts across the Army, Royal Navy and RAF during the impending integrated review.
Already in use with US Navy Seals, the 60ft Combatant Craft
Medium boats made by American firm Vigor is bigger and more powerful than anything previously operated by the
SBS, with each boat delivering as many as 21 frogmen on counter-terror and security operations.
The boat can hit 52 knots (60mph), cross a distance of 500 miles and even deploy a midget submarine from its sloping deck.
Painted a digital camouflage pattern, each interceptor has three machine guns mounted on the bow and stern, as well as pods for missile launchers.
They can be transported by RAF C-17 aircraft and dropped to their locations, or deployed from a Royal Navy ship. The SBS has four squadrons and in the past two years has been at the forefront of counter-terrorist operations in the UK.
In 2018 12 SBS troops attached to Squadron X went down ropes from helicopters to seize control of 770-foot Italian container ship Grande Tema near Margate, Kent, which had been hijacked by stowaways.
Fast boats were used by the SBS to intercept the vessel while Merlin helicopters delivered more troops on to the vessel’s deck by rope.
For the past three years the SBS, whose mottos is “Not by Strength, by Guile”, has suffered from a lack of personnel. Under current plans, however, it will be given enough funds to expand.
A senior source said: “Future conflicts may well be around the maritime domain and we need to be ahead of the game.”