Top military chief says UK Special Forces are vanguard for wider defence
One of the UK's top military chiefs says that Britain's Special Forces act as a "vanguard for defence", which helps the wider military to evolve, enabling new and different ways of working.
In an exclusive interview with Forces News, the Commander of Strategic Command, General Sir Jim Hockenhull, gave an exceptionally rare insight into this incredibly secretive organisation.
UK Special Forces, which currently consist of the Special Air Service (SAS), Special Boat Service (SBS), Special Reconnaissance Regiment and 18 (UKSF) Signals Regiment, have world-leading expertise in behind-the-lines operations, undercover raids, counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism, hostage rescue, reconnaissance and covert surveillance.
The British Government has a long-standing "no comment" policy when it comes to Special Forces, with little known publicly about the elite units.
Gen Hockenhull shed a little light for Forces News though, explaining how Special Forces incubate new ideas and capabilities which are then filtered down to be used by the rest of defence.
He said: "We ask incredible things of our Special Forces and they are an incredible group of individuals.
"They are always pushing new boundaries and, as a consequence of their ingenuity, their imagination and their initiative, we're able to see new ways of working."
Gen Hockenhull said that by its very nature, it is an integrated organisation, more than just a particular unit, and as a group can pioneer great change, especially regarding kit and technology.
"They are a microcosm of defence in one sense, they're also a vanguard which enables us to do new and different things."
He added: "My responsibility is to make sure we can pull those things forward into the wider force.
"I think there are things that we are doing in UK defence now, in the wider force, which perhaps only a few years ago would have been the preserve of the Special Forces.
"So, in some ways, they incubate new ideas and new capabilities.
"By doing that in a really operationally focused active group of individuals who are determined to be the very best they can be, it benefits wider defence."
An area that Gen Hockenhull highlighted was the use of uncrewed systems, with lessons learned by Special Forces rolled out to the wider military over several years.
Gen Sir Jim also spoke to Forces News explaining that the decision to publish Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion plan of Ukraine on social media a week before he did it was to "pre-bunk" his lies.
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