Portal:British Army/Selected unit/6
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) is the principal special forces unit of the British Army. While a small and secretive institution, it sometimes attracts a disproportionate amount of media coverage.
The SAS forms a significant part of United Kingdom Special Forces, alongside the Special Boat Service (SBS), the Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR), and the Special Forces Support Group (SFSG). The SAS, ranked by many as one of the best special forces units in the world, today serves as a model for similar units fielded by other countries.
The Special Air Service Regiment is a Corps of the British Army under the United Kingdom legal system which authorises the raising of military forces and comprises three battalion-sized units, one Regular and two reserve units in the Territorial Army (TA), each styled as 'regiments' in accordance with British Army practice; 22 SAS Regiment being the Regular unit, with 21 SAS Regiment (Artists Rifles) and 23 SAS Regiment as the TA reserve units, known together as the Special Air Service (Reserve) (SAS(R)). The Artists Rifles appellation comes from the amalgamation in 1947 with an unusual pre-existing TA Regiment originally raised from the artistic community at a time when the Rifle Volunteer movement was at its height. The Artists Rifles (Originally Artists' Rifles until the apostrophe was officially dropped from the full title as it was so often misused) were of such quality they were used as an officer-producing unit in both World Wars, although the 1st Battalion fought as part of the Royal Naval Division in the latter years of World War I.
