It has been revealed that the Ranger Regiment, numbering over 1,000 regular soldiers, has deployed 691 times since 2021.
The information came to light via the response to a Written Parliamentary Question.
James Heappey, Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence said:
“Since 2021, the British Army’s Ranger Regiment has conducted 691 deployments.”
The Ranger Regiment is a special operations-capable unit of the British Army which was formed on 1 December 2021 under the Future Soldier reform and is part of the Army Special Operations Brigade.
It is intended to be used primarily in an unconventional warfare and foreign internal defence capacity in a similar manner to the US Green Berets.
How many serve in the Rangers Regiment?
Heappey later added:
“As of 1 January 2024, there were 1,040 Regular Army Personnel serving in the Ranger Regiment.
Please note the following notes/caveats from Analysis (Army):
- This figure represents Trade Trained Regular and Gurkha Army only and therefore excludes Full Time Reserve Service, Mobilised Reserves and all other Reserves.
- The figure includes all personnel who are serving in a battalion within the Ranger Regiment.
- As the Ranger Regiment is still an evolving organisation, the above information includes all personnel serving in a Ranger Battalion, some of which may not be Rangers. Figures therefore include attached Arms and are not comparable to figures for other Infantry Regiments.
- The figure includes Gurkhas serving in Ranger Units.
- The figure has been rounded to 10 for presentational purposes; numbers ending in “5” have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias.”
691 deployments seems like a lot for just over 1000 men but I suppose it would only be small teams of rangers being deployed and not large scale deployments.
Aren’t Rangers in 10 man sections?
4 man teams like Cdos and SF I think.
11 man SOTUs
Ah, just the man. Thanks, I was close.
🤙🏼 interesting that they disclosed the current strength not the authorised to&e though.
Anyway the 11 person SOTU is the theoretical Ranger Unit, in practice nobody should be surprised that deployments are Task Orged.
I find this figure (691) incredible. Hopefully it is not fudged to include exercises.
Perhaps the Minister should supply some details – it can’t all be classified.
It’ll include multi- and bilateral exercises (eg a Ranger SOTU operating as an extra ODA on a US Green Beret exercise will count, but a validation exercise on Salisbury Plain will not).
Overall I do not find 691 to be an incredible number.
What a load of…
Why Tom? “Grey Zone” is important, so while we may not need to deploy a “conventional” unit for that sort of work, we need presence in it. So for me the Rangers make sense as that is one area they’re involved with?
Why? There never was a need for this ‘unit’ in the first place. 1st Par support the SAS, and the Royal Marines (whichever outfit) supports the SBS.
Except that SFSG provides support to all 3 SF units, and doesn’t break down its support by service, and the Rangers aren’t supporting UKSF directly…
Hi Tom. The SBS are supported by the same unit that support 22 SAS, the SFSG, which mostly comprise 1 Para as you say. The SFSG itself has RM and RAF Regiment in it. There has been a big expansion in SF and SO forces post Cold War as we are more globally engaged than we were, and Russia, China and others are challenging western interests in “below the threshold of war” scenarios. So Cold War era, DSF was quite small. 21, 22, 23 SAS. SB Squadron. 14 Int. 264 Signals Sqn. 63 Signals Sqn. (V ) 8 Flight. SF… Read more »
Correction, I think it is a MSG, not MSU. And it is of course 658 not 656. 🙄
An army within an army.
Yes, but also no. The SO Bde are within the army chain of command, and you’d certainly assume most SF are from the army, but DSF itself is not part of the army chain of command.
It should also be emphasised that SF and SOF are not the same in our military.
“numbers ending in “5” have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias.”
What?
Do we think Rangers regt is a good idea , or does it just for want of a better word just brain drain all the best soldiers from infantry units and leave other infantry battalions out of the learning experience pool . We seem to have a lot of excellent units doing nothing ? , marines paras ghurkas , infantry battalions
Well, they’re a bad idea if we ignore the Grey Zone and the army just sits in the UK while other state actors shape the world to suit their interests rather than western interests. The SOB, so Ranger Reg, is also involved in recc for the ARRC. Marines are certainly not doing nothing, 45 in Scandinavia as we speak and 42 involved in MOps. 2 and 3 Para form part of 16AA Bde which will be dropping into Estonia later this year, as well as SFSG outlined above. Gurkhas are also in 16AA and the Ranger Regiment, and form the… Read more »
Sounds like then many of our top tier battalions are busy which is good . I just wonder if the Rangers regt is an unnecessary overlap of resources but sounds like maybe they are useful i might have to rethink :). I just wonder though maybe the Rangers regt deprives all our regular battalions of some interesting postings abroad and other layers of training , for the Guards battalions and the Rifles battalions for instance . If a new soldier wants to join up and travel the world now, would it be better to join the Rangers regt instead of… Read more »
Depends on what you want, different Battalions will deploy in different ways. If you want to travel to all sorts of places a lot, and work in small self reliant teams at reach with responsibility as a JNCO, then the Rangers is definitely where it’s at. (Rangers do not post abroad btw, they’re all based in the UK). Paras on the other hand you’ll spend a lot of time at high readyness waiting reactively for something to happen and do “proper warfighting” exercises working at Coy or higher level. Point to note is that Rangers are a SOF unit, they… Read more »
OK thanks , think I understand Rangers a bit better now
I defer to Dern on that. 😊
A completely unbiased source who would never say something like “Why would anyone want to be anywhere else in the army?”
😉
Doing nothing? A unit that is not deployed is training which includes exercises at home and abroad, keeping fit, looking after its kit, soldiers doing career courses etc etc.
No unit can expect to be deployed operationally a great deal these days.
The work that Rangers do is specialised. It makes sense to develop expertise in nominated units, ie Ranger units rather than let everyone have a go.
Agree ,I can see how the Rangers regt can be an asset to uk now l:)
Absolutely, the Rangers are just getting into their stride at the moment.
A friend of mine is involved with certain aspects of their specialised training. The Rangers are a very useful asset that will really bare fruit in the years to come as the unit matures.
Defo mate. 👍
It’s also aiming (and in places already succeeding) at achieving the NATO standard of SOF training. The practical result of that is that you simply can’t let everyone have a go as you put it, and achieve the standards that are being aimed for.
Seems really odd there’s not 1 word on this sight about UK switching to 120mm mortars. Seems like pretty big news.
And being reported on multiple credible sources now.
Sure it will be. I guess it’s augmenting and not a full switch, and for certain units only, like Mechanized. Turreted Boxer with NEMO or Crossbow apparently.
Still seems like big enough news to warrant reportage.
You must be right and it’s just delayed.
And yes, it seems the turreted boxer is the initial offering based upon Shepherd Media.
Yes. It was discussed by some commentators here a while ago.
George and his team will get round to it, they do this voluntarily.
Seems like a pretty good way of getting increased firepower in a cost efficient way.
Yes, though there are also rumours that they will replace the 105mm LG. I know they’re a FSC asset, and the RA don’t operate mortars, but that’s not great if true. As I was told on here, even a 120mm doesn’t have the LGs range.
So I hope the LGs remain with 7RHA and 29RA for the Paras and Marines.
Yeah mate, replacements for both would be better. A modern mortar and an upgraded light gun.
DSTL are working on that, whether it ever materialises who knows.
That is always the case with so many things.
Yes, but as far as the LG goes, considering wider defence spending priorities, does it even need replacing?
We aren’t very good at in service upgrading. Maybe that would work.