Top-Secret Commandos: Guns of E-Squadron

By: Warren Gray

Copyright © 2023

“He’s used to life in the fast lane, travels all over the world,

 already risks his life racing at over 300 kilometers per hour,

and seems to be handy with a gun.”

— “Mata Hari” (Margaretha Zelle), Dutch spy and

double agent, executed by the French in 1917.

The United Kingdom Special Forces (UKSF) at Stirling Lines barracks in Credenhill, Herefordshire, England, consist primarily of the world-famous Special Air Service (SAS), universally recognized as the world’s top counterterrorist unit, the Special Boat Service (SBS), like British Navy SEALs, the ultra-secret Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR), the Special Forces Support Group (SFSG), and the Joint Special Forces Aviation Wing (JSFAW), which flies Chinook HC6s and six dark blue AS365N3 Dauphin II light transport helicopters.

In 2005, a top-secret British Special Forces unit called E-Squadron (possibly “Espionage-Squadron,” and previously known as “The Increment”) was formed, comprised of selected members of the SAS, SBS, and SRR, with a mandate to work closely with the shadowy Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), known informally in popular culture as Military Intelligence, Section 6 (MI6), on covert missions requiring “maximum discretion,” in places that were “off the radar and considered dangerous.” The Increment, tracing its roots back to the Special Operations Executive (SOE) of World War Two, has existed since the 1980s, and only became known as E-Squadron in 2005.

E-Squadron’s assigned task is to carry out clandestine or covert activities for Britain’s SIS, and its intelligence agents operate in countries around the world. This includes unconventional warfare, paramilitary operations, direct action, espionage, Special Forces missions, and hostage rescue. The squadron normally operates in plain clothes, with the full range of national support, such as fake passports, at its disposal.

E-Squadron’s existence was first revealed in January 2012, when the BBC reported on the UKSF deployment of special operations troopers on the ground in Libya during a NATO operation. A Chinook HC6 helicopter transported a team of SIS operatives and their Increment support squad from an air base in Malta in March 2011, to a remote, desert location in Libya, to coordinate with friendly, anti-government rebels fighting against the Gaddafi regime. The SIS had naturally been involved in Afghanistan since 2001, and in Iraq since 2003, in conjunction with SAS, SBS, and SRR field teams.

In order to apply for E-Squadron, UKSF members must have at least five years of military service and have attained the rank of sergeant. They have all already completed the grueling, five-week-long, U.K. Special Forces selection process, reported to be among the most-demanding in the world, and typically only 10 percent complete the initial Aptitude Phase. Next comes jungle training in Belize, Special Forces tactics, and training with various British and foreign weapons, followed by 14 weeks of Employment Training, including the Army Combat Survival Instructor Course, and the Special Forces Parachute Course at RAF Brize Norton.

There is also initial surveillance-and-reconnaissance training, counterterrorism training, signals training, and patrol training. The final phase includes four weeks of survival, evasion, resistance, and extraction (SERE) training, with 36 hours of resistance to interrogation. Upon successful completion of all required training, usually lasting about six months, Special Forces applicants are “badged,” and awarded the appropriate beret (tan for SAS, commando-green for SBS, emerald-gray for SRR, or maroon for SFSG) and cap badge.

Then, once selected for E-Squadron, there is additional training in all aspects of intelligence collection, direct action, agent-running and debriefing, deep-cover deployments, small-arms, explosives, hand-to-hand combat, surveillance, anti-surveillance, counter-surveillance, advanced driving, infiltration and exfiltration techniques, VIP protection, sabotage, and covert communications.

While the SAS and SBS are the primary, Tier One, counterterrorist (CT) assault forces, similar in capabilities to the U.S. Army’s Delta Force and U.S. Navy’s SEAL Team Six, the SRR is a direct counterpart to the ultra-secretive, 1st Capabilities Integration Group (Airborne), or 1st CIG, previously known as the Intelligence Support Activity (ISA), described in great detail in Michael Smith’s excellent 2007 book, “Killer Elite,” and in my recent Gunpowder Magazine article on “Super-Secret Warriors: The Guns of 1st CIG and ATO” from April 26, 2023.

E-Squadron and the SRR provide close target reconnaissance, surveillance, and “eyes-on” intelligence, employing state-of-the-art, electronic-surveillance gear to eavesdrop on their targets, and many SRR operators have become quite proficient in Middle Eastern languages such as Arabic, Farsi, and Pashto. Essentially, the mission of the SRR is to locate and identify human targets for subsequent raids by the SAS or SBS, whether in the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Europe, Africa, or any other location worldwide.

British author Lewis Page, a former Royal Navy officer and former editor of The Register, wrote on October 5, 2012, that, “An E-Squadron…operator can expect to go overseas under a fake, cover identity (or perhaps multiple identities), without diplomatic immunity, wearing plain clothes and armed with concealed weapons, and thus he or she certainly has a ‘license to kill’ if the operation requires it, though military types are more likely to use terms such as ‘rules of engagement’ and ‘escalation of force’ to describe the rules governing their use of lethal methods…The E-Squadron types would be crack shots, lunatic drivers, skydivers, and/or frogmen as required, dab hands with a lump of plastic explosive, and deadly even when unarmed.

“Operatives (the preferred term is ‘operators’) have at times carried Walther PPK pistols. However, a few female operatives (the SRR has some women), physically too small to easily handle a full-size, 9mm pistol or conceal one about their person, are known to have carried PPKs as their main handgun, like James Bond.

“Bond-style skills—unarmed combat, scuba diving, freefall parachuting, demolitions, evasive and pursuit driving in civilian cars—are also rare…But there is a group in the armed forces where such skills become quite common, namely in the Special Forces. One SF formation…is particularly Bond-like in the skills it teaches its operatives.

“(These) soldiers learn to drive like lunatics, often in cars loaded with Q-Branch gadgetry (hidden, optical and thermal cameras, special radios, and microphones.) They are also intensely trained in fighting with concealable weapons, and as such are probably the best combat pistol shots in Britain, and second-to-none worldwide. They are also taught to operate undercover in plain clothes, and in various other Bond-like skills, such as unobtrusive breaking-and-entering, the photographing of documents, and dirty fighting with bare hands or improvised weapons.

“(Most E-Squadron members) are on secondment tours from…the Special Air Service and Special Boat Service…(and) may also have acquired most of the rest of James Bond’s skill set: explosives expert, frogman, skydiver, and so on. Such things are absolutely not discussed publicly.”

Interestingly enough, SRR operators, and probably E-Squadron commandos, as well, are also provided with special wristwatches that can be used as tracking devices, in the event that they are captured, according to a former member.

E-Squadron is provided with tactical air support from 7 Squadron (Chinook HC6s) at RAF Odiham, and 658 Squadron (“Blue Thunder”) AAC (AS365N3 Dauphin IIs) at Stirling Lines, both from the Joint Special Forces Aviation Wing (JSFAW).

AS365N3 transport helicopter from 658 Squadron, JSFAW. Photo credit: Mark Harkin/Wikimedia Commons

UKSF soldiers with AS365N3 transport helicopter from 658 Squadron. Photo credit: Doureios.com

They have also received direct support from the shadowy, S&D (“Surveillance and Detection,” perhaps?) Flight of 33 Squadron (dark-green Puma HC2 with special, enlarged fuel tanks) at RAF Benson in the past, but there are indications that the aging, Puma fleet may be retired completely by 2025.

Specially-modified, Puma HC2 helicopter from S&D Flight, 33 Squadron. Photo credit: Royal Air Force (RAF)

Additionally, a pair of Piper PA-31 Navajo twin-engine, civilian aircraft recently took over the duties of the retired Station Flight at RAF Northolt, which previously flew three well-maintained, BN-2B Defender/Islander military patrol aircraft on behalf of surveillance missions for the SIS, so the Navajos may also have an SIS affiliation.

Although British SIS/MI6 operatives are trained in the use of pistols (like James Bond) and submachine guns at Fort Monckton, Portsmouth, it’s actually extremely rare for an agent to be armed in the field, so there has been an increasing reliance on “hired muscle” (SAS/SBS/SRR) from E-Squadron and former UKSF operators for covert missions in the increasingly hostile climate of the Global War on Terrorism. This includes special reconnaissance, intelligence gathering, the clandestine insertion and extraction of intelligence agents, and secret military assistance to foreign powers, among other duties.

E-Squadron members receive essentially the same firearms training as SAS, SBS, and SRR commandos, and have access to the same weapons. Their most-common assault rifle is the Colt Canada L119A2 (C8 SFW or C8 CQB carbine variants), and H&K G36K and G36C carbines have been employed in Afghanistan, while longer-range rifles include the HK417A2 in 7.62mm NATO for team marksmen. The 5.56mm ammunition used is the new (as of 2016), 62-grain, BAE Systems L31A1 Enhanced-Performance round with an all-steel core and copper jacket, for improved target penetration, while the 7.62mm ammunition is the new, 155-grain, L59A1 High-Performance round with a steel tip inside the copper jacket.

Colt Canada C8 CQB carbine. Photo credit: eliteukforces.info

SAS sniper rifles such as the Accuracy International L115A2/A4 Arctic Warfare AWM in .338 Lapua Magnum, and the lighter, super-accurate, Israeli-made, DAN .338 sniper rifle may occasionally be employed by E-Squadron.

In early 2016, SAS snipers began wreaking havoc against ISIS terrorists with the new, Israeli-manufactured, long-range, DAN .338 rifle in .338 Lapua Magnum. The lightweight, foreign weapon employed an innovative, 10-power, Meprolight MESLAS high-precision, daylight scope, which incorporated a single-pulse, laser rangefinder, compact fire-control system, and exacting measurements of air temperature, humidity, weapon elevation angle, target distance, and other sensors for ballistic calculations. The MESLAS was deadly accurate out as far as 2,000 meters, which far exceeded the DAN’s recommended, effective firing range of 1,200 meters.

SAS DAN .338 suppressed, sniper rifle. Photo credit: fr.topwar.ru

The ultra-small, H&K MP5KA1 submachine gun and the suppressed MP5SD3 have been used in the past, but their 9mm pistol ammunition proved less-than-satisfactory against enemy insurgents wearing body armor, so MP5s are being replaced by L119A2 CQB models, and the much-newer, LWRCI (of Cambridge, Maryland, USA) M6A2 Ultra-Compact, Individual Weapon (UCIW), a radically-shortened, M4A1 carbine variant with a seven-inch barrel, often used with a SureFire suppressor to tame the fierce muzzle blast.

LWRCI M6 UCIW carbine. Photo by LWRCI

Available service pistols include the older L105A2 (SIG P226R) or L107A1 (SIG P228), or the current, standard L131A1 (Glock-17) or L137A1 (Glock-19). Some Walther PPKs in either 7.65mm (.32 ACP), 9mm Kurz (.380 ACP), or .22 Long Rifle (used primarily by female SRR operators) are apparently available, mostly as small, backup weapons, but they clearly lack the magazine capacity or stopping power of a larger, 9mm handgun.

The SAS and SBS specifically requested high-velocity (1,320 fps), Federal 9mm, 95-grain, jacketed soft point (JSP) ammunition (#XM9R01) in the past, before hollowpoints were authorized, but in mid-2017, according to the Express and Daily Star, they ordered the very-deadly, 92-grain, G2 Research Radically-Invasive Projectile (RIP) ammunition (#G2R9MMRIP, at 1,250 fps), in which each round rapidly fragments into eight sharp pieces of solid copper with a blunt core piece, creating nine separate wound channels, for dangerous, counterterrorist operations. This exotic, new round was already reportedly in combat use by U.S. Special Forces, undoubtedly including Delta Force.

G2 RIP 9mm ammo. Photo by G2 Research

For plainclothes E-Squadron missions, where concealment is a major factor, the super-compact UCIW and Glock-19 are especially effective in close-range engagements. The compact, well-balanced, and battle-proven Glock-19, in particular, was already the favored handgun of the U.S. Special Forces, Delta Force, the CIA, the FBI, Air Force Special Operations Command, and more-recently, the Marine Corps Special Operations Command, and U.S. Navy SEALs. It was already in widespread, international use with the Australian Special Operations Command, French Army Special Forces Brigade, Iraqi security forces, Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), Swiss Police, Yemeni armed forces, and countless other organizations.

Sheffield Knives of Sheffield, England, still produces the venerable, combat-proven, SHE006 Fairbairn-Sykes Commando Dagger ($90), 3rd Pattern, of World War Two fame, for the Royal Marine Commandos (officially) and SAS (unofficially). Scorpion Knives of Sheffield also makes a wide variety of military and survival knives, including Fairbairn-Sykes models, and UKSF commandos certainly carry various privately-owned knives on operations in the field.

Sheffield SHE006 Commando Dagger. Photo credit: hand-tools.com

Scorpion Knives Fighting Dagger. Photo credit: BladeHQ.com

In April 2022, it was announced that British SAS/SBS/SRR vehicles had begun mounting the new, XM556 Microgun 5.56mm, six-barrel Gatling gun. Designed by Empty Shell Defense, LLC, of Spring, Texas, this unique, prototype weapon is a handheld, rotary machine gun for defense-suppression in combat. Weighing only 16 pounds, and just 22 inches long (with 10-inch barrels), with either 10-inch (standard) or 16-inch (optional) barrels, it fires at either 3,000 or 6,000 rpm, and is fully capable of up to 12,000 rpm! That’s 200 rounds per second! It can also be mounted on any standard, M134 Minigun mount, for use on vehicles or helicopters. The full potential of this tiny, new Microgun has yet to be attained. At 6,000 rpm, it produces as much combined firepower as eight M249 Minimi light machine guns!

UKSF/SRR commando team. Photo credit: SOFREP

UKSF trooper in action, with desert-camouflaged ATV.
Photo credit: combatjunkieairsoft.proboards.com

UKSF personnel were sent to Northern Ireland in late 2014 and early 2015 to help detect and prevent attempted attacks by the Real Irish Republican Army and other terrorist groups. By late 2015, there were approximately 60 plainclothes, SRR operators and unarmed surveillance troops in Northern Ireland, using unmarked vehicles. A senior source told the Daily Star that, “The SRR is the best counterterrorist surveillance unit in the world. Their specialty is close, aggressive surveillance.”

The swashbuckling, Special Forces lifestyle isn’t for everyone, however, and The Mirror reported in February 2019 that, “British élite, Special Forces…are 200 soldiers short after recruitment plunged 20 percent. The lack of ‘good-quality’ soldiers has hit the Special Air Service (SAS), Special Boat Service (SBS), and SRR…Each unit normally has 340 to 400 operators…the SBS and SRR are now classified as being ‘over-stretched,’ with troops deployed in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Baltic States, and Africa.

“‘There are fewer quality people coming through…everybody has to work harder to get the job done’…selection courses are tough, and an average pass rate of 10 percent has led to as few as eight recruits…‘Life is tough. You spend a lot of time on operations, overseas exercises, and on courses. It’s unrelenting’…There is a mysterious feel to Hereford, the picture-book, English cathedral city on the border with Wales…‘it’s kept very hush-hush.’”

As of June 22, 2019, it was announced that Britain’s Director Special Forces (DSF) had developed a new plan, called “Special Operations Concept,” which, according to the BBC, “would take UKSF units…into closer cooperation with allied intelligence agencies and MI6 (hence E-Squadron)…For example…an operation might be mounted in a Baltic republic…to uncover and pinpoint Russian, covert activities.” So, the British DSF clearly recognized that these new, plausibly-deniable “gray wars” were the unfortunate wave of the future, and had to be dealt with accordingly.

With the élite British SAS still universally regarded as the finest counterterrorism force in existence, and the SRR rated as the counterterrorist surveillance unit in the world, it certainly comes as no surprise that the Secret Intelligence Service/MI6 would have a high demand for the Top-Secret commandos of E-Squadron on risky, plausibly-deniable, covert operations.

In fact, The Guardian stated on April 11, 2023, that, “Leaked, U.S. military documents indicate that the U.K. has deployed as many as 50 Special Forces to Ukraine…that of the 97 Special Forces from NATO countries active in Ukraine, 50 were British. This is considerably higher than the number from the U.S. and France, which were said to have deployed 14 and 15 Special Forces respectively…Unlike the intelligence services, the Special Forces are not subject to external, parliamentary oversight.”

Given the extraordinarily high degree of intelligence information supplied daily to the Ukrainian armed forces by the American CIA and British SIS/MI6, most of these UKSF soldiers in the Ukrainian combat zone are probably E-Squadron commandos. These daring, undercover, shadow warriors are Britain’s true, military, “secret agents,” serving with honor, distinction, and courage wherever they are needed, against all enemies of the United Kingdom.

*                    *                    *

Warren Gray is a retired, U.S. Air Force intelligence officer with experience in joint special operations and counterterrorism. He served in Europe (including Eastern Europe) and the Middle East, earned Air Force and Navy parachutist wings, eight more military qualification badges, two command badges, 19 U.S. military medals, and three foreign medals. He also earned four college degrees, including a Master of Aeronautical Science degree, and was a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Intelligence Operations Specialist Course, and the USAF Combat Targeting School. He is currently a published author and historian.