British special forces are re-orienting away from anti-terrorism and brushfire wars towards operating against Russia and China. This was specifically indicated by Brigadier Mark Totten, commander of a special 4,000-strong “future commando force” of Royal Marines. This commando force will be taking over some of the tasks normally assigned to the Special Air Service and Special Boat Service so that they have more time to focus on Russia and China. “What we will be able to do is allow [special forces] to focus on more difficult, more complex, counter-Russia, counter-China [tasks],” he said, according to The Times. “It takes real specialist expertise, so we will allow them to have more time and people to address those and we can conduct some of the tasks, such as maritime counterterrorism for example, or partnered operations, where it is difficult, where there is a higher risk.”
Totten’s comments are the first official acknowledgment that special forces will be tasked with tackling the threat from China and Russia, The Times says. The Times further reports that it is thought the highly secretive operations could involve troops operating alongside MI6 to mount surveillance against Chinese and Russian intelligence and military units. According to the report, part of their job will be to track adversaries and build a picture of the changing and “accelerating” nature of the threat.
“You could send 25 guys from special operations to Africa carrying out counterterrorism and send four guys from the SAS to somewhere in the South China Sea as this would need to be lower profile and is politically more treacherous.” Totten said melting ice caps in the Arctic could open sea routes for Russia and China, and that: “There’s a big geopolitical shift there so why wouldn’t we embed the commando force up there to be ready to react?” Royal Marines will also be deployed east of Suez and could go to the Indo-Pacific ready for any conflicts that may arise. He said they could provide teams that could conduct training and “if there is a crisis that bubbles up we’ve got a footprint on the ground.”
