Thread #65077910
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I just saw this article about how the "raiders wing" of the italian special forces became the first NATO unit certified by the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command for Global Access Operations.
Realistically speaking, what kind of operations would this mean they can do? Are they just fancy CSAR?
sauce: https://theaviationist.com/2026/04/14/italian-air-forces-raiders-afsoc /
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Everything, presumably. Never heard of them, but it seems from wikipedia like theyre a pretty standard pattern Euro SOF unit, insofar as they don't have a rigid mission profile and do a little of everything, kinda like how the SBS and SAS technically have specialized roles but end up doing each others jobs interchangeably. The GAO being run by the air force sorta implies its focused on ensuring allied SOF can coordinated seamlessly with USAF aircraft, but they will be broadly assessing capabilities to make sure the units can work with their US equivalents without being a liability or needing to be carried.
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>>65077981
I saw a video with a European talking about how he was in a Iraqi village at night and saw a group of guys with green eyes in the next village over. The European made a circle with his laser to show he's friendly and so did the other force. Later he found out there were Americans working in that area. Their commanders weren't informed about each other. There could have been friendly fire that night.
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>>65077987
>Alpha group....busy being corpses in Africa and the Ukrainian bush
Apparently Ukies have Alpha as well. It's an inherited name from USSR times and the command structure is different, but you really need to specify which Alpha you mean.