POTD: UK Rangers In Swedish Subarctic Terrain

by Eric B

Published: July 19th, 2023

POTD: UK Rangers In Swedish Subarctic Terrain

Welcome to TFB’s Photo Of The Day! The Ranger Regiment is a newly formed unit within the United Kingdom’s army. Their 1st Battalion is normally based in Northern Ireland. UK Rangers are part of the UK Special Operations Brigade.

Since 2017, Sweden has been part of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) – a British framework for a rapid response force whose purpose is to be able to act in crises. Ten nations are currently participating in the collaboration, and the force can act independently or together with NATO.

Here we see British rangers that practiced together with ranger soldiers at Norrland’s dragoon regiment. Just like “Norrlandsjägarna”, British Ranger regiments are what are usually called knapsack units, they sleep in their own tent. The soldiers operate in small groups and bring with them everything they need to carry out their tasks in areas controlled by the enemy. They have the ability to stay behind enemy lines for a long time and conduct reconnaissance there and knock out the opponent’s most important resources – for example, functions for logistics, management, and communication.

Photo: Philip Svanberg/Försvarsmakten / Swedish Armed Forces. ( Source)

#SpecialForces #ArcticWarfare #UKRangers

Eric B

Ex-Arctic Ranger. Competitive practical shooter and hunter with a European focus. Always ready to increase my collection of modern semi-automatics, optics, thermals and suppressors. TCCC Certified. Occasionaly seen in a 6x6 Bug Out Vehicle, always with a big smile.

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11 of 14 comments

Brettbaker on Jul 20, 2023

"... based in Northern Ireland". I thought The Troubles were over?

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- HenryV on Jul 20, 2023
  
  @Brettbaker There has always been barracks and defence establishments in Northern Ireland which were nothing to do with public or security.
  
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- ForkTailedDevil on Jul 21, 2023
  
  @Brettbaker I live down the road from Palace Barracks where part of the Ranger Regiment is based along with other units. As HenryV says just because the Troubles are over doesn't mean British military units aren't based here, there just normal levels of basing rather than a large scale deployment. There's lots of small Army Reserve bases and a few larger home bases for Regiments or parts thereof. The British military doesn't draw everyone back to just the big bases in Portsmouth, Colchester etc when not at war.
  
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Vet on Jul 20, 2023

Any news about their new rifle bid? It was a hot topic last year.

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- Veloxto on Jul 20, 2023
  
  @Vet What new rifle bid? They've just updated the L85 again (now L85A3) and have gotten HK to manufacturer it (and help design the updates). Adopted in to service in 2018. By all accounts they plan on using these well into the late 2020s. The new sight they just adopted would add to this case, I'd imagine. Unless plans to form that unified NATO/EU army move ahead, or America forces everyone to adopt another cartridge (again), I can't see much changing. The Ukraine war, plus everyone in European military circles knowing the obvious, I can't see anyone in the EU moving away from 5.56 either.
  If the rifle you currently have is fine and fit for purpose (as well as being relatively modern) for your own military, there's not a whole lot of point in replacing it with another in the same caliber that's not much of an improvement. Same reason and argument why the M4/M16 never got replaced until now and why all those post-cold war programs failed. You'd only do this if the rifles you have are either too old, too worn out, or they aren't being manufactured and produced anymore. Or corruption forces a change like in Germany. Or in other EU nations where the switch is purely ideological and there's plans for a unified EU/NATO army.
  
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- UK1094 on Jul 20, 2023
  
  @Veloxto He's asking about Project Hunter, the program to provide a new rifle to the Ranger Regiment and the Royal Marines to replace the L119A1. The Knight's Armament KS1 was selected. The rest of the British Army will continue to use the L85A3.
  
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- Vet on Jul 20, 2023
  
  @UK1094 Was there an official announcement selection? The latest from March 2023 was that there was no downselect yet. https://www.army-technology...
  
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- Kinetics on Jul 20, 2023
  
  @Vet KAC stated that they had won at an industry event this year, around the time of ShotShow.
  Prominent KAC vendors have also softly confirmed it.
  
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- Mr Mxyzptlk on Jul 22, 2023
  
  @Kinetics As of a couple of days ago RMs can stil lbe seen trying out SIG Spear LTs.
  https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
  At most, they are down to the SIG and KAC for the final stage.
  
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- Vet on Jul 23, 2023
  
  @Mr Mxyzptlk Nice! What's the source of the photo? Seems like exact the same setup as in the SIG submission to Project Ranger - https://soldiersystems.net/...
  
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- Vet on Jul 23, 2023
  
  @Kinetics I'll be surprised if KAC knows and already told their vendors without an official UK MOD announcement first. My guess is that the KS1 thing is at best a rumor.
  
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POTD: UK Rangers In Swedish Subarctic Terrain

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