Get down, Shep ... how para dog may look gliding to target with SAS heroes [Sun photoshop]
Posted on 07/21/2008 5:53:08 AM PDT by Daffynition
DOGS will lead the way in SAS raids after being parachuted in to spy out rebels for troops, The Sun can reveal.
Fearless German Shepherds are being trained to jump from aircraft at 25,000ft wearing their own oxygen masks and strapped to special forces assault teams.
Once down in hostile terrain in Iraq or Afghanistan, the dogs will be sent in first to seek out insurgents’ hideouts with tiny cameras fixed to their heads.
The cameras will beam live TV pictures back to the troops, warning of ambushes or showing enemy leaders’ locations.
The amazing tactic – on which The Sun has been fully briefed – has been devised to cut down the Who Dares Wins regiment's soaring casualty rates.
Three SAS troopers have been shot dead on raids in Iraq in two years and at least eight seriously wounded.
An SAS source said: “The dogs will be exposed to very high levels of danger on these operations and you never know what’s going to be behind a door. Nobody wants to see the dogs get killed but if it’s their life or a man’s it is obvious which the CO would prefer.”
The dogs will be used in a highly-skilled technique called High Altitude High Opening, jumping as much as 20 miles from their targets and gliding towards them for up to 30 minutes.
America’s most elite unit the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, commonly known as Delta Force, has pioneered the skills for jumping with dogs from heights over 20,000ft and its instructors have been sent over to 22 SAS headquarters in Hereford.
Dogs were first trained to parachute in the Second World War by the British on rescue missions. But they have never jumped from high altitude, the best way for small groups of men to get behind enemy lines undetected. The dogs have big advantages over soldiers in that they arouse less suspicion approaching targets, can squeeze into tighter spaces and can sniff out booby-trap explosives.
Two have been issued to each of the regiment’s four squadrons with troopers specially selected to be their handlers.
Get down, Shep ... how para dog may look gliding to target with SAS heroes [Sun photoshop]
Ok...even if it were true...why does the MSM get such joy out of publishing tactical secrets?! I think it’s wonderful that they’re all bleeding red ink!
Actually they should be soundly condemned for the terrible photoshop job of the dog they put on their front page ... jes sayin’.:_D
Three SAS troopers have been shot dead on raids in Iraq in two years and at least eight seriously wounded.
Three dead in two years of combat operations = soaring casualty rate???
That is probably the safest unit in the world...
Don’t let PETA know.
Leave it to the Germans to create the premier war dog breed. If these were French Shepard s it just wouldn’t sound right parachuting with an elite unit... lol
Odd they wouldn't have a photo; they've been dropping dogs since WWII.
"Credit for the invention of the parachute goes to Sebastien Lenormand, although it had been anticipated by Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519). J.P. Blanchard (1753-1809), a Frenchman is said to have been the first to use a parachute. In 1785 he dropped a dog in a basket, to which a parachute was attached, from a balloon high in the air. Blanchard claimed to have descended from a balloon in a parachute in 1793."
"Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And I said, "Here I am. Send Me." -Isaiah 6:8
Dog teams were used in search and rescue prior to the introduciion of helicopters. The 10th Rescue Squadron prepares of drop one during the early 1950s......this is an AF archive picture, could be a PJ getting ready to chuck this mutt out of the bird, but not really sure. Cool pic, though...Looking at the picture tells me the conversation......"OK, spot, here we go!".......Dog: "F*** you, are you nuts?!"
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