An SAS soldier
Last October there was a flurry of articles in the British media about the deployment of the SAS to Cyprus. The regiment was reported as being on standby in case it was needed to rescue British hostages in Gaza. Then, suddenly, there was complete silence. This was because the British government issued a D-Notice to muzzle the press.
Reports that the SAS was preparing for a possible hostage rescue would not have resulted in the issue of a D-Notice and security observers believe something else is afoot. Israeli special forces would be able to perform a rescue mission just as well, if not better, than the SAS.
The SAS is the elite of Britain’s special forces and has access to the most cutting-edge equipment developed for modern warfare. Gaza is an opportunity to test some of it in a real underworld scenario.
The SAS may have infiltrated the Gaza’s labyrinthine tunnel complex, a world of narrow passageways with booby traps and ambush points, in the company of the Israeli Defence Force’s (IDF) Samur or ‘Weasel’ unit, which specialises in underground combat.
The tunnels present opportunities to test the latest subterranean military drones and robots in real combat conditions. Such drones are fitted with anti-collision sensors and rotator blades enclosed in protective cages. While normal drones rely on GPS or other satnav for navigation, radio waves do not travel through rocks, dirt and concrete. These obstacles can be overcome by Simultaneous Location and Mapping (Slam) software. A Slam drone can build a 3D model of its environment and track its position without an external navigation reference such as GPS, or a human operator.
In the commercial world, Slam-enabled drones have been able to map out disused mines. In 2020 a company called Exyn demonstrated that one of its vehicles could carry out a complete self-directed exploration of an underground environment and return safely.
The IDF’s Weasels have access to the Legion-X system manufactured by Elbit Systems. Lanius drones – small quadcopters – which have search and destroy capabilities, are the core components here. A large octocopter drone acts as a mothership to small, sensor-carrying Lanius drones, which are ideal to explore the tunnels underneath Gaza. Lanius drones can also carry deadly grenade-sized explosive charges.
After suffering multiple casualties in Afghanistan, US special forces developed the Nova drone, which can also map and search multi-story indoor buildings and underground complexes without a human operator.
Whitehall does not seem to have pondered what will happen if an SAS soldier is killed or, even worse, captured. D-Notices are voluntary and only operate within the UK.
If this scenario is accurate, Whitehall appears to be willing to gamble the safety of the British public for the opportunity to secretly deploy the SAS in Gaza. Meanwhile, senior MI5 and GCHQ officials are issuing chilling security alerts to the British government as threat levels reach their highest peaks in 20 years. The UK’s threat level is set by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, which sits inside MI5 headquarters in London.
