Eye of the Storm (59 page)

M72
   
see
LAW66

M79
   single-shot 40mm grenade launcher, used by the SAS on
Operation Storm
(q.v.) in Oman

M203
   
see
M16

Mentor
   antiquated single-piston-engined, twin-seat trainer that entered service with the USAF in 1948, the US-designed and built Beech T34A Mentor saw service in the Vietnam War as a spotter/reconnaissance aircraft. During the Falklands campaign, four Mentors of the Argentinian Air Force were destroyed on the ground at Pebble Island by the SAS

MID
   Mention in Despatches

Milan
   wire-guided anti-tank missile system deployed by some SAS mobile patrols during the Gulf campaign. At 35 kilos in weight the system is too heavy to be carried by foot patrols, but mounted on the rollbar of a
110
(q.v.), proved devastatingly effective against both mobile targets and fixed defences; its sighting aid,
MIRA
(q.v.), also proved invaluable. The 6.65kg missile has a range of 2,000 metres and can penetrate armour up to 106cm in thickness. Milan first demonstrated its worth in action during the Falklands campaign of 1982

Minimi
   Belgian-designed and built 5.56mm air-cooled light machine-gun used by some SAS patrols in the Gulf campaign. With a cyclic rate of fire of 750–1,000 rounds per minute and capable of being fed either by belt or a box magazine, the Minimi can also take the standard
M16
(q.v.) magazine; at 6.8kg it is light enough to be carried by foot patrols

MIRA
   Milan infrared attachment, a sighting device fitted to the
Milan
(q.v.) missile system. Primarily a night sight, MIRA can be detached from the missile housing and used as a hand-held sighting/detection aid, in which role it proved itself with SAS mobile patrols during the Gulf campaign

Mk19
   US-designed and built fully automatic 40-mm grenade launcher, mounted on some SAS
110
s (q.v.) in the Gulf campaign. Belt fed and air cooled, the Mk19 (also called M19) has a rate of fire of up to 375 rounds per minute, and an effective range of 1,600 metres; the variety of grenades it can handle includes high-explosive, smoke and armour-piercing

MoD
   Ministry of Defence

MP5
   9mm, magazine-fed submachine-gun designed and built by the German concern Heckler & Koch, and available in a number of variants. The various weapons in the MP5 series have been the SAS’s preferred submachine-guns for many years

MSR
   main supply route: major roads traversing Iraq, principally those from Jordan to Baghdad; some are metalled

MTO
   motor transport officer

NAAFI
   Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes; the organization which, for many years, has provided the British armed forces with shops, canteens, and other services

Naps
   tablets issued during the Gulf War to Coalition troops, to counteract the effect of possible enemy
NBC
(q.v.) measures

NBC
   nuclear, biological and chemical, as in ‘NBC war-fare’; generally used of the protective NBC suits and headgear issued to all servicemen during the Gulf campaign, and of NBC precautionary measures, such as injections and tablets

OC
   officer commanding

O-group
   orders group; a formal briefing given by a commander before an operation to subordinate commanders, who are tasked with passing the relevant information on to their own subordinates

OP
   observation post

Operation Storm
   codename for SAS involvement in Britain’s then secret war against Marxist-backed insurgents (
see
adoo
[q.v.]) in the Sultanate of Oman, 1970–6

Patriot
   MIM-104 Patriot, US-built
SAM
(q.v.) specifically designed to destroy incoming enemy
SSM
s (q.v.). During the Gulf War, Patriot was used against Iraqi
Scud
(q.v.) missiles to considerable effect both in Saudi Arabia and in Israel

PE
   plastic explosive

PFLOAG
   Popular Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arabian Gulf;
see
adoo

PNGs
   passive night-vision goggles

pot
   soldiers’ slang for a steel helmet

prime time
   SAS nickname for free time which, if there were no operations, training or courses, members of the Regiment were permitted to spend as they wished, provided they remained within reach of
RHQ
(q.v.)

PTI
   physical training instructor

Pucara
   an Argentinian-designed and built twin turboprop close-support/counter-insurgency/reconnaissance aircraft, the FMA IA-58 Pucara was deployed by the Argentinian Air Force during the Falklands campaign; the SAS destroyed six Pucaras on the ground at Pebble Island, and shot down another with a
Stinger
(q.v.) missile

Puma
   twin turboshaft, single-rotor tactical transport helicopter, designed and built as an Anglo-French venture between Westland and Sud-Aviation (later Aerospatiale), and designated HC1 in RAF service, which it entered in 1971. Capabilities include deployment for
casevac
(q.v.), as a troop transport (up to 16 fully equipped troops), as a medium-lift transport, and as a helicopter gunship

PX
   Post Exchange: US armed forces equivalent of the British
NAAFI
(q.v.)

R&R
   rest and recuperation

REME
   Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers

RFA
   Royal Fleet Auxiliary

RHQ
   Regimental Headquarters

RQMS
   regimental quartermaster sergeant

RSM
   Regimental Sergeant-Major

RTU-ed
   returned to unit; the fate most dreaded by candidates for or members of the SAS. It usually takes effect immediately, and sees the soldier in question sent back to the regiment or corps from which he has come; however, no official stigma attaches to being RTU-ed

RUC
   Royal Ulster Constabulary

RV
   rendezvous

SA80
   British-designed and built 5.56mm magazine-fed fully automatic assault rifle: currently the standard-issue rifle of the British Army (but not the SAS, which favours the lighter and more reliable US-built
M16
[q.v.])

SAM
   surface-to-air missile

SARBE
   
see
TACBE

satcoms
   satellite communications; satellite-link telephone

satlink
   
see
satcoms

SBS
   Special Boat Service (formerly Squadron), Royal Marines; in some respects the SAS’s sister service although, as its name suggests, geared more towards maritime operations

Scud
   antiquated Soviet-designed and built intermediate-range
SSM
(q.v.), deployed by Iraq during the Gulf War against targets in Israel and Saudi Arabia. Although inaccurate, Scud can carry conventional, biological, chemical or nuclear warheads, and can be fired from mobile, as well as fixed, launch sites, which are difficult to locate by aerial reconnaissance; furthermore, Iraqi engineers had considerably extended its range and marginally improved its crude guidance system, making it still a weapon to be feared

Sea Harrier
   shipborne version of the British Aerospace (formerly Hawker) Harrier in service with the RAF, the Fleet Air Arm’s Sea Harriers downed 22 Argentinian air-craft during the Falklands campaign for the loss of just 6 of their own (2 of which were lost in accidents, and the remainder to ground fire or
SAM
s [q.v.]). The world’s only vertical take-off and landing combat aircraft, the Harrier is also in service with the US Marine Corps, in which form it is built in the USA by McDonnell Douglas as the AV-8

Sea King
   twin turboshaft, single-rotor naval search-and-rescue and anti-submarine helicopter designed by Sikorsky in the USA as the SH-3, and built by Westland in the UK. Used in a variety of roles, it is now designated the H-3. Operating with the Task Force, Sea Kings provided valuable service during the Falklands campaign, although one aircraft, carrying 3 crew and 27 men, crashed into the sea with the loss of 22 lives, the majority of them SAS

Selection
   the process undergone by all servicemen seeking to join the SAS. Run by the Regiment’s Training Wing at Hereford, it is a mentally and physically gruelling combination of training and endurance tests, divided into phases and run over many weeks. At the end of it, a successful candidate will be
badged
(q.v.), although it will be another two years before he is either accepted or rejected as a full-time member of the Regiment. The two
TA
(q.v.) regiments, 21 and 23 SAS, have their own Selection training programme

SEP
   surrendered enemy personnel; term used during the campaign in Oman (
see
Operation Storm
[q.v.]) for
adoo
(q.v.) who gave themselves up to the authorities, many of whom would then join a
firqat
(q.v.)

shaped charge
   a powerful explosive demolition charge, the ‘shaping’ directing the blast in such a way as to cause maximum destruction to the object to be breached or destroyed

shemagh
   Arab headdress cloth; also called a
keffiyeh

sitrep
   situation report

Skyvan
   a twin-piston-engined light transport aircraft designed and built by Short Brothers of Belfast between 1963 and 1986; many are still in service as short-haul cargo or passenger transports. Capable of carrying 19 passengers, the SC7 Skyvan saw service with the Sultan of Oman’s Air Force during the campaign in Dhofar, two of these aircraft being damaged irreparably in accidents in 1974; during the Falklands campaign of 1982 a Skyvan of the Argentinian Navy was wrecked in an accident at Port Stanley, and another destroyed on the ground by the SAS at Pebble Island

SLR
   self-loading rifle: 7.62mm semi-automatic magazine- fed rifle designed by the Belgian FN arms concern. The standard-issue rifle of the British Army, by which it was designated L1A1, until the introduction of the
SA80
(q.v.) in the 1980s, the British version was hampered by the fact that it could fire only single shots, and by its length and weight; the almost identical FNs used by the Argentinians in the Falklands were fully automatic

SNCO/JNCO
   senior/junior non-commissioned officer

SOE
   Special Operations Executive; British clandestine organization formed during the Second World War to insert agents into German-occupied Europe and maintain them in place

SOPs
   standing operational procedures; instructions issued as guidelines in the British Army, for instance by directing staff (
see
DS
) or regimental headquarters (
RHQ
), and designed to cover widely differing circumstances a soldier or soldiers might encounter

souk
Arab market

‘Spargan’
   SAS approximation of the Russian name Shpagin, a term used for a Soviet-designed and built 12.7mm belt-fed, air-cooled heavy machine-gun, usually tripod mounted. The weapon’s actual designation is D.Sh.K M1938/46, the first part of the abbreviation standing for the joint designers, Degtyarev and Shpagin, and the ‘K’ indicating ‘heavy’

SP team
   Special Projects team: the Regiment’s counter- terrorist team, formed by each of the four Sabre Squadrons in rotation, serving in the role for roughly six months at a time, and based in the UK

spy glass
   a compact, hand-held night-vision device that operates by thermal imagery

SSM
   surface-to-surface missile; squadron sergeant-major

Stinger
   US-designed and built, shoulder-launched SAM: utilizing a passive infrared homing system and equipped with an IFF (identification friend or foe) device, Stinger is a ‘fire-and-forget’ weapon, meaning that once the missile has locked on to a target the operator does not have to guide it. Introduced in the US in 1981, it was used with success by the SAS in the Falklands (
see
Pucara
), and was carried by SAS patrols in the Gulf War

stun grenade
   
see
flash bang

Swift scope
   a telescopic single-lens monocular – a powerful optical instrument used for observation at long ranges

TA
   Territorial Army. The SAS has two TA regiments, 21 and 23 SAS

tab
   SAS and Para slang for march, equivalent to the Royal Marine Commandos’ ‘yomp’

TACBE
   tactical beacon: a light and compact surface-to-air rescue beacon, weighing only some 250 grams, which is used to make direct contact with aircraft flying overhead if other means of communication have failed. Its principal disadvantage is that its signals are easily detected by enemy direction-finding equipment. Also known as SARBE (search and rescue beacon)

time pencil
   chemical timing device used to detonate explosive charges

Trimpack
   electronic satellite-navigation device, used by SAS patrols in the Gulf campaign

UAE
   United Arab Emirates: an independent group of seven emirates on the Persian Gulf, including Abu Dhabi and Dubai