The Special Air Service is a small Special Forces unit, within the British Army. Exact numbers are not known but it is believed that the unit is about 400 strong (including auxiliary staff) although there are rumours that they have been ordered to expand and recruit "60 to 80 members over the next five years to create a fifth sabre squadron capable of deploying on operations." (Telegraph - 07/03/2004)

The Special Air Service now also have a support regiment called the Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR), mostly made up of Para's the regiment will fight the larger actions, freeing up the troops to deploy in their more traditional role. (BBC - 05/04/2005)

At present the Special Air Service is split in to 4 'sabre squadrons', (plus 'SASR' the reserve squad) each containing around 64 men and labelled A, B, D & G, within each sabre squad there are 4 smaller specialists 'Troops', Air, Mountain, Mobility and Boat Troop. Each troop contains around 16 men and is split into 4, 4-man 'patrols', all soldiers are rotated through different troops during their three year service, thus giving each patrol a broad range of specialist skills on top of their patrol skills.

In addition, each squadron is periodically rotated through anti-terrorist duty forming the Anti-Terrorist Team.

Anti-Terrorist Wing

Air-Troop

Boat-Troop

Mobility-Troop

Mountain-Troop