Special Service Group (Navy)
The Pakistan Navy Special Service Group abbreviated SSGN or simply Navy SEALs, is the special operations force tasked with the conducting the small-unit based military operations in all environmental formats of the sea, air, and land by adopting to the tactics of the unconventional warfare.
The command and control of the Special Service Group falls under the responsibility of the Naval Strategic Forces Command and its personnel are directly recruited into ISI's Covert Action Division upon their retirements from their military service.
There is no official report on the actual strength or their military missions since their operational works are subjected to the secrecy by the federal government of Pakistan; knowledge of their works and tactics known in public through the only authorized media works and nonfiction works by the navy veteran.
History
Birth of the Navy SSG
After the second war with India in 1965, the Pakistan Navy recognized the need for establishing the armed forces diving unit to conduct the covert reconnaissance of landing beaches and coastal defenses from the attacks by the approaching enemy. Despite its vision and efforts, the Navy had little experience in combat diving and had little educational understanding about the nature of the seaborne special operations. In 1966, Vice-Admiral S. M. Ahsan took personal initiatives establishing the special operations force within the Navy by organizing the underwater demolition teams tasked with gathering intelligence while operating the midget submarines.The establishment of the Special Service Group lies from the contribution by the Pakistan Army's Special Service Group whose frogmen team— the Musa Company— first initially trained the Navy personnel on the military combat diving in 1966. Initially training of the personnel volunteered for the Special Service Group took place in Cherat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, first initially getting trained for the coastal defenses.
Crucial training on getting trained on the sea, air, and land environmental formats came from the United States Navy when the first unit of the U.S. Navy SEALs was detached to the Pakistan Navy in Karachi, also in 1966. The teams in the Navy Special Service Group were given training on the armed forces diving, high-altitude parachuting, demolitions, foreign languages, and the intelligence management for the intelligence services.
In 1970, the joint training of the Navy SSG and the U.S. Navy SEALs took place in Naval Base Iqbal in Karachi coast, receiving training and getting the expertise in the sea, air, and land environmental formats.
Since the 1970s, the Navy SSG teams are occasionally sent to the United States for specialized courses and training conducted with the United States Navy SEALs.
Deployments, covert actions and current history
On March 1971, the Navy SSG were deployed in the East-Pakistan to support the Army Special Service Group instead of the Army's frogmen team— the Musa Company that remained in Pakistan to conduct the inland waterways operations. Their first direct action based military mission took place in an counterinsurgency operation in Barisal in East-Pakistan, which turned out be a successful in maintaining the control of the city.On April 1971, the Navy SSG teams were involved in taking another direct actions in Toulon in France when the thirteen East-Pakistani enlists decided to takeover the submarine to try defecting to India but their plans were foiled due to advance knowledge that the Naval Intelligence had gathered on their plans. The Navy SSG teams engagement with the Bengali insurgents, taking military counter actions at the ports of Chittagong and the Cox's Bazar. The Navy SSG teams operated from Dacca under the command of the Captain Ahmad Zamir but the teams returned to Pakistan in September 1971 to be trained in operating the X-Craft midget submarines.
After the third war with India in 1971, the Army–Navy interaction continues with the Navy's taking forefront responsibility of setting the important role in the overall architecture of the special operations forces. Over the several years, the Navy SSG teams developed their expertise and considerable long experience in conducting the widespread military special reconnaissance of the India's coastline cities and direct actions in the Indian Ocean. In 1980s, the Navy Special Service Group was deployed in providing military assistance to Sri Lankan military during the civil war in Sri Lanka, playing crucial role to curb the insurgency in the country.
The Navy SSG's focused moves towards the special military operations to combating terrorism from the seaborne platform after the terrorist attacks in the United States in 2011. The Navy Special Service Group became involved in the Afghan war and the extended military operations in Western Pakistan in a joint coordination with the Army Special Service Group in a conflict with the foreign fighters, Talibans, and the al-Qaeda.
The Navy SSG's SEAL Team was involved in taking a crucial direct action against Taliban fighters in dislodging their attack on the Mehran Naval Air Station on May 2011.
In 2014, the Navy SEAL Teams successfully engaged the al-Qaeda fighters after they attempted to maneuver the guided missile frigate, the PNS Zulfiquar , and successfully neutralize the attack without the damage done to the guided missile frigate as well as apprehending the attackers alive.
Command structure
Due to their selective competitiveness, the demanding military physicals, and the commitment required by the Navy's special operations, the Navy Special Service Group is much more tighter contingent compared to the Army Special Service Group, though the selection for the Navy's Special Service Group is open to all naval personnel serving in the different combat branches of the Navy. The Navy SSG is much more discreet than the Army SSG since their operations and works are subjected to the secrecy marked by the Navy though it is known that it is an all-male special operation force.The control and command structure of the Navy Special Service Group is based in the PNS Iqbal— the naval base in Karachi, Sindh in Pakistan— and their operations are controlled through the Naval Special Operations Training Center. Their armed forces diving training establishment and structure was initially based in the PNS Himalaya but later consolidated their entire structure with the commissioning of the Iqbal Naval Base on 19 March 1967.
The organizational structure of the Navy Special Service Group follows their Army Special Service Group counterparts, and its organizational structure is based on the command formation reporting directly the Commander of the Coastal Areas. The Navy Special Service Group has three sub command formations that specialized in their own set of war course of actions–each command is specialized in their criterion of war and are considered specialists in their fields.
The Navy Special Service Group's operational responsibility of conducing the special operations, nonetheless, falls under the command of the Naval Strategic Forces Command operating from the Navy NHQ in Islamabad.
According to the Navy's official website, the Navy Special Service Group is organized with the Iqbal Naval Base that is having responsible to control the each command.
In 1968, the Navy Special Service Group was operating at least six Italian-built SX-404 class midget submarine to function as a SEAL delivery vehicle and had priority over the Hangor program at some time in 1970., the Navy Special Service Group currently operates at least three Cosmos-class midget submarines that are designed to be inducted for the SEAL Group, and locally known as the "X-Craft." The Cosmos-class are currently known to be stationed in PNS Iqbal with the SX-404 class.
The military administration at the PNS Iqbal also facilitates the advance training of the selected personnel of the Navy special Service Group to be trained with the U.S. Navy SEALs in California and Virginia.
SEALs Teams in the Special Services Group (SSGN)
The Navy Special Service Group is composed of the three sub-commands: CO PNS Iqbal, CO SEAL Group, and CO VBSS Group— all are trained in their specialized tasks and considered specialists in the specific type of war operations.The maritime authors and historians of the Pakistan Navy have provided the rough and the guessed estimation of personnel which was neared around 1,000 SSGN operatives but the department of navy has never issued an actual strength number of its personnel serving in the Navy Special Service Group.
The official strength and the identities of its personnel serving in each sub-commands are subjected to the secrecy by the department of navy and the Defense ministry has never commented or the Navy itself has never issued the official number of strength of its personnel, including the officers commanding, citing security. In the Navy, the commands of the teams varies by the officer ranking from OF-2 rank to OF-5 rank, depending on the availability and the difficulty posed by the missions.