The Special Reconnaissance Regiment conducts surveillance operations mainly concerning, but not limited to, "counter-terrorism" activities. It was formed to relieve the Special Air Service and the Special Boat Service of that role and is believed to contain around 500–700 personnel. Media reports state they are based alongside the Special Air Service at Stirling Lines barracks, Credenhill in Herefordshire. The SRR was formed to meet a demand for a special reconnaissance capability identified in the Strategic Defence Review: A New Chapter published in 2002 in response to the 2001 September 11 attacks. The regiment was formed around a core of the already established 14 Intelligence Company, which played a similar role against the Provisional IRA in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
The regiment was active during the Iraq War as part of Task Force Black/knight. Although members of other British Special forces units were sceptical of the value of the regiment, by mid-2006 a handful of SRR operators were operating in Baghdad. They formed Special Reconnaissance detachments that were commanded by SRR officers. The force was made up of Task Force Black/knight operators who carried out difficult surveillance missions throughout the city.
In the aftermath of 21 July 2005 London bombings, the SRR attached one of its members to each of the Metropolitan Police Service's surveillance teams to provide additional capability to a seriously overstretched SO12. On 22 July 2005 Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead by armed police officers on a London Underground train at Stockwell tube station. Three media reports carry unconfirmed assertions by unattributed UK government sources that SRR personnel were involved in the intelligence collection effort leading to the shooting and were on the tube train while the offensive action occurred. A partial Ministry of Defence response was reported by The Sunday Times.
On 27 June 2006, a 16-man unit from C Squadron, Special Boat Service and the SRR carried out Operation Ilois: an operation that covertly captured four Taliban leaders in compounds on the outskirts of Sangin, Helmand province. As they returned to their Land Rover vehicles, they were ambushed by an estimated 60 to 70 Taliban insurgents. With one vehicle disabled by Rocket-propelled grenade fire, the team took cover in an irrigation ditch and requested assistance while holding off the Taliban force. The Helmand Battle Group had not been informed of the operation until it went wrong; a quick reaction force made up of a platoon of Gurkhas responded but ran into another insurgent ambush; one SBS member was seriously injured in the ambush. After an hour-long gunfight, Apache attack helicopters, the Gurkha quick reaction force and the 16-man unit, supported by a U.S. A-10 Thunderbolt and two Harrier GR7s managed to break contact and return to the closest forward operating base; two of the four Taliban leaders were killed in the firefight while the remaining two escaped in the chaos. Upon reaching the forward operating base it was discovered that Captain David Patton, SRR, and Sergeant Paul Bartlett, SBS were missing – one was helping wounded out of a vehicle when he was shot and assumed killed, while the second went missing during the firefight. A company from the Parachute Regiment in an RAF Chinook took off to find them, a pair of Apaches spotted the bodies and the Parachute Regiment troops recovered them. One SBS member was awarded the MC for his actions in the ambush.
Dissident Irish Republican campaign
In 2009 a fifth operational Squadron was established at 22 SAS which was given the designation E Squadron, the Squadron was composed of seasoned members of the SAS who had already served in the existing Sabre Squadrons. E Squadron had a mandate to work closely with the UK Intelligence Community such as SIS, on missions that required 'maximum discretion' in places that were 'off radar and considered dangerous' and called upon the specific expertise of the military. The squadron often operated in plain clothes, with the full range of national support, such as false identities at its disposal. In March 2009, Chief ConstableSir Hugh Orde informed the Northern Ireland Policing Board that he had asked for the Special Reconnaissance Regiment to be deployed in Northern Ireland to help the Police Service of Northern Ireland gather intelligence on dissident republicans. He claimed that they would have no operational role and would be fully accountable, as required by the St Andrews Agreement. Deputy First Minister and Sinn Féin MP Martin McGuinness and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams condemned the move, but Democratic Unionist Party MP Ian Paisley, Jr. said the SRR "poses absolutely no threat to any community in Northern Ireland". In April 2011, the Telegraph reported that a surveillance team from the SRR had spent three weeks tracking a cell of 4 men belonging to the Óglaigh na hÉireann -a dissident Irish republican paramilitary group operating in Northern Ireland made up of members who split from the Real IRA. The SRR members watched the men, who photographed key roads and buildings in London, including the Olympic Stadium. Intelligence suggested that ONH and other dissident Republicans were not aiming to launch mass-casualty attacks but continue to target police and military targets. One source said the unit was not thought to have the capability of launching a terrorist attack on mainland Britain, although some dissidents have that capacity. The cell was not thought to be targeting the royal wedding.
In April 2016, it was revealed that members of the Special Reconnaissance Regiment were seconded to MI6 teams in Yemen to train Yemeni forces fightingAQAP, as well as identifying targets for drone strikes. Along with the SAS, they have been carrying out a similar role in Somalia.
Uniform distinctions
Personnel retain the uniforms of their parent organisations with the addition of an "emerald grey" coloured beret and the SRR cap badge. The cap badge shares Excalibur in common with the other UKSF units, in the case of the SRR being placed behind a Corinthian helmet, surmounting a scroll inscribed RECONNAISSANCE. The stable belt of the SRR is similar in style to that of the SAS, however, being midnight blue, it is darker.
