Anti-Shipping Tasks
A specialty of the SBS involves sabotaging ships and harbor installations. Canoeists, swimmers or divers infiltrate the target areas, sometimes with the assistance of mini-subs and swimmer delivery vehicles. Once on target, the operators attach magnetic limpet mines to the ship's hulls. The fuses on the mines are time delayed to enable the SBS saboteurs to withdraw to a safe distance.
One such mission was planned against a merchant ship docked in a foreign port during the Falklands war (1982). It was believed that the ship was carrying French-made Exocet anti-ship missiles, bound for Argentina. The mission was scrubbed at the very last minute.
The SBS can also be used to attack ships at sea, boarding hostile ships either from fast rigid inflatable boats (RIBs) or 'fast-roping' down from helicopters.
Such attacks are less likely in these days of the global war on terror although the various clandestine methods of infiltrating harbours may still be used to plant tracking devices to suspect vessels.
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