/k/'s opinion on russian Spetznas/Alpha group?

>>30166934
Two men enter, 76 men don't leave, mission accomplished.

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>>30166934

>cue le ebin massive casualties maymay
Competent, but marred by inept leadership like the rest of the Russian army. Much of the special forces guys that died in Afghan and Chechnya died needlessly because they were sent places they shouldn't have been sent to do things not that important. When they get to flex without bureaucracy, they can be world class like the initial incursion in Afghanistan with the taking of the government buildings.

>>30166934
Get ready for 200 posts of 'le casualties' memes and no discussion outside of copy-pasting from wikipedia.

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Probably pretty good, but Russian SOF is really opaque and I don't know much about it. Spetsnaz as a designation gets applied to everything, and according to Wiki Alfa group is an FSB counter-terror formation, which leads me to think they are more like a SWAT team or the HRT than American Green Berets. I know that some conscript units get designated Spetsnaz and get to wear those batman patches, but in reality spend their service doing slightly more PT than usual and stacking boxes. Are "Alfa" and "Vega" even still the designations used? What happened to "Vympel" and

Does anyone have any recommended reading? Mark Galeotti's Osprey book on Russian Security and Paramilitary Forces since 1991 is very good. Can any /k/bros who read Slavrunes enlighten us?

In the meantime, have a picture of a Russian Federal Narcotics Control Service Spetsnaz operator.

>>30168221
Vympel was always an SVR unit

>>30168284

Vympel was transferred to the FSB in 1995. The current SVR unit is apparently called "Zaslon", according to Wiki.

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>>30166934
on paper, they appear to be a very competent force, (like delta, SAS, etc)

however their actual combat encounters have been 'troubled' at best, and out right incompetent in others.

>>30166934
From someone that met them all around the world: ruthless sadistic fuckers.

>>30166934
They highly trained an well equipped hitman's clearly not trained to solve hostage situations just look at any dagestan on chechen combat footage they demolish the whole scene to the ground

>>30168359

Zaslon is scary. Its the only unit in the world i genuinely fear.

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>>30166934
The best of the best.

>>30168221
What camo?

AN94 in 7.62x39?


WHAT THE FUCK!

>>30168221

Vympel is a ammunition plant

http://www.vympel-amursk.ru/eng_index.htm

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>>30171268

The prototypes and early models were in 7.62x39 due to special forces preference over 5.45.

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>>30171246
SURPAT.

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>>30168221
>I know that some conscript units get designated Spetsnaz and get to wear those batman patches

There is a huge confusion about this actually. The GRU agency symbol is that batman stuff(the symbol was created before Batman existed by the way).

The VDV 45th recon detachment uses the GRU symbol because they report to GRU, but the 45th aren't spetsnaz in the special forces sense, they're like the Army Rangers. They're an elite recon unit.

The real GRU Spetsnaz has an official patch, which is pic related. But GRU doesn't wear patches while on the field, so you only get to see it in special occasions. And unlike FSB guys which don't mind having profiles in Vkontakte, posting their gear on the internet, these GRU guys are extremely secretive and prefer to pretend they don't even exist.

>>30171284

"Vympel" is a fancy name for "flag" in the first place. Was a fairly popular "heroic" word in soviet times.