Army Rangers vs Navy SEALs: Who would win in a one-on-one or squad-based fight?

[bRiT636]

Rangers VS SEALs?

You guys are making this way too complicated.

The answer is who ever has the element of surprise.

Think about it, they are equally good at their jobs and there are so many variables to account for.

But if a squad were waiting in near ambush with 240b's and claymores then the other squad would lose no matter how skilled they are.

*click *click BOOM!!! with a hellstorm of 7.62mm to finish off what's left.

Nobody would survive that mad minute.

this...although I wasnt impressed with the power of claymores as much as I thought I would.

[tacticalcity]

Depends on the fight, the terrain, the objective, and which Ranger and Seal units you are talking about. More often than not it's like saying who would win a fight between Van Dam and Van Damn (yes I said the same guy both times). Most are equal in training (despite the hype surround the Seals). For every Seal unit that does something, there is an Army unit that does pretty much the same thing. The Seal Team formerly known as Seal Team Six has the Army equivelent of Delta Force...who makes up Delta? Mostly Rangers. The difference being the Army likes to split their units up and call them different things on an orgizational level so people get used to thinking of them as different animals. The Navy not so much.

In both the Rangers and the Seals it is possible to become a Ranger or a Seal and then get assigned to a less than galmorous job where those skills are barely utilized if at all. However, more often than not you are sent to a specialized unit where you receive considerable specialized training. That training NEVER stops. When you are not deployed, you train. You also go into specific training cycles where you are not deployable. That continues throughout your career.

There are exceptions to every rule, but to say Rangers just get their tab and are done with it while Seals continue with their training is inaccurate. It might be a little easier to get the tab than a trident (though I am not entirely convinced of that) but your life doesn't suddenly get easier once you have it. Not if you are actively serving as a Ranger in a Ranger unit.

The career path and life of a Ranger is almost identical to a Seal. Similar opportunities exist to shine or stall out. There are some very specialized Ranger units that do some very specialized things. Just like there are some very specialized Seal units that do some very specialized things. Then there are other units that by comparison to Delta or the team formerly called Team Six are darn right utilitarian. It is also possible to earn your tab or trident and then spend the rest of your career in a non-special operations unit. Happens more often than you would think.

Just a little FYI for the fanboys of each...the Rangers and the Seals each have units that are open to members of other services from a variety of specialities. So you'll see Navy, Marines, and Air Force guys serving as actual Army Rangers just as you will see Army, Air Force, and Marines serving as actual Navy Seals. Sounds really strange and most people who are NOT a Ranger or a Seal don't know that or believe it when they are first told. But it is true.

To confuse matters even more, both the Seals and Rangers will routinely deploy with Special Operators from the United States Air Force called Combat Controllers or Pararescue. It has always been that way, as the medals awarded during past operations like Panama show (Pararescue guy saved the lives of both Seals and Rangers while taking fire and getting shot several times himself yet he kept right on treating them like the battle field was a hospital ER and nothing was wrong) the practice has gained a lot more notarity lately. So sometimes that Air Force guy is on loan to them, other times he is actually a Ranger or a Seal. The presence of a tab or trident is a big clue. I admit, it is really odd to see an Army guy with a Seal Trident on his chest, but it happens. So be careful before you assume he is a poser...because he can kill you with his pinky finger about 1000 different ways.

A lot of fan boys are about to disogree with me, but you can look it up.

[RMP91]

Depends on the fight, the terrain, the objective, and which Ranger and Seal units you are talking about. More often than not it's like saying who would win a fight between Van Dam and Van Damn. Most are equal in training (despite the hype surround the Seals). For every Seal unit that does something, there is an Army unit that does pretty much the same thing. The Seal Team formerly known as Seal Team Six has the Army equivelent of Delta Force...who makes up Delta? Mostly Rangers. The difference being the Army likes to split their units up and call them different things from an orgizational level so people get used to thinking of them as different animals. The Navy not so much.

In both the Rangers and the Seals it is possible to become a Ranger or a Seal and then get assigned to a less than galmorous job where those skills are barely utilized if at all. However, more often than not you are sent to a specialized unit where you receive considerable specialized training. That training NEVER stops. When you are not deployed, you train. You also go into specific training cycles where you are not deployable. That continues throughout your career. There are exceptions to every rule, but to say Rangers just get their tab and are done with it while Seals continue with their training is inaccurate. It might be a little easier to get the tab than a trident (though I am not entirely convinced of that) but your life doesn't suddenly get easier once you have it. Not if you are actively serving as a Ranger in a Ranger unit. The career path and life of a Ranger is almost identical to a Seal. Similar opportunities exist to shine or stall out.

There are some very specialized Ranger units that do some very specialized things. Just like there are some very specialized Seal units that do some very specialized things. One is example is that both the Rangers and the Seals have a unit that is open to members of other services from a variety of specialities. So you'll see Navy, Marines, and Air Force guys serving as actual Rangers just as you will see Army, Air Force, and Marines serving as Navy Seals. Sounds really strange and most people who are NOT a Ranger or a Seal don't know that or believe it when they are first told. But it is true.

Very good post!

[SoCal_Sapper]

Depends on the fight, the terrain, the objective, and which Ranger and Seal units you are talking about. More often than not it's like saying who would win a fight between Van Dam and Van Damn (yes I said the same guy both times). Most are equal in training (despite the hype surround the Seals). For every Seal unit that does something, there is an Army unit that does pretty much the same thing. The Seal Team formerly known as Seal Team Six has the Army equivelent of Delta Force...who makes up Delta? Mostly Rangers. The difference being the Army likes to split their units up and call them different things on an orgizational level so people get used to thinking of them as different animals. The Navy not so much.

In both the Rangers and the Seals it is possible to become a Ranger or a Seal and then get assigned to a less than galmorous job where those skills are barely utilized if at all. However, more often than not you are sent to a specialized unit where you receive considerable specialized training. That training NEVER stops. When you are not deployed, you train. You also go into specific training cycles where you are not deployable. That continues throughout your career.

There are exceptions to every rule, but to say Rangers just get their tab and are done with it while Seals continue with their training is inaccurate. It might be a little easier to get the tab than a trident (though I am not entirely convinced of that) but your life doesn't suddenly get easier once you have it. Not if you are actively serving as a Ranger in a Ranger unit.

The career path and life of a Ranger is almost identical to a Seal. Similar opportunities exist to shine or stall out. There are some very specialized Ranger units that do some very specialized things. Just like there are some very specialized Seal units that do some very specialized things. Then there are other units that by comparison to Delta or the team formerly called Team Six are darn right utilitarian. It is also possible to earn your tab or trident and then spend the rest of your career in a non-special operations unit. Happens more often than you would think.

Just a little FYI for the fanboys of each...the Rangers and the Seals each have units that are open to members of other services from a variety of specialities. So you'll see Navy, Marines, and Air Force guys serving as actual Army Rangers just as you will see Army, Air Force, and Marines serving as actual Navy Seals. Sounds really strange and most people who are NOT a Ranger or a Seal don't know that or believe it when they are first told. But it is true.

To confuse matters even more, both the Seals and Rangers will routinely deploy with Special Operators from the United States Air Force called Combat Controllers or Pararescue. It has always been that way, as the medals awarded during past operations like Panama show (Pararescue guy saved the lives of both Seals and Rangers while taking fire and getting shot several times himself yet he kept right on treating them like the battle field was a hospital ER and nothing was wrong) the practice has gained a lot more notarity lately. So sometimes that Air Force guy is on loan to them, other times he is actually a Ranger or a Seal. The presence of a tab or trident is a big clue. I admit, it is really odd to see an Army guy with a Seal Trident on his chest, but it happens. So be careful before you assume he is a poser...because he can kill you with his pinky finger about 1000 different ways.

A lot of fan boys are about to disogree with me, but you can look it up.

Pics or it didn't happen. JK, good post.

[RMP91]

since they use or have access to the same weapons it would come down to training. Since they are both the best of the best.....it'd be a toss up.

the real winner would be the terrorists for pitting our armed forces against each other.....

It IS a hypothetical match-up.

Terrorists stand next to no chance against these guys combined

[chozenfew805]

With the result of:

100% All the Spec Ops units have something to offer. To say one or the other would win at anything unless you've been through the process and have worn the Trident or Tab makes you completely clueless!!!!!

[ZombieTactics]

Depends on the fight, the terrain, the objective, and which Ranger and Seal units you are talking about. ...

^^^ This more than anything else. There are environments and mission for which any particular force is better trained and better suited than some other. You also can't ever account for the "wants it bad enough" factor which is entirely a matter of personal character and aptitude. It is also true that "the race does not always go to the swift, nor the battle to the strong"

[Sonic_mike]

Who ever gets the tac nuke first.

[tacticalcity]

Pics or it didn't happen. JK, good post.

Haha, probably not going to see all that many actual pictures from the field, but you can read about them in non-fiction books. There are actually several former Air Force Commandos here on Calguns.net.

Kill Bin Laden, The Guts to Try, and Roberts Ridge all discuss the contributions of Air Force Special Operations to other more well known Special Opertions units. Kill Bin Laden (one of my favorite books) has Air Force guys deployed with Delta Force. Only breifly discusses them and they are from a unit I'd never heard of...which in itself is surprising since I'm an Air Force guy. The Guts to Try (if I am thinking of the right book) goes into considerable detail about USAF Special Operations including the Panama Operation where the Pararescue guy continued working on Rangers and Seals while taking fire and getting hit a couple times. Roberts Ridge talks about a Seal Team that had a Combat Controller assigned to them when a seal fell out of the helicopter onto a ridge infested with Taliban and their failed attempt to rescue him (everyone on the team was killed in the rescue attempt).

There are several Hollywood movies about the Seal Team (don't know the number) that is open to other services. The movies are fiction but the team exists. [I]GI Jane /I] and Behind Enemy Lines 2 come to mind. Both have Army Guys in the Seal Team. Something that is easy to miss if you were not paying close attention.

I deployed with the Ranger Unit that was open to other services back when I was a young airman. The Air Force team member handed me a card and told me to contact him when we got back to the states if I was interested. The process just to apply was complicated. You had to be a certain rank, certain age, come from a needed specialty (open to more of them than you would think), and be recommended by a supervisor who if you were any good probably would be hesitant to let you go. Sadly my vision disqualified me right out of the gate. I had a waiver just to be in the unit I was in. But I can take a small measure of pride in the fact that somebody in that community was impressed with me enough to hand me his card...and that I got to work with those guys at all, even if only in a VERY minor supporting role.

[Army GI]

Who ever gets the tac nuke first.

win.

/endthread

[RMP91]

Haha, probably not going to see all that many actual pictures from the field, but you can read about them in non-fiction books. There are actually several former Air Force Commandos here on Calguns.net.

Kill Bin Laden, The Guts to Try, and Roberts Ridge all discuss the contributions of Air Force Special Operations to other more well known Special Opertions units. Kill Bin Laden (one of my favorite books) has Air Force guys deployed with Delta Force. Only breifly discusses them and they are from a unit I'd never heard of...which in itself is surprising since I'm an Air Force guy. The Guts to Try (if I am thinking of the right book) goes into considerable detail about USAF Special Operations including the Panama Operation where the Pararescue guy continued working on Rangers and Seals while taking fire and getting hit a couple times. Roberts Ridge talks about a Seal Team that had a Combat Controller assigned to them when a seal fell out of the helicopter onto a ridge infested with Taliban and their failed attempt to rescue him (everyone on the team was killed in the rescue attempt).

There are several Hollywood movies about the Seal Team (don't know the number) that is open to other services. The movies are fiction but the team exists. [I]GI Jane /I] and Behind Enemy Lines 2 come to mind. Both have Army Guys in the Seal Team. Something that is easy to miss if you were not paying close attention.

I deployed with the Ranger Unit that was open to other services back when I was a young airman. The Air Force team member handed me a card and told me to contact him when we got back to the states if I was interested. The process just to apply was complicated. You had to be a certain rank, certain age, come from a needed specialty (open to more of them than you would think), and be recommended by a supervisor who if you were any good probably would be hesitant to let you go. Sadly my vision disqualified me right out of the gate. I had a waiver just to be in the unit I was in. But I can take a small measure of pride in the fact that somebody in that community was impressed with me enough to hand me his card...and that I got to work with those guys at all, even if only in a VERY minor supporting role.

Did you ever end up keeping that card? Did it possess any sentimental value to you?

[Saym14]

taking down oil rig- SEALS
taking a mountain top - DELTA

[tacticalcity]

Did you ever end up keeping that card? Did it possess any sentimental value to you?

No, didn't keep it. Was just a nice memory. One of many. I have some cards of State Department, PMC and Law Enforcement guys I've met over the years, and have become very close friends with many of them. Not because I think they are cool and want to hero worship them, but because they are great guys and great customers. Plus when you are into shooting it helps to train with guys who are night and day better than you are. Pushes you to train hard and get better.

Didn't keep much from my military days beyond the usual stuff you send home for Mom & Pops to store for you - all of which I cherish now. Didn't take enough pictures. Didn't keep a journal so dates, places, and names get jumbled when I try and remember them all. Didn't keep each one of my deployment orders so I could have a paper trail of all the really cool places Uncle Sam sent me (only permanent duty stations and major campaigns go on the DD214, so 90% of what I did in the military I can't really prove except to show the few pictures I do have or say talk to so and so who was there with me - but it's not like I am trying to pass myself off as a Seal or Ranger. I pushed pallets and planned how to load the aircraft so it wouldn't crash. Boring stuff by comparison. Not exactly John Wayne Hero stuff. But I got to do it in some really cool places and I did it for Seals, Rangers, Marine Recon, etc. Honestly I was just happy to serve. I really enjoyed my time in the military, especially the first few years when they let me see the world. The desk job that came later kinda sucked.

I didn't really get it at the time. I didn't get that it wouldn't last forever and that one day I would want that stuff. Paperwork, pictures, journals, etc was all just stuff I had to store in a tiny little dorm room I never actually got to see...because I was always deployed. I didn't know I would actually want that stuff someday.

I do have a somewhat amusing story about a Seal. We were unloading all their gear off their aircraft. We deploy with a spartan crew. No more than two guys from each specialty to run an airfield - which is usually just a bunch of tents on flat terrain or some abandoned airfield we've temporarily taken over. When you're not doing your job you assist another team member with his (OJT baby) but even then we often need the assistance of the operators we are working for. We're there mostly to make sure there is a supervisor who has training on the task at hand to make sure nobody breaks the aircraft. That is not to say you could just stand there and tell people what to do. It is just that often times it was a five or ten man job, and we needed the extra bodies. In any case, the rest of his team was eager to help so they could make sure there equipment stayed in good condition and then go hit the rack. But this butter bar was too busy reading his paperback novel to lend a hand, and they had a lot of heavy back breaking equipment with them. Which of course pissed off his team since they got stuck picking up his slack, and gave us something to make fun of him for. The book was one of those romance novels with Fabio on the cover. From then on the Seal was Lt. Fabio. Everyone, including us, called him that to his face. He was totally indifferent about it. He even answered to it. In any case, it kept us entertained.

Lt. Fabio is just one of the many reasons I sort of laugh when people talk about the Special Operations guys. They have this image in their head of the kind of people they are. What they should look like. How they should act. What their motivations for doing what they do are. It rarely holds up to the reality. There are all kinds of different personalities in those career fields. Some are exactly what you would expect. Super fit both mentally and physically and the total hero types that belong in movies. But I have also seen flat out obese 300lbs Green Berets who look like they would die of a heart attack at any second - yet somehow they were able to pass selection and do their jobs just as well as the Captain America types. There are all kinds of exceptions to the stereotype out there. So many they are almost the rule. All kinds of people you would never believe were an elite warrior are actually the real deal. You just never know.

Don't get me wrong. I respect them all, even the jerks like Lt. Fabio. I just don't think they are picture perfect superheros. They're people.

[Beagle]

I thought it was the Rangers who were top of the line in the Army? GBs a close second?

WOW are you serious? And you're going to join the Army in 2014, good thing it's 2014 gives you LOTS of time to unthink whatever got you thinking the way you did. You can be an admin person or some other non combat job and still be a "Ranger" in the 75th.

Watch black hawk down, you see those guys that don't have a high and tight? Those guys are called Delta Force.

How about to study hard and make sure to do all your homework in HS first? You do realize it's harder to get in the military now plus with the way you're thinking, I don't know what other ideas you got.

You should at least visit the military sites and study up before making some poll about this type of crap.

[willm952]

Rangers are an interesting bunch. The most interesting out of all the Special Operations Community. Watch saving private Ryan. The scene where Capt. John Miller tells his men what his day job was before the war. That's not typical of Rangers but you'll get the idea. Want to know what a Ranger feels like, drink an IPA. Ranger IPA, its a real beer.
I'm not a Ranger but I do know a few.

All SOC operators are the best at what they do. I have a lot of admiration for all of them. They are Special Operations.