SEAL Team 6 Vs. Delta Force CQB

Former SEAL Team 6 operator Chris Fettes explains how DEVGRU and Delta Force do CQB.

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[Kimchi_Studios]

I love how people dedicate themselves to being a symbiotic organism and that we have several variations in our military. It's like it transcends "military". The "zone" is like an artist going into "right brain mode" with lethal consequences. Merry Xmas Vets!🎄🎁

[EarlyRiser]

As someone who went on target and trained with both organizations, they are definitely different. Both are really good. Navy is more methodical and a bit slower (still.faster/more deadly than anyone else). The Army is freaking lighting fast and wicked smooth. I respect both, but if I'm the hostage and hear breaches going off... I'm secretly praying it's the Army. 😁

[joesgotya]

Early GWOT, both CAG and Dev were using their fast hostage rescue CQB on every other target. The problem was as the op temp increased as the war went on, the fighters started to adapt and would employ barricades, murder holes, Suicide vests and early detection systems and this was getting operators killed and wounded at levels that were not sustainable. This is where they started to slow things down and take advantage of their NVG capabilities and pie out rooms rather then flooding into them like HR CQB. Former CAG operators Matt Pranka and Jamey Caldwell talk about this on Matts Xray Alpha channel. There were 3 things that made this change a viable TTP, #1 Houses and compounds in the Middle East and the Levant are made of heavy ballistic materials like mud/motor brick, lime stone etc. So they had that bullet stopping hard cover to engage from and not have to worry about getting shot through the walls. (You would never see SOF fight like this in other parts of the world where houses and structures are made of wood frames, sheet rock and plywood) #2 It had to be at Night time where they could fully bring the technological advantage of the NVGs and could pie out space without being seen from the people inside the room. #3 This is pretty obvious: It couldn’t be a hostage rescue type mission. In that case it’s back to the ultra fast free flow HR CQB.

So yea, CAG and Dev are both preforming CQB at the highest levels, however they were not using that super fast free flow CQB in every instance. They used a tactic that made sense for the environment they were in against specific enemy counter tactics.

I thought the film Zero Dark Thirty at the end where Dev are actually clearing the UBL compound was a pretty accurate example of that change in CQB TTPs in that era of the GWOT.

[Jody_the_real_cool_cat]

Chris is a good dude man, helps people for the right reason, and has some BA ice cream! Be free craft ice cream for the win!

[steventhomas]

Richard marcinko said it best in one of his videos I watched it’s called devgru files he said I can take a shooter from 6 and swap him for a shooter from delta and vice versa I can take a shooter from delta and swap him for a shooter from six and they’ll hit the building the same exact way!!

[harveysanchez]

I remember that Tom satterly wrote in his book All Secure, that seal team six likes to enter with a lot of guys and spread out/flood the compound vs Delta which may have guys coming in from all sides and converging into one in order to eliminate the possibility of an enemy escaping from one side. Still, the majority of tactics overall would probably be the same as socom and jsoc try to create unified and set standards for operations from what I heard in some source I can't recall.

[mattz]

It makes me want to have a tear in my eye. Such a beautiful thing.

[kenbrovost]

They are completely different groups, I know it's just fun to put them against each other but they each have a specialty

[nwcoastlife]

Chris Vansant (Delta) spoke about this very situation. They are not the same. One guy probably wouldn’t matter, but if you had teams from both doing CQB on the same target at the same time, without training together extensively at beforehand, that would be a very dangerous situation. Their tactics, especially for entry are very different and don’t necessarily gel together.

[keithwestmoreland]

Most people do not understand when you are involved in multiple tasks forces if it is the 22nd out of hereford...are CAG..out of Fayetteville North Carolina are you talking about Dev out of Dam Neck or if you're talking about Grom... there is so much cross training and then on top of that when task forces are formed you trained for a couple weeks before you are deployed.. I have actually looked back on actual operations and on night vision when everyone is stacked up I could not pick out who was who

[nathanammon]

Comparing is interesting think it really depends on what’s going on and n the world. The most units adapt to whatever’s going on. I believe the DEVGRU guys still have other responsibilities like developing weapons and testing our installations and I think they get back in the water to keep those skills from waning. I suppose it’s got a lot to do with what you’re going to train for and how you divide that time up.

[Frank-uwxq]

Maybe 80&90s would be more different but everyone is on same TTPs, SOPs

[Coltys.fishing.adventures.]

I read a book about a British officer who done private contracting, just infantry he was. He was astounded by the the Americans pouring into a room, the whole stack not leaving anyone outside to cover enemy combatants coming around behind.

[TheBigChad]

I was airborne for 2 years before I went through rasp and spent 7! Years as a ranger before finally hitting up SFQC and all those damn training courses and the grueling classes to become a Green Beret. I don’t think anyone trains close quarter more, or better than we do. I’ve seen the MARSOC guys in training when I was at Hurlburt field doing prep for jump school and I was watching thinking man that’s intense. It was NOTHING compared to qualifications. All I hear in my head is stab and sweep, stab and sweep. wtf was that, Rollins? Why did you peek and sweep? STAB STAB STAB STAB GOD DAMMIT! If you’re super cool and good at your job, but mostly cool, you’ll throw up to 20+ grenades at the enemy in one setting just like Tim Kennedy!! All jokes aside. I knew Tim. Not personally but when I went through rasp he was there to give us this motivational speech. All he wanted to talk about was how we wouldn’t make it through RIP (ranger school before RASP, the land nav was extreme) that was the only part that pissed me off about him. But other than that he didn’t seem narcissistic at all. He was actually pretty helpful. I talked to him about special forces from jump school to berets, SOAR, and delta and he told me if I go the beret route to take my time and get some experience in each field you have to do before selections. That’s the sole reason my timeline is stretched as far as it is because at first I wanted to just speedrun to green beret. I’m so glad I didn’t tho because the people I got to know and the things I did while in airborne and then starting fresh in rangers with people I’m closer to more than my actual brothers to this day. God damn how did this turn into a book? All I wanted to say is seals suck at cqb compared to rangers and berets

[LAWLESSXX]

You know your brothers better than your family..they basically read each others minds just by body language

[mrhanky]

Everyone wants to talk about CQB but not much love for SUT in the commercial civilian side even tho that’s really where a lot of sof training and warfare is at.

[robertdonovan]

Im tired of this topic. They’re both awesome. Most of us couldn’t sniff their jocks. But for eff sake do we have to nonstop compare? I’m glad they and many others are on our side.

[Wise_Mannn]

As a Delta soldier who fought in the American Civil War I can say this is the truth. Us Delta guys are identical to Seal team 6.

[leowilliams]

It's called nonverbal communication .

[chotel]

I was a Marine I guess 30 years ago now.

And I could still pick LCpl Blackwell out of a stack. LCpll Vance. I know Sgt Freddy G on sight. And that he loves chicken wings and had some ass lined up wherever we are.

See that's what makes a Marine