Small Scale Military Headquarters

what is the russian equivelant of the navy seals, what do they look like in dive gear and could a bbi navy seal combat diver be modified into one? Anyone have any idea?

The Rooskies have Spetsnaz, but that is a generic term for Special Forces. There are Naval Spetsnaz but as for the real designation, I do not know. Just ggogle Naval Spetsnaz pics.

As far as I know the Russian Navy doesn't have a "special forces" group of the same type that the US Navy has in the SEALS. In the Russian Navy the "elite" force is the Naval Infantry. The Russian Naval Infantry played an important role in WWII and participated in quite a few major battles, but it is a force that has fallen on hard times since the collapse of the Soviet Union. This Wikipedia entry doesn't help much either, as a "Naval Spetznaz" doesn't really seem to exist, at least in any official named capacity, and it seems to be more of a loose conglomeration of different "specialties" and groups that perform special forces type functions.

Russian Naval Commando Frogmen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_commando_frogmen

pics of some at the end of this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-P578pn ... 1&index=38

each naval infantry regiment has its own combat divers, the only spetsnaz diving unit i know of is the 17th brigade. I would be amazed if units like the 45th orp dont have their own combat divers or a detahced unit that they regularly work with. Very little info out there on the combat divers, but clearly they take it seriously and have these units, with their specialised underwater weapons such as the aps, and midger submarines and so forth. I am sure that the kgb had its own combat diver units.

I suspect that there must have been quite a few combat divers for a few reasons:
1) the primary function of spetsnaz during the cold war was supposedly sabotage operations, from the sea being a key entry method.
2) the obsession with rehearsing crossing european rivers with full divisions (ie the snorkels on tanks etc and amphibious ifvs and apcs). if you see the preparation method, a crewman in submersion gear performs reconaissance of the water while using a rebreather, though divers must have prepared the areas in advance, by the look of things, marking the route, etc.


hope it helps....ill look for some pics in a bit, i might have some somewhere. as for the story of russian frogmen going into poti for the sabotage operations, this is known to be false. that was the 45 orp, going over land.

edit: found a pic, apparently the unit is referred to as sea devils. how do i attach a picture here?

You can post the link or just link from a site like photobucket.