What exactly is SOF and how good they really are?

Greetings. I know Theres a certain Chinese Special Force called the SOF (Special Operation Forces) everithing I heard about them is that they are the chinese counterparts of maybe U.S. Delta Forces, U.S. Navy Seals, British SAS, Russian Spesnatz, French COS, Israeli Sayeret, Polish GROM and other Special Forces... I also know that they learn their tactics studing tactics used by U.S. Special forces in the first gulf war (1991) also I know that they posses advance enquipment to disrupt enemy comunications... but I like to know more... What kind of small arms they use? (I gess are AKS-74Us, but that is only my gess), How long their initial training is? What are their minimun standarsd to qualify... and If they where deployed in any part of the world already? If you know something I dont please let me know and If is possible give me they resourse where I can find more information so I can research myself. Thanks.

With regards to small arms, they would almost certainly be using indigenous weapons; if you browse through the photos on this forum, for an 8-12 man unit it seems 1-2 QBB95, 1-2 QBU88, 1-2 Type 85 Silenced Submachine guns (although i imagine these will be/have been replaced with Type 05 in 5.8mm we just haven't seen them yet), with the rest equipped with QBZ95, some with underbarrel grenade launchers.

China doesnt use the Ak series they use there own indigenous rifles the Type 81 shares aspects an apperances of the Ak but isnt really an Ak series rifle copy...yeah as the post below say Type 95 assault rifle, Type 95 LSW, Type 88 DSM and the Silenced Type 85 submachine gun...yet to see the Type 95 Carbine though...strange

I imagine the Type -95 carbine is of little use to PLA SOF, as they are generally operating in the traditional recon role, rather than the "Direct Action" role that Western SOFs are often tasked with.

It seems for these "direct action" type missions, the PAP have opted for the JS submachinegun, so it would not be a surprise if the the PLA were using the same in 5.8mm (Type 05) for a compact weapon.

The Type 05 Submachine gun offers less penetration than the Type 95 Carbine. But overall it depends on how well the shooter is trained anyway. Position of shots is crucial in how you want to take down an enemy.

I'm guessing the training takes about a year and a half.

LiLaZnMaGiCsCt said:

I'm guessing the training takes about a year and a half.

Click to expand...

Thats about the SEALs training take... but now You mention that... I get even more curious... In SEALs training only a very small percent of the trainees success,Most of them Fail in the first 6 month... the BUD (Basic Underwater Demolition) trainning It's real hard to run 10 miles at day and be in freeze water for hours... If the Training for SOFs soldiers it's something like that... I gess they worth to be compared with the SEALs... What about the electronic device than they used to disrupt enemy communications... to be honest with you guys... I never heard about a device like that... not even the Navy SEALs wich I admire so much