Special Boat Service

Special Boat Service
Special Boat Service
	Cap badge of the Special Boat Service
Active	1940–present
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Navy
Type	Special forces
Role	Special operations; Counter-terrorism
Size	One regiment
Part of	United Kingdom Special Forces
Garrison/HQ	RM Poole, Dorset, England
Motto(s)	"By Strength and Guile"
Engagements	Second World War; Korean War; Indonesian Confrontation; • Operation Claret; Falklands War; Gulf War; 1999 East Timorese crisis; • INTERFET; Sierra Leone Civil War; • Operation Barras; War on Terror; • War in Afghanistan; • Iraq War; • Boko Haram insurgency; • Military intervention against ISIL; • Operation Shader; First Libyan Civil War; • Operation Ellamy;

The Special Boat Service (SBS) is the special forces unit of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. The SBS can trace its origins back to the Second World War when the Army Special Boat Section was formed in 1940. After the Second World War, the Royal Navy formed special forces with several name changes—Special Boat Company was adopted in 1951 and re-designated as the Special Boat Squadron in 1974—until on 28 July 1987 when the unit was renamed as the Special Boat Service after assuming responsibility for maritime counter-terrorism. Most of the operations conducted by the SBS are highly classified, and are rarely commented on by the British government or the Ministry of Defence, owing to their sensitive nature.

The Special Boat Service is the maritime special forces unit of the United Kingdom Special Forces and is described as the sister unit of the British Army 22 Special Air Service Regiment (22 SAS), with both under the operational control of the Director Special Forces. In October 2001, full command of the SBS was transferred from the Commandant General Royal Marines to the Commander-in-Chief Fleet. On 18 November 2003, the SBS were given their own cap badge with the motto "By Strength and Guile". SBS operators are mostly recruited from the Royal Marines Commandos.

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