SAS (Action Force)

SAS Force is a special forces military unit.

History
The SAS characters were recruited from the SAS and SBS special forces regiments of the British, New Zealand, and Australian armed forces. The SAS Action Force divsion was created around the time of the Iranian Embassy Siege.

"'The behind the lines team, skilled in sabotage and disruption. They are usually the first to go into action against Baron Ironblood's fanatical Red Shadows.'"

Uniforms
The SAS unit uses the dark garb of the SAS and SBS units while on urban counter terrorism duties, while adding yellow for some of the armaments and insignia. Despite taking its name from the SAS units of the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, the SAS unit is a single multi-national fighting force including soldiers from Britain, the United States, Mexico, Canada, Iceland and Belgium among others.

In another departure from their real-life counterparts, the Action Force SAS unit was not entirely under cover or "behind the lines" (despite the promotional brief). The range included the overt Wolverine missile tank, multi-missile system and the Hawk attack helicopter. Despite the marine/aquatic function of Q Force (which also included military frogmen) the SAS unit included waterborne operatives such as Beaver and Stakeout, who specialised on inland and coastal waterways whilst Q Force dealt with offshore marine scenarios.

The Battle Action Force backstories that followed the release of the figures were more extensive than was the case for the other Action Force ranges. Capitalising on the popularity of the real SAS, many of the comic backstories of the characters and storylines involved the SAS Force. After appearing in the first ever Action Force story, the SAS was the only Action Force unit that consistently appeared in storylines following the introduction of the third generation and the arrival of Cobra.

Three of the SAS characters had their own dedicated features exploring their backstories: Quickfire, Beaver and Stakeout, whilst characters such as Blades and Stalker also had dedicated storylines and frequent appearances in Battle Action Force.

The largest of the Action Force units later releases ignored existing figures and their specialities and resulted in some duplication: for example, the Hawk helicopter was released with pilot Blades, notwithstanding the SAS range already included a helicopter pilot, Chopper. In addition, the unit included only marginally distinct SAS Commando (Quickfire), SAS Para Attack (Sparrowhawk), SAS Boat Patrol (Stakeout) and generic SAS Attack Trooper figures.

The figures were the least updated of the second generation of Action Force. Since the first generation figures included SAS characters, the first wave of released figures were minor repaints, variations and repackages of the first generation figures - for example, the SAS Frogman, Pilot and Commando. Later releases were repaints of G.I. Joe figures and vehicles - including from the 'enemy' Cobra range (e.g. Hunter as a repaint of the 1982 Cobra Officer figure).

Both Hunter and Blades re-appeared as characters in the G.I. Joe universe over 20 years later with cameos in G.I. Joe: America's Elite issue #30. Blades then made a second appearance in 2009 to coincide with the G.I. Joe Convention of that year. This time, however, the character was re-released as both a toy and comic book character although he was written in as a member of the "Special Action Force" (or S.A.F) and retconned as being British rather than retaining the American nationality of the original character.

Vehicles, weaponry and armour
Initially, in the first wave of release, in keeping with their "behind enemy lines" brief, the SAS Force had few vehicles. Later releases saw the introduction of more heavy weaponry – such as the Wolverine vehicle and Hawk gyrocopter.

First release

 * Panther – a heavily armed jeep, driven by Stalker The Panther jeep was the second such vehicle in the Action Force range in addition to the Z Force jeep. A repaint of the G.I. Joe/Cobra V.A.M.P. jeep, the vehicle came with high octane fuel tanks, was armed with a dual 7.62 mm machine gun and was capable of towing the Mobile Missile System (below)
 * Mobile Missile System – a mobile surface-to-air missile battery. Not provided with a character to operate it, the MMS was provided with three large Patriot missiles attached to a wheeled unit, capable of being towed by the SAS Panther jeep. The weapons unit was a re-issue of the G.I. Joe multi-missile system.
 * Boat Patrol – a small, rigid power boat, piloted by Stakeout. Actually a re-issue of the removable roof boat unit from the first generation AF-3 jeep, the boat had an outboard motor (as well as a single oar) and a heavy machine-gun (in addition to the M60 machine gun provided with Stakeout).

Second release

 * Wolverine – A tracked tank-style missile launcher, driven by Hunter. A black and grey camouflaged tank, the Wolverine was another mobile missile system however in contrast to the MMS (see above) the Wolverine battery was intended to have ground-to-ground capability. The vehicle was a repaint of an existing G.I. Joe vehicle of the same name, driven by Cover Girl. A later third generation release had a new driver, Ton Up.
 * Hawk - A one-man light helicopter, piloted by Blades The aircraft was a black and yellow single seat helicopter, similar in design to a microlight helicopter or gyrocopter. The aircraft was still supposedly within the SAS stealth remit being capable of flying below radar and with non-reflective paint. Accompanied by four air-to-air heat seeking rockets and a nose-mounted rotary cannon, the vehicle was a repaint of the Cobra F.A.N.G. helicopter released with the G.I. Joe range and later with the third generation. Piloted by Blades,=the range appeared to ignore the existing SAS helicopter pilot character, Chopper. Outside of the spacecraft of Space Force, the Hawk was the only aircraft in the first or second Generation of Action Force.
 * Silent Attack – A kayak, piloted by Beaver The black and yellow kayak included short-wave communications and an infrared searchlight. The kayak also had so-called "integrated land transport" (i.e. wheels) and, confusingly for a craft with a stealth and reconnaissance function, a "team pennant". The craft was repainted for the third generation and packaged with the figure Recondo.