Elite army unit set to get new headquarters and training centre following delay

Members of the Irish Defence Forces Army Ranger Wing taking part in a demonstration in the Curragh Camp in Kildare. File picture: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie

Proposals for a new state-of-the-art headquarters and training centre for Ireland’s Special Operations Force is due to be brought before the Cabinet on Tuesday.

Minister for defence Simon Harris expects construction of the Army Ranger Wing facility at the Curragh military camp to start later this year.

The development is part of a series of capital investments at the Defence Forces HQ and the Army Ranger Wing construction is due to be completed in 2027.

The Army Ranger Wing project was first announced in January 2024 by then defence minister Micheál Martin, who said it would start later in 2024.

Following a delay, Mr Harris is now ready to bring a memo to the Cabinet on Tuesday detailing the plans, which are part of a €46m capital project at the Curragh.

The Army Ranger Wing is the Special Operations Force of the Defence Forces and it is due to be reconstructed into three separate units — the Special Operations Land Task Group at the Curragh, an Air Task Group at Air Corps HQ at Casement Aerodrome and a Maritime Task Group at the Naval Service HQ in Haulbowline.

The development of the Army Ranger Wing headquarters and training centre is in line with the recommendations from the Commission on the Defence Forces, which reported in February 2022.

Mr Harris said the announcement represented a “significant level of investment” in the Army Ranger Wing and was part of his commitment to ensure personnel across the services have fit-for-purpose infrastructure.

The Commission on the Defence Forces made a number of recommendations regarding the Army Ranger Wing, including that it be renamed IRL SOF and have permanent air and maritime task groups in Casement and Haulbowline respectively.

The Government accepted this recommendation in principle and set a completion date of 2028 in its detailed implementation plan, published in November 2023.

The Commission on the Defence Forces said its recommendations required a “planned increase in the ARW/SOF establishment and enhancement of SOF capabilities".

It also recommended that the Army Ranger Wing should have its own “dedicated combat helicopter assets” to insert, operate and extract from mission areas.

The Government did not accept that recommendation but said it would be reverted for consideration and report back a decision by 2028.

The Army Ranger Wing has engaged in high-profile operations, including extraction of Irish citizens in Afghanistan after the chaotic return to power of the Taliban in August 2021.

Army Ranger Wing members also executed a dramatic military intervention in September 2023 by fast-roping down from a helicopter onto the MV Matthew and securing the container ship, with subsequent searches uncovering over 2.2 tonnes of cocaine.

It was the culmination of an intense operation led by the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, the Irish Naval Service and Customs off the coast of Cork.

Separately, the association representing enlisted members of the Army Ranger Wing launched last February a High Court action to force the Department of Defence to increase their remuneration and bring them closer to what other countries pay their elite troops.

PDForra launched the legal action on behalf of members of the Army Ranger Wing after it claimed the Department of Defence refused to increase their allowances as recommended by arbitration.