CABINET IS EXPECTED to clear the way today for work to begin on a new €45 million state-of-the-art headquarters for the Army Ranger Wing (ARW).

Tánaiste Simon Harris, the Minister for Defence, will bring a memo to Government for the new compound for the elite special forces unit which will include a training centre. 

The project at the Curragh Camp in County Kildare will begin construction later this year.

The new headquarters will have modern garages for the unit’s fleet of vehicles, each task group, whether maritime, sea and air will have its own storage and administrative areas, there will be a new gym along with other fitness and recovery facilities. 

There will also be a specialist firearms training facility which is an indoor range which can be manipulated to mimic the inside of target buildings. Known in military parlance as a “kill house”. There will be a command centre and offices also.  

The ARW has a compound at a location inside the Curragh. Plans have been advancing for a number of years and designs are complete.  

The Journal has visited the special forces base in the past and saw the high-security compound.

It has several buildings specific to the tasks of the unit – it is a workplace not just for the group of “operators” but also for support staff and other specialists who work with the ARW. 

Military sources have previously indicated that for the Special Forces to expand, they would need new purpose built facilities. 

As the build programme is underway, there are also advanced implementation plans for a reorganisation of the unit and its command structures to bring it into line with structures similar to other European units.

Command of the unit recently moved from a Commandant to a Lieutenant Colonel which is seen by sources as a key enabler at senior rank for the unit.  

There are also plans to base the Marine Task Unit of the Ranger Wing to a new facility at Haulbowline Naval Base in Cork. This is a team of specialists within the unit that launched the daring boarding of the MV Matthew.  

Simon Harris said that he was very happy to announce the “significant level of investment” in the ARW. 

“This speaks to my commitment to ensuring our Defence Force personnel across all services have fit-for-purpose infrastructure to enable them to carry out their duties.

“I look forward to visiting this project upon its completion, which will act as a fitting headquarters and training centre for our ARW personnel.”

In July 2023, Micheál Martin, who was then Tánaiste and Minister for Defence, on a visit to the Curragh examined a model of the new compound. On that day, in response to a question from this website about the build that “it is happening”. 

There has been a revised allocation in Capital schemes of €215 million in 2025 and in 2026 there will be €220 million which will boost ongoing efforts to modernise and upgrade equipment and infrastructure in the Defence Forces.

Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, Lieutenant General Seán Clancy said that the investment in the Ranger Wing is a “milestone” in the efforts to resource a “unique Defence Forces capabilities”.

“Both the training and the operations of the Army Ranger Wing will benefit from this investment and are of huge importance as we move towards the levels of ambition recommended in the Commission on the Defence Forces.

“The unique capability provided by Special Operations Forces (SOF) cannot be mass produced and cannot be created after an emergency has occurred.

“The benefits of maintaining this capability aren’t always evident to the public, but operations like the seizure of the MV Matthew highlight the risks that these personnel are prepared to endure to protect the State,” he said.