It has the responsibility of conducting counter-terrorism and overseas special operations and performing the disposal of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive hazards for military and civilian authorities.

[4] Major Frank Rennie was appointed to form and command the unit, with the decision having been made to recruit mainly from the general public around a cadre of Regular Force personnel.

The facility was named 'Rennie Lines', after the founding NZSAS Commanding Officer Major Frank Rennie and officially opened on 14 December 2002.

[27] SAS operations in Malaya consisted of going deep into the jungle, locating local people and moving them for their protection, then seeking out MNLA guerrillas in the area and 'destroying' them.

[31] During the two-year tour New Zealand patrols were involved in 14 separate engagements with the MNLA, killing fifteen, capturing one and taking the surrender of nine others.

[49] On 12 August 1966 a formal peace treaty was signed by Indonesia and Malaysia[50] and with the Confrontation finally at an end, 4 Detachment officially became non-operational on 9 September 1966.

[53] The troopers were primarily employed on Long-Range Reconnaissance Patrols (LRRP) across Phuoc Tuy and into Bien Hoa province, mostly around the Mây Tào Mountains where the Communist headquarters were located.

At the same time, the task force commander temporarily repurposed 1ATF's Defence and Employment (D&E) Platoon to conduct LRRP intelligence-gathering patrols further afield.

The final rotation of New Zealand SAS occurred in late 1970, when the Troop was again replaced by a new body of men commanded by Second Lieutenant Jack Hayes.

[60] It was a NZ patrol that made the last contact with enemy forces in this rotation of Australian and New Zealand SAS, killing two Viet Cong soldiers north-west of Thua Tich on 4 February 1971.

[68] Twenty-four NZSAS personnel were deployed to Kuwait in February 1998 on Operation GRIFFIN during a period of international tension with Iraq, tasked with rescuing downed airmen in hostile territory in the event of a US-led aerial campaign.

There were no missions into Iraq undertaken during the deployment, though it was considered a useful opportunity to practice mobile desert warfare skills, and to have contact with US Forces which had been limited since the United States suspended its ANZUS relations with New Zealand in 1986.

[75] The NZSAS patrols were then utilised to perform to a variety of tasks including direction-action, special reconnaissance and close protection missions.

[77] Following the deaths of two members of the New Zealand Battalion Group in late June and early August 2000, combat tracking support was requested from the NZSAS.

In August 2000, a Troop of about 12 NZSAS combat trackers were deployed with the task of locating militia who were crossing the border into East Timor.

[78] In addition to performing combat tracking, on 6 September 2000, this Troop was utilised to conduct a permissive cross-border helicopter extraction operation of United Nations staff based at Atambua, West Timor.

[80][nb 1] The Squadron performed a variety of missions including special reconnaissance, direct action, close personal protection and sensitive site exploitation.

[82] Initially special reconnaissance patrols were performed on foot with insertion and extraction being conducted by helicopter in the high-altitude snow-covered areas of southern and central Afghanistan.

[95][96] Over the three CONCORD deployments to Afghanistan there were "casualties on both sides" during gun battles, with injuries also sustained as a result of vehicle crashes and striking mines or other unexploded ordnance[97] but no New Zealanders were killed.

[106] Two personnel, one of them Corporal "Steve" David Steven Askin,[107] were injured during the terrorist attack against the Inter-Continental hotel in Kabul on 29 June 2011, where members of the NZSAS also provided 'helo sniping' support.

[112] In January 2011, General David Petraeus announced that, since 2009, the NZSAS had made 60 "high-risk" arrests of suspected militants or Taliban leaders, seized 20 weapons caches, and foiled four attacks.

[115][116] In March 2017, investigative journalists Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson published a book on Operation Burnham Hit & Run: The New Zealand SAS in Afghanistan and the meaning of honour which alleged that NZSAS personnel had committed war crimes.

The authors alleged that NZSAS personnel had attacked the Afghan villages of Naik and Khak Khuday Dad after Lieutenant Tim O'Donnell, 2/1 RNZIR part of the NZPRT, was killed by a roadside bomb.

[130] Initially a number of individual NZSAS personnel deployed as part of the infantry company that New Zealand contributed to the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Bosnia during the break-up of Yugoslavia.

[133] In 1964, NZSAS troopers were utilised to instruct early New Zealand Police Armed Offenders Squad members in field craft and weapon handling.

[134] This training relationship continued with the establishment of the Police Anti-Terrorist Squad (now known as the Special Tactics Group) and also included joint exercises.

[137] Following the arrest of two of the French agents involved in the sinking of the ship Rainbow Warrior on 10 July 1985, the NZSAS were requested to support the New Zealand Police at an emergency holding prison established in Ardmore.

[153] The SAS selection standard remains the same, with the full course aiming to identify "self-disciplined individuals who are capable of working effectively as part of a small group under stressful conditions for long periods of time".

[157][158] In 2018, an undisclosed number of Supacat HMT Extenda vehicles entered service replacing the Pinzgauer for special reconnaissance designated Mobility Heavy.

Inscribed upon it is an extract from the poem The Golden Road to Samarkand by James Elroy Flecker:[139] This is the same inscription as on the British Special Air Service's memorial.