RRD, as it was originally called, was activated in October 1984 with the formation of the 75th Ranger Regiment Headquarters at Fort Benning.

Of the 15–20 candidates who attend selection usually 5–7 will finish and usually only 50% of the ones who finish will actually be selected and have the opportunity to attend the 29-week-long Reconnaissance Training Course, including free-fall training, computers, advanced communications, digital photography, photo editing, reconnaissance reporting formats, fieldcraft and stalks, infiltration and exfiltration methods, close-air support, CQB-techniques, unarmed hand-to-hand combat, advanced driving techniques, marksmanship, demolitions, tactical man-tracking and advanced medical techniques.

While the Ranger Battalions were sent home, an RRD team was forward deployed to provide reconnaissance capabilities for Operation Uphold Democracy.

[4] The RRD was constantly deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom as many of their skillsets have proven to be invaluable to the warfighting effort.

[6] In November 2001, during the invasion of Afghanistan, the 75th Ranger Regiment carried out its second combat parachute drop into Afghanistan: a platoon-sized Ranger security element, including Regimental Reconnaissance Detachment Team 3 conducted the missions: Objective Wolverine, Raptor and Operation Relentless Strike.

In 2006, a six-man RRD team attached to the JSOC Task Force inserted into the Hindu Kush mountain range after intelligence indicated an insurgent chief, Jalaluddin Haqqani, would be entering Afghanistan from Pakistan.

In response, the RRD's attached joint terminal attack controller (JTAC) called in an orbiting B-1B strategic bomber to 'pummel' the insurgents, and an estimated 100 were killed in the airstrikes but Haqqani was not among them.

[8] On 11 July 2009, Regimental Reconnaissance Company Team 1 conducted a combat military freefall parachute drop with a tandem passenger in Afghanistan in order to emplace tactical equipment.