Both Navy SEALs and Army Rangers are highly respected but distinctly separate wings of the United States armed services. Army Rangers and Special forces both roll up to the U.S. Army, while on the other hand Marines and Navy SEALs roll up to the U.S. Navy.

Army Rangers

With origins dating back to colonial times the Army Rangers are part of the US Operations Special Forces that became a more permanent part of the military around the 1970’s.

Army Rangers are front line special light infantry American troops and their primary focus is on infiltration by land, air or even sea they are specialized in the recovery of personnel and special equipment, conducting raids and direct action operations.

Selection

To be selected to be a Ranger a soldier has to prove his physical capability through various endurance tests designed to establish that he's physically capable of entering the program. Once into ‘Ranger School’ his training is categorized into three phases namely Crawl training, Walk training and Run training.

Crawl training: is to develop the foundations and trains the soldier in hand –to hand combat, immersion in water and the use of fists and sticks in combat.

Walk training: covers rappelling, ambush training, knots tying and intermediate level airborne operations.

Run training: is the advanced training covering such aspects as water bound infiltration, troop extraction in hostile situations, working with explosives, skills for sabotage, navigation and reconnaissance

Only on completion of the above does a Ranger officially graduate from Ranger School.

Navy SEALs

The Navy SEALs were established formally around the 1960’s but have their roots dating back to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Navy SEALs specialize in sea, air and land specific missions and operations, Basic Underwater Demolitions (BUD), reconnaissance, information warfare, personnel recovery, unconventional warfare, counter terrorism, internal defense on foreign soil, and security assistance.

Selection

In order to make it as a Navy SEAL an individual has to undergo a seven month long Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training which is divided into phases:

Indoctrination: to prepare the new initiates physically and mentally for the gruelling training ahead and the ways of the Navy SEAL.

Similarities

Both Army Rangers and Navy SEALs undergo very Intense and gruelling training programs designed to weed out the ones who just don’t cut it.

The U.S. Navy SEALs and the U.S. Army Rangers do not recruit women. Women do however work in several significant posts in support levels with the Navy SEALs, and serve at group levels in the U.S. Army Special Forces.

Both elite units exist for covert operations and while there are several differences in the way they operate there are definitely areas of overlap in terms of functions.

Differences

Rangers operate in platoon sized or larger units and are capable of handling direct action missions while Navy SEALs operate in smaller teams and handle specialised covert operations.

Rangers primarily perform military support functions while Navy SEALs are primarily for selective roles and most often not directly get involved in "front line" combat.

The Rangers are typically known to be ready for rapid deployment, has an airborne advanced infantry and generally tends to fight primarily using conventional warfare. Navy SEALs on the other hand are responsible for unconventional warfare, they are all trained paratroopers, they integrate with foreign forces, are generally independent and have high sustainability working within small groups with limited or no support; they specialise and execute underwater reconnaissance , infiltrations and demolitions.

While both Army Rangers and Navy SEALs are highly skilled specialized forces whose functions tend to overlap, the Army Rangers specialty is land warfare, while the Navy SEAL as the name suggests excels where water bodies are involved.