A-Squad

The A-Squad Power Rangers were the best of the best of the cadets at Earth's S.P.D. Academy and the planet's top line of defense. They seemed to be admired by all of the Cadets under them, especially Sky Tate, who aspired to be the A-Squad Red Ranger. However, Bridge senses something wrong with them, saying that “something's off” about their auras. They first appear in Beginnings pt. I and used the Delta Squad Megazord in its first appearance in pt. II. They were then sent on a mission to the Helix Nebula in Confronted, leaving B-Squad (who normally served as their backup) in charge of protecting Earth. However, they mysteriously vanished soon after, the only sign of their fate being a garbled distress message, which was received in Walls. Commander Cruger feared that they had been killed. By A-Bridged they were officially listed as Missing In Action, as an all-out search had failed to turn up any further sign of them.

In Resurrection, the B-Squad was sent to Gamma Orion to investigate a distress call and found, much to their shock, that A-Squad was in fact alive. They were brought back to Earth, where the angry and hurt B-Squad were dismissed from Delta Command so that A-Squad could be debriefed by Cruger. Bridge read their auras again, getting a bad feeling from them- and his feelings proved to have merit, as the A-Squad unexpectedly morphed and took Cruger hostage, bringing him to Gruumm. They had sold out for power and the promise of being able to rule Earth alongside Gruumm. They are sent to take down B-Squad in Endings pt. I and at first gain the upper hand, sneering that the Rangers were always second best, but were defeated by S.W.A.T. Mode. The A-Squad then attacked the Rangers in their own evil Megazord, destroying the Delta Squad Megazord but finally being taken down by the S.W.A.T. Megazord. A-Squad was confined for their crimes, and the rank was retired in light of it now being tarnished (Endings pt. II).

Charlie
Played By	Gina Varela
Position	S.P.D. A-Squad Red Ranger
First Appearance	13-01: Beginnings pt. I
Last Appearance	13-38: Endings pt. II
Appeared in # of Eps	6

Charlie is the only one of the A-Squad Rangers to be named (not in dialog, but in the credits for Resurrection). She is the first known female Red Ranger; Jack, Sky and Bridge express surprise at this fact when she demorphs, but Z and Syd are excited. She led her team in capturing Commander Cruger, telling him they'd sold out because they wanted to be “on a winning team”. Gruumm then sent Charlie and her comrades to fight the B-Squad, and when they gained the upper hand, she sneered that they weren't fit to shine A-Squad's boots. When they were overcome by the B-Squad in S.W.A.T. Mode, Charlie summoned an evil Megazord. It managed to destroy the Delta Squad Megazord, but was then blown up by the S.W.A.T. Megazord. Charlie is then confined along with the rest of the A-Squad for her treachery.

• The distress call A-Squad sends has a very distinctly male voice speaking when Charlie is in the frame. It has since been revealed by S.P.D. Executive Producer Greg Aronowitz that it was, in fact, her actress Gina Varela, with her voice modified in post-production to sound male in order to keep it a surprise.
• The decision to make Charlie be a female Red Ranger was one of the crew's most difficult decisions, as they felt it would upset the Japanese Sentai producers and strain their relationship with the Power Rangers crew.¹⁾
• Strangely, B-Squad doesn't seem at all surprised that A-Squad betrayed them when fighting them in Endings pt. I. This could be because of Bridge sensing that something was wrong with them with his powers.
• The A-Squad is the first entire team of American-made Rangers (though the first entirely American-made Ranger was the Titanium Ranger in Lightspeed Rescue). Their suits were made from a mixture of parts, most notably the Space Rangers' helmets, though Black's was repainted Green to match S.P.D.'s color scheme.
• A-Squad are the first and so far only evil Rangers to have turned so of their own volition- in the past, any evil Rangers were forced to become that way either through deception or mind control of some type.
• A-Squad's full names are often claimed in fandom material such as fanfic to be Charlene “Charlie” Haywood (Red), “Beevor”²⁾ (Blue), Clifford “Cliff” Jones (Green), Ivan Lane (Yellow), and Rachel Motohime (Pink). As noted earlier, Charlie is the only Ranger to canonically receive a name, and no other portion of her name was revealed besides that. The rest of these names were originally created as a fan-made joke, but later gained more impetus in the fandom when Bruce Kalish noted in an interview that he had seen the names and liked them. Greg Aronowitz, for his part, referred to Blue as “The Warrus” while sculpting him.³⁾
• Motoko Nagino, A-Squad Pink's physical actress, also served as her stunt actress during battles. Nagino is the wife of Koichi Sakamoto, long-time PR stunt coordinator and executive producer, and she has served as in-suit stunt actress for quite a few female Rangers during the Disney era.