Lore of the different counter-terrorists factions.

Ever wanted to know who are the GIGN's , the GSG-9, the Seal Team 6's or the SAS's ? Here's a guide which tells you exactly what you want to know: What do they do? When do they intervene? Where are they based? Since when do they exist? Not EVERY informations is written here since some infos are classifiedor were too long and couldn't fit in the guide, if you wish to learn even more, look the different factions on Wikipedia. This post is about reading and learning about the factions you play with in-game, i hope everybody likes to learn as i do! There's not a pre-determined structure in each, they're made differently. If you don't like to read you won't like this ''guide''. Give me some feedback, look up my profile for infos on me and add me to play! This is my first ''guide'', enjoy!

Seal Team 6

The United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (NSWDG), or DEVGRU, is one of the United States' four secretive tier-one counter-terrorism and Special Mission Units. It is often called Seal Team 6 (In Counter-Strike, for example). DEVGRU is administratively supported by Naval Special Warfare Command and operationally commanded by the Joint Special Operations Command. It is active since November 1980 and it's still in action. It's a Tier One Special Operations Force and it's role is Special Operations. It's size , as well as alot of information concerning the DEVGRU is classified. Seal Team 6 is part of the United States Special Operations Command, the Joint Special Operations Command andthe United States Naval Special Warfare Command, Seal Team Six's country is the United States of America and it's only branch is the United States Navy. Known garrisons/HQ's are the Dam Neck Annex and NAS Oceana, Virginia, U.S. The DEVGRU (Seal Team 6's common nickname) participated in many operations including:

-Operation Just Cause
-Operation Desert Storm
-Operation Restore Hope
-Operation Gothic Serpent
-Operation Anaconda
-The Battle Of Mogadishu

The origins of DEVGRU are in SEAL Team Six, a unit created in the aftermath of Operation Eagle Claw. During the Iran hostage crisis in 1979, Richard Marcinko was one of two U.S. Navy representatives for a Joint Chiefs of Staff task force known as the TAT (Terrorist Action Team). The purpose of the TAT was to develop a plan to free the American hostages held in Iran. In the wake of the disaster at the Desert One base in Iran, the Navy saw the need for a full-time counter-terrorist unit, and tasked Marcinko with its design and development.

DEVGRU is divided into color-coded line squadrons, which are commanded by senior officers:
Gold Squadron (Assault Team)
Blue Squadron (Assault Team)
Silver Squadron (Assault Team)
Red Squadron (Assault Team)
Black Squadron (Reconnaissance & Surveillance Team)
Gray Squadron (Boat Crews)
Green Squadron (Training Team)
Each squadron is divided into three troops (commanded by Lieutenant commanders) and troops are divided into smaller teams. Each line squadron has a specific nickname. Examples being Gold-Knights, Red-Indians, Black-Pirates.

Commanding officers

Command of DEVGRU is a Captain's billet:
Commander Richard Marcinko – Nov 1980 to July 1983
Captain Robert A. Gormly – 1983 to 1986
Captain Thomas E. Murphy – 1986 to 1987
Captain Richard T.P. Woolard – 1987 to 1990
Captain Ronald E. Yeaw – 1990 to 1992
Captain Thomas G. Moser – 1992 to 1994
Admiral Eric T. Olson – 1994 to 1997
Vice Admiral Albert M. Calland III – June 1997 to June 1999
Vice Admiral Joseph D. Kernan – 1999 to 2002
Rear Admiral Edward G. Winters, III – 2002 to 2004
Captain Scott P. Moore – 2004 to 2008
Rear Admiral Brian L. Losey – 2008 to 2010

SAS

The Special Air Service or SAS is a regiment of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. It is part of the United Kingdom Special Forces (UKSF) and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world.[8][10] The SAS together with the Special Boat Service (SBS), Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR), Special Forces Support Group (SFSG), 18 (UKSF) Signal Regiment and the Joint Special Forces Aviation Wing form the UKSF under the command of the Director Special Forces.
The SAS traces its origins to 1941 and the Second World War, and was reformed as part of the Territorial Army in 1947, and named the 21st Battalion, SAS Regiment, (Artists Rifles). The Regular Army 22 SAS later gained fame and recognition worldwide after successfully assaulting the Iranian Embassy in London and rescuing hostages during the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege, lifting the regiment from obscurity outside the military establishment.
The Special Air Service presently comprises 22 Special Air Service Regiment of the Regular Army, 21 Special Air Service Regiment and 23 Special Air Service Regiment from the Territorial Army. It is tasked primarily with counter-terrorism in peacetime and special operations in wartime.

Little publicly verifiable information exists on the SAS, as the United Kingdom Government does not usually comment on special forces matters due to the nature of their work. The Special Air Service comprises three units: one Regular and two reserve Territorial Army (TA) units. The regular army unit is 22 SAS Regiment and territorial army units are 21 SAS Regiment (Artists) and 23 SAS Regiment.

22 SAS Regiment has four operational squadrons: A, B, D and G. Each squadron consists of approximately 60 men commanded by a major, divided into four troops (each troop being commanded by a captain) and a small headquarters section. Troops usually consist of 16 men, and each patrol within a troop consists of four men, with each man possessing a particular skill: signals, demolition, medic or linguist in addition to basic skills learned during the course of his training.[53] The four troops specialise in four different areas:
Boat troop — are specialists in maritime skills using scuba diving, kayaks and Rigid-hulled inflatable boats and often train with the Special Boat Service.[
Air troop — are experts in free fall parachuting, High Altitude-Low Opening (HALO) and High Altitude-High Opening (HAHO) techniques.
Mobility troop — are specialists in using vehicles and are experts in desert warfare;[55] they are also trained in an advanced level of motor mechanics to field-repair any vehicular breakdown.[56]
Mountain troop — are specialists in Arctic combat and survival, using specialist equipment such as skis, snowshoes and mountain climbing techniques.

The Territorial Army Special Air Service (reserve) Regiments undergo a different selection process, as a part-time programme over a longer period, designed to select volunteers with the right qualities. It is emphasised that to stand any chance of success volunteers must be physically fit at the start of the course. The qualities required are:
Physically and mentally robust
Self-confident
Self-disciplined
Able to work alone
Able to assimilate information and new skills

SAS team intervened in the following engagements:

-World War II
-Malayan Emergency
-Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation
-Dhofar Rebellion
-Aden Emergency
-Northern Irish Troubles
-Falklands War
-Gulf War
-NATO intervention in Bosnia
-Operation Barras
-War In Afghanistan
-Iraq War
-Operation Ellamy

It's motto (As written on their emblem) is: ''Who dares wins''. This motto is also use in the Call of Duty games,

It's nickname is The Regiment and it's main colour is pompadour blue.

There were two diffrent period of activity for the SAS:

1 July 1941– 8 October 1945
1 January 1947– present

It's type is Special Force and it's role is Special Operations. The SAS are based in the United Kingdom and it's only branch is the British Army.

GSG-9

GSG 9 der Bundespolizei or Grenzschutzgruppe 9 (Border Protection Group 9) is the elite counter-terrorism and special operations unit of the German Federal Police.

On September 5, 1972, the Palestinian terrorist movement Black September infiltrated the Summer Olympic Games in Munich, West Germany, to kidnap 11 Israeli athletes, killing two in the Olympic Village in the initial assault on the athletes' rooms. The incident culminated when German police, neither trained nor equipped for counter-terrorism operations, and underestimating the number of terrorists involved, attempted to rescue the athletes. They failed and the operation led to the deaths of one policeman, five of the eight kidnappers and all of the remaining nine hostages (subsequently called the Munich massacre). Apart from the human tragedy, Germany's law enforcement found itself severely embarrassed, in part due to its historic relationship to Jews and Israel.

GSG 9 is deployed in cases of hostage taking, kidnapping, terrorism and extortion. The group may also be used to secure locations, neutralize targets, track down fugitives and sometimes conduct sniper operations. Furthermore, the group is very active in developing and testing methods and tactics for these missions. Finally, the group may provide advice to the different Länder, ministries and international allies. The group assists the Bundespolizei and other federal and local agencies on request. At the time of the 1977 Mogadishu mission, the Commander of the Israeli Border Police Tzvi War described GSG 9 as "The best anti-terrorist group in the world." From 1972 to 2003 they reportedly completed over 1,500 missions, discharging their weapons on only five occasions. At the SWAT World Challenge in 2005, GSG 9 won an impressive eight out of eight events, beating 17 other teams. GSG 9 defended its championship the following year, and placed fifth in 2007.

Here is a big list of the missionsthey accomplished (Those available to the public to see) :

October 17–18, 1977: Lufthansa Flight 181 was hijacked by four Palestinian terrorists demanding the release of Red Army Faction members. GSG 9 officers stormed the aircraft on the ground in Mogadishu, Somalia, with help from the Somali Army and British SAS and freed all 86 hostages, killing three terrorists and capturing the last one.
1982: Arrest of RAF terrorists Mohnhaupt and Schulz.
June 27, 1993: Arrest of RAF terrorists Birgit Hogefeld and Wolfgang Grams in Bad Kleinen. The theory that Wolfgang Grams was executed in revenge for the death of GSG 9 operative Michael Newrzella during the mission (Grams had shot and killed Newrzella when Newrzella tried to tackle him) was discredited by the official investigation which found that Grams committed suicide.
1993: Ending of the hijacking of a KLM flight from Tunis to Amsterdam, redirected to Düsseldorf, without firing a single shot.
1994: Ended a hostage situation in the Kassel Penitentiary.
1994: Involved in the search for the kidnappers Albert and Polak.
1998: Arrest of a man trying to extort money from the German railway company Deutsche Bahn.
1999: Arrest of Metin Kaplan in Cologne.
1999: Arrest of two suspected members of the Rote Zellen (Red Cells) in Berlin.
1999: Involved in ending the hostage situation in the central bank in Aachen.
2000: Advised the Philippines in relation to a hostage situation.
2001: Arrested two spies in Heidelberg.
2001: Assisted in the liberation of four German tourists in Egypt.
2002: Arrested a number of terrorists related to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
2003: Protection of the four members of the German Technisches Hilfswerk (THW - the governmental disaster relief organization of Germany) in Baghdad, Iraq. The THW's mission was to repair the water distribution network.
2004: GSG 9 is responsible for protecting German embassy property and personnel, including the embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. On April 7, 2004 two members were attacked and killed near Fallujah while in a convoy travelling from Amman, Jordan to Baghdad. The men, aged 25 and 38, were travelling in a car at the rear of the convoy, and therefore received most of the enemy fire after passing the ambush. The men were shot after their armoured Mitsubishi Pajero/Shogun was hit and stopped by RPGs. In a later statement, the attackers apologized for mistaking the German convoy for an American convoy. One of the bodies is still missing.
2007: Three suspected terrorists were seized on Tuesday, 4 September 2007 for planning huge bomb attacks on targets in Germany. The bombs they were planning to make would have had more explosive power than those used in the Madrid and London terror attacks. They wanted to build a bomb in southern Germany capable of killing as many as possible. Fritz Gelowicz, 29, Adem Yilmaz, 29 and Daniel Schneider, 22, were charged with membership in a terrorist organization, making preparations for a crime involving explosives and, in Schneider's case, attempted murder.
2009: The GSG 9 were on the verge of boarding a German freighter, the MV Hansa Stavanger, which had been hijacked by Somali pirates. The case of the Hansa Stavanger, at this time off the Somali coast seemed sufficiently symbolic to justify another potentially successful rescue operation, though on a much larger scale. More than 200 GSG 9, equipped with helicopters, speedboats and advanced weapons, had been secretly brought, via Kenya, to a location 80 kilometres (50 mi) from the German freighter. The United States Navy helicopter carrier USS Boxer (LHD-4) was lent to the Germans to act as their flagship, and a screen of German Navy warships flanked the Boxer. The ships had been patrolling near the Hansa Stavanger for days, waiting at a distance to evade detection on the pirates' radar screens. But the operation was called off before the rescue effort could begin. US National Security Advisor James L. Jones had called the Chancellery to cancel the operation. The US government, worried that the operation could turn into a suicide mission, was sending the USS Boxer back to the Kenyan port of Mombasa, where the German forces were to disembark. Officials at the German Federal Police headquarters in Potsdam, outside Berlin, concerned about the potential for a bloodbath, had also spoken out against the operation.
2012: GSG 9 was involved in a raid on the Hanover Hells Angel chapter leader Frank Hanebuth's house, as part of a crackdown on the group. During the raid, they knocked down the wooden gate and rappelled from a helicopter onto his residence. They are also reported to have shot a dog on the premises belonging to Hanebuth.
Note: The majority of this unit's missions are confidential and public information is not available. Since the founding of the GSG 9 the group has participated in over 1500 missions, yet reportedly fired shots only on five occasions (official count, prior to the 2003 Iraq War). These occasions were Mogadishu in 1977, Bad Kleinen in 1993, Aachen in 1999 and two more missions where firearms were used to shoot dogs of the persons being arrested.

The GSG 9 is based in Sankt Augustin-Hangelar near Bonn and is currently under the command of Olaf Lindner. Previous commanders were Ulrich Wegener, Jürgen Bischoff and Friedrich Eichele. GSG9 consists of three main sub-groups, plus a number of support groups not listed here (See wikipedia, GSG-9 for further info.)

The federal agency is based in germany and the GSG-9 has been founded in April 17, 1973.

GIGN

The National Gendarmerie Intervention Group, commonly abbreviated GIGN (French: Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale), is a special operations unit of the French Armed Forces. It is part of the National Gendarmerie and is trained to perform counter-terrorist and hostage rescue missions in France or anywhere else in the world.
The GIGN was formed in 1973. On 1 September 2007, a major reorganization took place. The original GIGN absorbed the Gendarmerie Parachute Squadron (EPIGN) and the thirty gendarmes of the GSPR to form a "new" expanded GIGN.
There are now three distinct parts to the unit:
Intervention force (the original GIGN)
Observation & search force (from the former EPIGN)
Security & protection force (from the former EPIGN and gendarmes from the GSPR).

After the Munich massacre during the Olympic Games in 1972, and a prison mutiny in Clairvaux Prison the year before, France started to study the possible solutions to extremely violent attacks, under the assumptions that these would be difficult to predict and deflect.
In 1973, the GIGN became a permanent force of men trained and equipped to respond to these kind of threats while minimizing risks to the public and hostages, for the members of the unit, and for the attackers themselves. The GIGN became operational on the first of March, 1974, under the command of Lieutenant Christian Prouteau.
Ten days later, it had its first intervention against a deranged person in Ecquevilly, proving the necessity of the unit. GIGN initially had 15 members, which increased to 48 by 1984, 57 by 1988, and 87 by 2000.
In 2007, a major reorganization was implemented, with the GIGN, EPIGN and GSIGN staff merged into a single 380-member unit also called GIGN. In the future, newly recruited gendarmerie officers will be trained for intervention, and will have the opportunity to be trained in close protection and/or research/observation (missions of the old EPIGN). The total man power was expected to increase to about 420 soldiers in 2010. The reorganization goal was to enable the deployment of a 200 strong unit, trained together, for large-scale interventions, such as a Beslan-type mass hostage-taking - in French they're called POM (Prise d'Otage Massive). With the reorganization the acronym GSIGN has become moot and the acronym "GIGN" no longer refers to the same small unit. Collaboration between GIGN and RAID has become more and more focused upon large hostage-rescue scenarios.

Since its creation, the group has taken part in over 1000 operations, liberated over 500 hostages, arrested over 1000 suspects, and killed 12 terrorists. The unit has seen two members killed in action, and seven in training, since its foundation, and two of its dogs in action and one in training.
Past actions include:
The liberation of 30 school children from a school bus captured by the FLCS (Front de Libération de la Côte des Somalis, "Somali Coast Liberation Front") in Djibouti in 1976.
Planning the liberation of diplomats from the French embassy in San Salvador in 1979 (the hostage-takers surrendered before the assault was conducted).
GIGN commandos were instrumental in regaining control during the Grand Mosque Seizure in Mecca, Saudi Arabia in November and December 1979.
Arrest of a Corsican terrorist of the National Liberation Front of Corsica in Fesch Hostel in 1980.
Liberation of hostages of the Ouvéa cave hostage taking in Ouvea in the New Caledonia in May 1988.
Protection of the 1992 Olympic Winter Games in Albertville.
In December 1994, the liberation of 229 passengers and crew from Air France Flight 8969 in Marseille. The plane, hijacked by four GIA terrorists that wished to destroy the Eiffel Tower, had been completely mined, and three passengers had been executed during the negotiations with the Algerian government. The mission was widely publicized.
Arrest of Bob Denard in 1995 in Comoros.
Operations in Bosnia to arrest persons indicted for war crimes.
Seizing of 6 Somali pirates and recovery of part of the ransom after making sure "Le Ponant" luxury yacht hostages were freed in the coast of Puntland in Somalia on the Gulf of Aden. In conjunction with French Commandos Marines (Naval commandos) in April 2008.
The GIGN was selected by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to teach the special forces of the other member states in hostage-rescue exercises aboard planes.

Training

Weapons Handling
Combat shooting and marksmanship training
Airborne courses, such as HALO or HAHO jumps, paragliding, and heliborne insertions.
Combat/Underwater swimming, diving and assault of ships.
Hand to Hand combat training
Undercover surveillance and stalking (support in investigating cases)
Infiltration and escape techniques
Explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and NRBC devices neutralization
Survival and warfare in tropical, arctic, mountain and desert environments.
Diplomacy skills, such as negotiating.
GIGN leaders.
Lieutenant Christian Prouteau : 1973-1982
Capitaine Paul Barril : 1982-1983 (Interim)
Capitaine Philippe Masselin : 1983-1985
Capitaine Philippe Legorjus : 1985-1989
Major (Commandant or Chef d'Escadron in Cavalry) Lionel Chesneau : 1989-1992
Capitaine Denis Favier : 1992-1997
Major (Commandant or Chef d'Escadron in Cavalry) Eric Gerard : 1997–2002
Lieutenant-Colonel Frédéric Gallois : 2002-2007
Brigade General Denis Favier : 2007-2011
Brigade General Thierry Orosco: 2011–present

GIGN members are present in several video games such as SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown, Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Hitman: Contracts, Battlefield 3, "iPad game Modern War", and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. GIGN uniforms are available in the games Counter-Strike and SWAT 4. You can also choose your avatar on the Xbox 360 gaming platform to have the GIGN special ops costume, from the Modern Warfare 3 Avatar content pack on the avatar storefront. It's labeled as French Special Ops costume, but is the GIGN Special Ops uniform in reality.

Origins:France
Founded in: 1973 (Still in activity)
Branch: National Gendarmerie
Role: Counter-terrorism and Hostage Rescue
Motto: Servitas Vitae ("To Save Lives", unofficial)
Nickname:GIGN
Size: 420 gendarmes est.

[Kesselot]

why you mad?

[doctohrr]

V mad

[Eyeling]

Screw the SAS! they are bastards!

[Sentient Bread]

woah this is really goo- this is 9 years old

[SlayeR]

no fbi? :(

[Wata]

This is good

[Jackeronie]

ah yes agents of the police states

[236800954213315784]

all destabilizing a country near you

[justdgl]

where is the best one?

[RyN]

hahahahhaahaha