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France’s elite counter-terrorism teams are some of the finest in the world and have proven their abilities and bravery over decades of dangerous operations. Most notable of these teams is the legendary Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale which, along with its French National Police counterparts, saw action this week during the horrific terror events around Paris.
The GIGN, or in English theNational Gendarmerie Intervention Group, is France’s premier military counter-terror and hostage rescue unit, originally formed in 1973 following the
hostage crisis in Munich. GIGN belongs to a part of the French military known as the National Gendarmerie, which has no precise counterpart in the military branches here in the United States. With roots going back to the Middle Ages, the National Gendarmerie is a force focused primarily on internal security and order. Its present form is something akin to a militarized version of America’s Department of Homeland Security, with some additional FBI-like responsibilities, as well as some of the roles of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Since its founding, the GIGN has seen consistent action. Its members are considered absolute masters of hostage rescue and intervention, especially in high-density environments like buses, ships, trains and airliners. In all, GIGN is said to have been involved in well over 1,000 missions and liberated more than 500 hostages since its founding. These include everything from saving hundreds of passengers from a hijacked A300 to killing Somali pirates holding a large luxury yacht and its crew hostage in the Gulf of Aden.
GIGN is known for innovation in technological applications and tactical methods. It trains regularly with similar units from around the world, including Germany’s vaunted GSG-9, UK’s SAS, Poland’s JW GROM, and America’s counter-units such as SEAL Team Six, Delta Force, and the FBI’s elite Hostage Rescue Team.
For all its reputation, GIGN was a very small force for most of its lifespan. Though supported by administrative, command, technological, and smaller specialized groups (sniper, intel, aviation, negotiators, dogs etc), the core of GIGN was historically just four troops of about 20 commandos each. This small size limited the group’s operational impact for larger potential terrorist events, but it also concentrated training to a limited number of operators which insured that GIGN “shooters” are of the highest quality. GIGN operators have such a sensitive job, that like the majority of France’s anti-terrorism units, their faces are not allowed to be photographed fully exposed, therefore they are often seen wearing tactical ski masks when operating in public.
As with any other special forces unit, disseminating fact from fiction and lore when it comes to the unit’s training practices is challenging, but it is widely rumored that a GIGN commando shoots more rounds per year than almost any other solider in the world and that deep psychological evaluations are given before anyone is admitted to the team. Training is said to be unconventional by any definition, featuring live-fire “trust” drills and placing operators in very dangerous real-world situations, such as at the bottom of the Seine River as barges pass just feet above. GIGN’s washout rates for new recruits exceed that of almost every other special forces unit in the world, with only five to eight percent of would-be members ending up wearing the GIGN badge.
In 2007, GIGN’s quaint boutique-like counter-terrorism unit size morphed into a larger entity that could respond to the changing nature of terrorism word-wide. With larger scale attacks becoming more of a threat, proof being in those carried out by gunman in
Nirobi and
Mumbai, GIGN needed more manpower. Some elite units within the French Armed Services—the airborne Parachute Intervention Squadron of the National Gendarmerie (EPGIN) and the Security Group for the Presidency of the Republic (GSPR), which guards the nation’s president—were integrated into GIGN.
As a result, the unit ballooned in size, but it could now put about 200 operators onto a single target at one time. Additionally, GIGN acquired new missions such as VVIP protection, and was given an even larger focus outside of France’s own borders. The changes were seen as synergistic with its core anti-terrorism mission, but some detractors claim GIGN lost much of its identity with its growth after 2007.
GIGN’s military heritage shows up in some of the tactics that it can bring to the counter-terrorism fight. Unlike most police counter-terror units, GIGN has the French Armed Forces’ capabilities at its fingertips and has integrated tactics directly with them. These military tactics include skydiving using
HALO and HAHO applications, combat diving, and deep scouting and surveillance capabilities.
Beyond direct action missions, GIGN also works to forestall terrorist attacks before they happen. A large part of its mission is to support high-profile events and protection of high-value targets during times of perceived vulnerability and heightened risk.
GIGN’s weapons and technology include some of the most advanced equipment in the world, some of it highly experimental in nature, along with some very low-tech but proven tools. The unit is at the forefront in counter-terrorism innovation with its tailor-made access and extraction capabilities, which include bridging systems built atop SUVs and steel discs it uses to insert and extract multiple operators at a time via helicopter sling-line.
Although the group packs virtually any weapon they see fit, including sub-machine guns from Fabrique Nationale and Heckler & Koch and pistols from Glock, it is well known for its love of .357 magnum revolvers when it comes to close-quarters combat.
For decades, and apparently still to this day, GIGN favors the
French-built MR-73 and the Smith & Wesson 686. The revolvers’ heavy weight, fixed barrel, inline bore-axis, and lack of a moving slide give them an advantage over automatics. Nonetheless, times are changing and now GIGN operators are often seen packing customized Glocks, sometimes along with a revolver as a secondary sidearm.
Although the GIGN is the most notable French counter-terrorism unit, the country has other well-known counter-terrorism units. Groupes d’Intervention de la Police Nationale, or National Police Intervention Groups (GIPN) is one of these top units.
GIPN, which sports a cobra as its mascot, was formed like GIGN after the shock of the Munich hostage crisis. It operates as part of the National Police and is focused on internal counter-terror affairs more strictly than the GIGN.
