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The National Gendarmerie Intervention Group, commonly abbreviated GIGN (French: Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale), is the French Gendarmerie's elite counter-terrorism and hostage rescue unit; it is part of the military force (military body charged with police duties and act as military police or provost). It is composed of 380 men, including 11 commissioned officers.[citation needed] It is the counterpart to RAID of the Police Nationale with enhanced resources and expanded areas of responsibility. In contrast to RAID, GIGN is also responsible for conducting operations outside of France (such as hostage rescue for example). Its missions include the arrest of armed criminals, in particular those taking hostages, counter-terrorism and dealing with aircraft hijacking, and prevention of mutiny in prisons.
[edit] HistoryAfter the Munich massacre during the Olympic Games in 1972, and a prison mutiny in Clairvaux Prison the next year, France started to study the possible solutions to extremely violent attacks, under the assumptions that these would be difficult to predict and deflect.[1] 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, a deranged person was successfully stopped in Ecquevilly, validating the techniques of the unit and proving its necessity. GIGN initially had 15 members, which increased to 48 by 1984, 57 by 1988, and 87 by 2000.[1] [edit] StructureThe GIGN is divided into a command cell, an administrative group, four operational troops of twenty operators, an operational support troop including negotiation, breaching, intelligence, communications, marksmanship, dogs and special equipment cells.[2] The special equipment group equips the unit with modified and high-tech equipment, by either selecting or designing it. GIGN is called about 60 times each year.[3] All members go through training which includes shooting, long-range marksmanship, an airborne course and hand-to-hand combat techniques (Krav Maga). Members of the GIGN are widely regarded as having some of the best firearms training in the world.[1] It is for this reason that many of the world's special operations and counterterrorist units conduct exchange programs with the GIGN.[1] Mental ability and self-control are important in addition to physical strength. Like most special forces, the training is stressful with a high washout rate of only 7-8% of volunteers making it to the training process. GIGN members must be prepared to disarm suspects with their bare hands.[3] There are two tactical specialties in the group : HALO/HAHO and divers. Members learn several technical specialties among police dogs, breaching, long-range sniping, negotiation, etc.[1] [edit] FutureIn the future, the newly recruited police officers will be trained for intervention, then will have the opportunity to be trained in protection and/or research/observation (GSPR old missions and the EPIGN). The total will increase to about 420 soldiers in 2010, compared to 380 today. It will then be possible to hire up to 200 men, trained and accustomed to working together in large-scale interventions (mass hostage-taking for example, as in Beslan). The acronym GSIGN has become moot and the acronym "GIGN" refers no longer the same small unit. The collaboration of GIGN and RAID is more and more practiced in large hostage-rescue exercises. [edit] Operations Since its creation, the group has taken part in over 1000 operations, liberated over 500 hostages, arrested over 1000 suspects, and killed a dozen 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.[4] Past actions include:
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 in planes. [edit] Training
[edit] Equipment
[edit] GIGN leaders
[edit] In fictionGIGN 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, and Hitman: Contracts. GIGN uniforms are available in the games Counter-Strike and SWAT 4. [edit] See also[edit] Comparable Special Forces
[edit] References[edit] Footnotes[edit] External links
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