Gruppo di Intervento Speciale (GIS, in English "Special Intervention Group") is a counterterrorism asset inside the Italian Carabinieri military police, first formed in 1978. In 2004 the GIS evolved into a special forces unit. The unit has taken part in counterterrorism operations and VIP protection details in Afghanistan and Iraq. GIS is the premier armed unit called from NATO, for special operations dealing with terrorists and kidnappers.
nocs
Today, SOD/NOCS have 3 tactical assault teams and 1 protection division. All operatives have HALO training and several have SCUBA training, EOD, sniper and combat shooting. SOD has a logistics branch with specialized personnel in support of operatives. NOCS has several specialized vehicles, operated by specially trained drivers. The basic training last 6 months and is followed by an advance training program lasting an additional six months.
NOCS has trained with many international units including the FBI Hostage Rescue Team, Israeli YAMAM, German GSG-9 and SEK, Spanish GEO, French RAID, Japanese SAT, Swiss DEE10, Saudi Arabian National Guard CT Team, Belgian ESI, US 10th Special Forces Group, Danish Jægerkorpset and Dutch KCT and has graduated operatives through the NATO's International LRRP School in Weingarten, Germany. SOD/NOCS continues to be a leading unit in Europe and the new senior officers have establish liaisons with similar units of former East Bloc countries and the Austrian GEk
COMSUBIN (Comando Raggruppamento Subacquei ed Incursori Teseo Tesei) is the elite Italian combat frogman force and one of the Italian special forces.
Italy was the first nation to use frogmen and human torpedoes.The Italian Naval Assalt Divisions are considered to be the of modern Naval Special Forces.Their record can be traced back to World War I and the operation against the Austrian-Hungarian Battleship Viribus Unitis in Pola Harbour in 1918. Other famous operations are Trieste, Suda Bay, Alexandria,Gibraltar, and Malta. Great Britain and Germany soon followed. Italy's frogman group originated in 1938 as the 1a Flottiglia Mezzi d'Assalto (1st Flotilla Assault Vehicles), which was reformed in 1940 as the Decima Flottiglia MAS (10th Flotilla Assault Vehicles, X-MAS).
It is a matter of pride that Italy's Naval Special Forces pre-date both the U.S. Navy Underwater Demolition Teams, formed in 1943 and forerunners of the better-known SEALs, and the British Royal Marines Special Boat Service formed as an offshoot of the Special Air Service in 1941.
After World War II ended, the victors forbade Italy from maintaining special operations personnel. The Decima Flottiglia MAS was disbanded. But the training experience gathered during the war was not lost, but was preserved in units scattered across the new Marina Militare.
1954: Italy joined the North Atlantic Council and the United Nations. The Allied Powers relented. The Decima Flottiglia MAS was reformed, and had various names as the years passed.
1960: Its name was settled as Comando Raggruppamento Subacquei ed Incursori Teseo Tesei (Teseo Tesei Underwater and Raiding Grouping Command, COMSUBIN) after Major Teseo Tesei.
Personnel of COMSUBINCOMSUBIN is currently based in three detachments near the Gulf of La Spezia in the Liguria region of north-west Italy. In keeping with its traditions, the command has long been known for its acquisition and use of unconventional weapons and small arms, such as the Armalite AR-10.
Some nations including Italy have continued to make and keep human torpedoes after 1945.
Though technically referred to as a special operations force, COMSUBIN is somewhat different in that it considers itself a naval specialisation. Perhaps the most storied task of COMSUBIN is the destruction of enemy naval assests, particularly by sea. However, COMSUBIN's six principal components (described below) all perform markedly different tasks each as essential as the other
The 4th Alpini Regiment was a light Infantry regiment of the Italian Army, specializing in Mountain Combat. The Alpini are a mountain infantry corps of the Italian Army, that distinguished itself in combat during World War I (WWI) and World War II (WWII). Today the 4th Alpini Regiment is a Special Forces unit of elite mountain infantry specialized in the airborne assault role.
On September 25th, 2004 the 4th Alpini Regiment was reformed as 4° Alpini Paracadutisti (Parachutist Alpini) Regiment in the city of Bolzano. The Alpini Monte Cervino battalion became its single battalion. Today the 4th regiment is one of three Special Forces regiments of the Italian Army. The Alpini Paracadutisti have recently served Iraq and one company is constantly deployed in Afghanistan.
col moschin
The 9th Parachutist Assault Regiment, also known as Col Moschin. It is the fiore all'occhiello or proudest unit of the current Italian Army — in part due to its distinguished history, but also due to the arduous training which members must undertake. It's motto is Della Folgore L'impeto — which roughly translated is Of the thunderbolt, the impetus. Training takes no less than two years for long-term members, and five months for short-term volunteers (with 1–2 years total military service).
Roughly equivalent in number, tasking and quality to the world-famous British Army SAS, the 9th — or il nono as it is known in Italian military circles — is capable of operating in all environments. The roughly 700 members train in mountainous, wooded, desert, and amphibious terrain. The 9th's specialty is operating independently of outside support and far from friendly lines. From 2004, "Col Moschin" is integrated inside the Comando Forze Speciali Interarma (C.O.F.S.), Italy's special operations command.
[edit] Modern Operational History
In 1982, Italian paratroopers of the 9th took part in the multi-national UN-sponsored mission of establishing peace and security in parts of Lebanon that were shattered by years of civil war. The Italians achieved great operational success, and were widely praised for their work.
In May of 1991, the humanitarian crisis precipitated by Saddam Hussein led to hundreds of thousands of Kurd refugees in northern Iraq. The 9th was deployed to assist the people fleeing Saddam, following his defeat in the 1990–91 Persian Gulf War.
Mafia assassinations of top Italian magistrates in 1992 resulted in the deployment of military forces to Sicily, including the 9th.
From late 1992 to late 1993, the 9th was deployed to Somalia in Operation Restore Hope, a UN mission to alleviate the suffering of the Somali people, who were deeply affected by the on-going civil war.
The 9th was deployed within the IFOR to keep the peace in Bosnia following the Dayton Peace Accords of 1995. They served numerous tours of duty. They were also dispatched several times to Kosovo, following the NATO-Serbian War in 1999.
Additional recent operations include a tour in Albania, following the near-collapse of the Albanian government in 1997, and an operation in East Timor, following that country's referendum for independence from Indonesia.
In Afghanistan, the Incursori provides support of Italian troops engaged in ISAF.
In Iraq, Operation Antica Babilonia (Italian contingent of Multinational force 2003 - 2006) includes a section of special forces operatives, from the 9th, the Carabinieri's GIS and the Navy's COMSUBIN, mostly deployed for patrol missions, training local police and Army, and to arrest suspects of terrorism.
http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=KzL7vhK9esM
incursori dell aria..air force italy special units
http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=g59gE5_WBpM
