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)
Read more about National Gendarmerie Intervention Group: History, Structure, Operations, Training, GIGN Leaders, In Fiction
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