Romanian Land Forces - Special Forces

Special Forces

The evolution of the special forces within the Romanian Land Forces led to the establishment of the 1st Special Operations Regiment on 1 August 2009, headquartered at Târgu Mureş. It later became the 6th Special Operations Brigade on 25 October 2011, composed of a special operations battalion, two paratrooper battalions and a logistic battalion.

The most famous and well trained unit is the 1st Special Operations Battalion "Vulturii", which was legally created in late 2005, after several batches of graduates had already been selected. Members of the special forces battalion have benefitted from courses abroad, such as the US Army Special Forces (Green Berets) course, the United States Marine Corps Force Recon course, as well as other courses. The Special Forces battalion became fully operational during 2007, after a company had already been commissioned in early-2006.

The current Romanian reconnaissance battalions (the 313th, the 317th and the 528th) are also considered special forces units, and were formed in the 1960s during the communist regime. After the revolution, the units suffered from a lack of funds which resulted in the temporary disbandment of the 313th Battalion. However, their equipment was completely overhauled in the past few years and the combat readiness and capabilities have regained full strength.

DIR, Rapid Intervention Squad of the Romanian Ministry of Defense is an elite special operations unit currently belonging to the Romanian Military Police. It is a special unit inside the military, formed of highly-skilled individuals, a very large percentage of its members being champions in martial arts, kickboxing, athletic disciplines and so on. DIR was, until December 2003, top secret.