Détachement ALAT des opérations spéciales

Logo of the DAOS

Logo of the 4th regiment d'hélicoptères des forces spéciales

Beret badge of the Aviation Legere de l'armée de terre (ALAT)

The Détachement ALAT des opérations spéciales (DAOS) (German: "Army Aviation Special Operations Department"), the ALAT stands for Aviation légère de l'armée de terre and means the French army aviators . The DAOS is a special unit of the French army . It forms the air component of the Brigade des forces spéciales terre (Eng. "Army Special Forces Brigade") of the French armed forces , to which it is also subordinate. The DAOS is an association in battalion strength , to ensure that is geared to and removal of special forces under the most difficult tactical and topographic conditions for often located far behind enemy lines use. Another task is fire support from combat helicopters in combat.

The DAOS has its headquarters , together with the Army Special Forces Brigade in Pau , in Pyrénées-Atlantiques , near the Spanish border and, together with this its parent major unit to constantly the joint forces cross Commandement des opérations spéciales (dt. "High Command for Special operations ") subordinate to special operations units of the armed forces.

history

The DAOS was set up in 1997 and has been in service ever since.

assignment

Transport of special forces in all imaginable locations, climatic conditions and in hostile areas. Air reconnaissance and fire support for ground forces.

Organization and equipment

The détachement, actually an escadron (a battalion in the French armed forces), is divided into six operational escadrilles (here escadrilles are companies and not platoons ):

Eurocopter Tiger

Eurocopter EC-725 Cougar

• Escadron des opérations spéciales (EOS) 1: equipped with Cougar transport helicopters
• EOS 2: equipped with Gazelle multipurpose helicopters
• EOS 3: equipped with multi-purpose Caracal helicopters
• EOS 4: equipped with Puma transport helicopters
• EOS 5: equipped with Puma transport helicopters
• EOS 6: equipped with Eurocopter Tiger combat helicopters

The 4th and 5th EOS are normally assigned to the Groupe d'intervention de la gendarmerie nationale (GIGN), the special unit for counter-terrorism and hostage liberation of the national gendarmerie , which, although a police unit , is an organization of the armed forces and reports to the Ministry of Defense .

References

See also

• The unit is comparable to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) of the US Army .

Web links

• Official website of ALAT (French)
• About the equipment of the ALAT at matalat.fr (French)
• About the EOS of the DAOS at specwarnet.net (English)
• The badges of the DAOS and their escadrilles at symboles-et-traditions.com ( Memento from February 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (French)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See specialist magazine Raids , October 2008 edition.