Frankreich — Commando Hubert

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Externe Links

Franzö­sis­ches Verteidigungsministerium

Overview

Year of foun­da­tion: 1953
Area of oper­a­tion: world­wide
Home-base: Toulon, France

The Com­man­do Hubert is the com­bat­ant div­er unit of the French Navy, which is part of the French COFUSCO. They make their mar­itime actions in coop­er­a­tion and help of the ser­cret ser­vices and the Navy.

Duty:

• Pro­tec­tion or evac­u­a­tion of French citizen
• Recon­nais­sance
• Acts of sabotage
• Anti-ter­ror measures

Train­ing
Sol­diers who want to be part of the Com­man­do Hubert have to be mem­bers of the Navy at least since four years and six months in the com­man­dos of the Navy as well. The com­bat­ant div­ing train­ing can only be done in the ages of 21 till 27 years. The train­ing takes place in the com­bat­ant div­ing school in Saint Man­dri­er near the town Toulon. The first phase is open for every mem­ber of the Navy with an intro­duc­tion to com­bat­ant div­ing. The sec­ond phase is only for com­bat­ant div­er. 
The train­ing is twen­ty-sev­en weeks long and it is divid­ed in three phases.

Phase 1:
Phase 1 is eleven weeks long. Dur­ing the first four weeks the gen­er­al abil­i­ties con­cern­ing the div­ing are checked and improved. In the fifth week the par­tic­i­pants are taught in the use of explo­sives. The last six weeks are dealt with spe­cial com­bat­ant div­ing top­ics e.g. under-water nav­i­ga­tion, the use of small boats and kayaks.

Phase 2:
Phase 2 is also eleven weeks long. Dur­ing the first six weeks the par­tic­i­pants learn tech­niques to sab­o­tage ship’s among oth­er things. Fur­ther­more the use of kayaks and small boats is inten­sive­ly taught. The next two weeks they spend their time with exer­cis­es. Dur­ing these exer­cis­es they have to break­through the defense of the har­bor of Toulon in a sim­u­lat­ed attack and with the help of explo­sives to make a boat unus­able. The dif­fi­cul­ty is that the crew knows about the forth­com­ing attack.

Phase 3:
The third and last phase is five weeks long and the focus is on the under­wa­ter sab­o­tage and para­chut­ing (where main­ly the jump into the water with or with­out equip­ment is trained). Tech­niques of repair­ing ship’s and how to deal with obsta­cles under pres­sure are taught as well.
When this phase is com­plet­ed the fin­ished trained com­bat­ant divers receive their badge (two sea hors­es above an anchor and a wing). After their train­ing they will serve the Com­man­do Hubert for three years. Dur­ing these three years they have many fur­ther train­ings includ­ing an advanced com­bat­ant div­ing course and a para­troop­er train­ing.
After the three years the sol­diers can choose whether they want to stay anoth­er three years, to become a teacher at the com­bat­ants’ div­er school or whether they want to leave the unit.

Equip­ment

Weapons:

• HK USP
• PAMAS G1
• Glock17
• SIG P‑226 
• MP‑5 SD 3 +A5
• G3
• M16 
• FAMAS 
• Rem­ing­ton 870 Shotgun 
• MG MINIMI 
• MacMil­lan M‑87 
• MacMil­lan FR F2 

Means of trans­port:

• Posei­don­boote
• Hur­ri­cane
• Futu­ra Mk II und Mk III
• Vos­tock NG
• Kajaks

Units:
The first com­pa­ny has a strength of 50 sol­diers and it con­sists of four sections:

• Sec­tion A: com­man­do section
• Sec­tion B: anti-ter­ror unit
• Sec­tion C: use and main­te­nance of the under water equipment
• Sec­tion D: recon­nais­sance and support

There are also plans to cre­ate a sec­tion E which should use Hur­ri­cane boats.

The sec­ond com­pa­ny is respon­si­ble for the sup­port, main­te­nance and logis­tics. It has a strength of approx­i­mate­ly 30 soldiers.

Pre­vi­ous mis­sions (so far as known) 

• Lebanon (the Com­man­do Hubert sup­port­ed the evac­u­a­tion and pro­tect­ed the with­draw­al of the PLO)
• Dur­ing French nuclear tests
• Numer­ous actions in Africa
• Alge­ria

Link:

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