History
The Acvila (Eagle) unit was created in january 2003 as the top unit of the MAI. Unlike all the other units, which are under the command of the Police, Jandarmery or Border Police, GSPI is under the direct command of the Minister himself.
Before that date, two Romanian police officers have travelled abroad, meeting with specialists from various countries and discussed about counter-terrorism, special police structures, human resources and other such issues. A major contribution was offered by Walter Sperner, a German Ministry of Interior specialist which is currently a councelor to the Romanian Ministry of Administration and Interior. Walter Sperner is an ex-commander of GSG-9.
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Characteristics
Besides the two Romanian specialists and Walter Sperner, GSPI has also benefitted from the knowledge and expertise of two other ex-GSG-9 specialists, which helped organize the new structure in a similar way with their former unit.
GSPI handles a variety of operations, such as protection, special police and even counter-terrorist intervention. GSPI handles the protection of DA's, Ministry of Administration and Interior and Ministry of Justice state secretaries, as well as other employees from these two ministries which have received death threats.
The budget for the Acvila unit in 2003 was 30 billion lei (985,000 US$), while the budget for 2004 was settled at 70 billion lei (2 million US$).
The creation of the Acvila unit was highly controversial at the time. On one hand, Romania already had several similar units, who's missions and responsibilities were sometimes overlapping.
On the other hand, the very purpose(s) for the creation of the Acvila unit were still unclear due to insufficient information available to the public.
We now know that the European Union requires all its member states to have such a multi-purpose elite unit in each country's Interior structures. The official description of this unit is that it was created to offer protection to Justice Ministry's VIP's.
But it is also stated very clearly that this unit is also meant to participate in search and rescue, counter-terrorist and intercepting operations.
GSPI Acvila has around 200 combatants, divided into three main sections: a CPU (Close Protection Unit) section, a counter-terrorist section, and a sniper section. The counter-terrorist section seems to be the largest, comprising of four teams. However, GSPI is often use for special police operations, as well as interceptions. Those two types of missions are now the exclusive types performed by the top unit of the Police, called SIIAS, after CPU and CT has been taken out of their area and is now handled by GSPI. It might be a good idea at this time to disband SIIAS as a structure of the Police and transfer all its personnel to GSPI, either to the existing teams or by creating a new special police team.
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Admission
It is rumoured than a significant part of the combatants which now compose GSPI are former members of the Vlad Tepes Special Brigade.
According to GSPI, their admission standards are unique in Romania, which is something worth noting.
At first, only candidates within the right age group, with general and specific knowledge and some experience may apply.
Those canditates then join the Preselection process, which lasts about two weeks and consists of medical screenings, psychological exams, physical exams, a shooting test and a written exam.
The candidates which passed preselection then join the actual selection process, which lasts anywhere between 30 and 45 days. Selection consists of daily activities created with the purpose of bringing the candidate to his limits and pass him beyond them as well. A grueling physical training is combined with psychological beasting and AT, CT intervention, close protection, selective shooting and other types of exercises.
The training program in this stage lasts no less than 16-20 hours a day, sometimes exceeding that and bringing the figure to its maximum, of 24 hours a day (around the clock). Extreme fatigue, lack of sleep, high stress and other conditions are induced upon the candidates at this stage, as they continue with their selection courses.
Physical training consists of 2-3 tests each day, and tests the candidates' endurance, reaction speed and mobility.
AT and CT intervention training, as well as the learning of basic protection skills, comprises of both theoretical and practical exams, night and day time marches, as well as combined exercises, all of which take place under the conditions described above.
Psychological training is provided by specialized personnel and consists in various tests which the candidates have to do at different emotional and psychological stages, such as relaxation, fatigue, lack of sleep, stress, annoyance, etc.
The entire selection process is closely watched by instructors, which are experienced GSPI members. They measure the candidates' behaviour and attitude, as well as their ability to integrate in a team and reaction to unexpected situations.
For those who apply to be GSPI officers, besides all of the above, they are also tested for leading skills and the ability to manage confusing situations and high risk factors.
Across the years, it has been observed that only 15-20% of candidates pass this stage of selection.
The Final Exam comes after the Selection and takes about 3-4 days to complete. It consists of integrated physical, shooting and written exams and it specifically tests for the skills and aptitudes which the candidate was supposed to aquire during the Selection process.
The physical exam now combines endurance with response speed, attention to detail, memorizing information under stress and other specific aptitudes.
The shooting exam takes place right after the physical one, when the candidate is already fatigued, and it also incorporates hidden elements which are meant to test attention to detail and memory.
It is difficult to assess the total failure rate for those who apply to GSPI, but by combining drop-out rates from the various stages of the selection process we could speculate that it approaches or exceeds 90%.
Remember, these 90% represent candidates which were already highly experienced policemen, members of rapid intervention detachments such as DIAS, SPIR, the Arrests section, even SIIAS (although one would fairly admit that those are highly unlikely to fail), the Mobile, Mountain and Special Jandarmery battalions, as well as other units and services.
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Training
It is known that GSPI Acvila trains on a regular basis in a large variety of terrain and for several types of operations.
Physical training is meant to sustain the strength of the combatants with the help of daily exercises, for which a gym is available. Martial arts training is also envolved, for which another indoors facility exist. Psychological training takes place as well. Other types of tactical training occurs in mountaineous areas, woods, etc. Besides that, parachute jumps for airborne insertion, usage of fast boats for river or maritime operations and usage of camouflage techniques for snipers also take place on a regular basis.
GSPI Acvila also performs counter-terrorist missions if needed; therefore CT training is one of the most important areas of their training doctrine.
A disaffected bus exists inside the GSPI's headquarters, which is used for hostage rescuing scenarios. Also, GSPI combatants use a disaffected train as well as a transport plane for the same purposes.
GSPI Acvila during training |
rappelling from a dam |
rappelling from a bridge |
rappelling from a mountain |
checking the trunk |
boarding an aeroplane |
boarding an aeroplane |
boarding a bus |
in the subway |
in the subway |
in the subway |
in the subway |
in the subway |
boarding a train |
boarding a train |
rappelling from a ship |
reflexive shooting |
Training also comprises of repeating boarding techniques, as it is known that GSPI Acvila also performs counter-terrorist missions during maritime operations.
The members spend roughly around 70% of their time training.
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Order of Battle
All the members of the Acvila unit are expected to be concentrated in a location in or at the outskirts of Bucharest.
GSPI is headed by a Commanding Staff, which controls all the other internal structures. That comprises of 4 combat groups (counter-terrorist teams), 1 sniper team, 1 CPU (close-protection) team, as well as a mission management section, a training department, a medical support team and a logistics team.
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Exercises
As this unit is still under construction, details about exercises held by Acvila have not been made public as of now.
Despite that, photos are available which depict members of GSPI Acvila at various exercises and meetings with similar foreign units. It is unlikely that all the photos were taken at the same event, so we could speculate there have been already several international exercises held with foreign partners, some of them in Romania, and perhaps, some of them abroad.
Operatives from the United States and Denmark can be distinguished in some of the photos, as well as distinguished guests from African countries.
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