SIIAS is a special forces unit belonging to the Ministry of the Interior. Its highly trained fighters intervene only in the most difficult missions encountered anywhere in the territory of Romania. Very dangerous criminals, armed robberies, vehicle hi-jacking, hostage taking and until now Ministry of the Interior VIP protection are their specialities.

Only the finest make it to SIIAS. If you are top of the line in whatever you're doing, you got a chance; otherwise you might as well just quit trying.
Experience is a must. Some special forces recruit their members from a large segment of the population and experience is not required. Two popular examples of this would be the US Navy SEALs and the US Army Rangers. Other special forces recruit their members from men who are already in the branch and proved to be best of their units. Such an example would be Delta Force.
SIIAS is part of the second cathegory. Recruiting is not done "from the outside", but only from the inside. Former DIAS fighters, as well as former BAT members have been recruited into this service. Some examples of SIIAS fighters would be a 5-dan martial arts instructor, a rappeling expert, a phychologyst with experience in negociations, etc. Former DIAS members who have been in that force for many years and have participated and handled very well a lot of dangerous missions and situations also thicken the lines of the SIIAS. Fighters from DIAS units in Bucharest, Timisoara, Constanta, Brasov or Galati hold an advantage, because their units have daily missions in their large cities. Six years in DIAS Bucharest and a thick operations file can get you into SIIAS, that is of course, if there's a free spot. You will read about that in the Order of Battle Section.

SIIAS fighters train daily. They have to.

Six hours at the gym would seem exagerate even to a performance athlete, however it is a must for any SIIAS fighter. Body building training is followed by long runs, hand-to-hand combat, rappeling from and into buildings or from helicopters, as well as daily shooting sessions with all the weapons in their arsenal.

Most of the time, SIIAS use live ammunition in their training sessions, a rough reminder of their deadly trade. No mistakes are allowed, whether in training or in a real mission.

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SIIAS uses weapons which are also used by their collegues from Delta Force, SAS, HRT or the Navy SEALs. The 9mm Glock pistol with a reserve of 18 rounds plus one on the barrel, PSG-1 and MP5-3 are widely used. The poor equipment of the past has now been replaced with the latest in special forces outfitting.
In the early days, SIIAS had a very low budget. The fighters even had to manually confectionate their own protection equipment, while gear such as pants, jackets and boots were bought from the common hypermarket by each fighter, at their own choice. They also used the good-old Romanian-made Carpati 7.62mm pistol, which had only 6 rounds plus one on the barrel. The Carpati, although one of the best pistols in the world in its time (1960's), had become completely obsolete in today's world of kevlar and multiple targets. The four decades have taken its toll on it, and a new weapon was badly needed. Also, the rappel gear was outdated, second hand and even dangerous. The only SIIAS fighter ever to lose his life died in a demonstration, falling from high above the Police headquarters building in Bucharest when his second hand rappel gear broke in half.
However things radically changed for SIIAS starting with 2001. A former fighter, now back to civilian life, had started his own company. Area of work? special forces gear. His company produces pants, sweaters and jackets made of kevlar and tuaron, special goretex boots, rappel gear, special helmets and other such stuff. He presented his offer to the Ministry of the Interior which was very interested of it.
This was followed in early 2002 by the Government's aquisition of an unspecified number of 9mm Glock pistols, PSG-1 rifles and MP5-3 automatics, produced under license at Cugir, in central Romania. The factory there has a centuries-old tradition in firearms production and it was always top of the line.
Nowadays, SIIAS has good equipment.

SIIAS is an entire service, with both fighters and civil employees. Their total number is unknown, but what it is known is that SIIAS has exactly 60 fighters. They are organized in two detachments, of 30 men each. Is this exact number that adds another obstacle to the admission, as when a new SIIAS member is recruited, it can only mean one of three things: either the old member has died, he quit/got replaced, or he got fired. And as such brave warriors do not get fired and as they rarely quit, it leaves us with two options: either he got replaced because of his age (such as the example of the former fighter that now runs an equipment company), or he died.
Both these detachments are permanently stationed in an undisclosed location in or around Bucharest; however they can reach any point in the country in a moment's notice. The Special Aviation Unit of the Ministry of the Interior can transport them at any time with its modified IAR-316 Alouette, IAR-330 Puma or Mi-8T Hip helicopters, the first two being Romanian-made.

Not much is revealed about the SIIAS fighters and exactly who they are training with, when and where. However exercises are seldom being staged, and you will find out why in the chapter below.

SIIAS has operations on a daily basis. It is remarcable that such a small unit sees action each and every single day of the year. One, twice or even three times in each one of the 365 days of the year, SIIAS is involved in an operation, somewhere in Romania. This leaves little time for exercises and even training (which lasts for so many hours). SIIAS members are on call 24/7, same as Delta Force operators. Day or night, wednesday or sunday, whether they are on duty or enjoying a holiday at the shores of the Black Sea, SIIAS fighters can be called upon whenever necessary, in order to perform a mission.
Unfortunately the exact missions of the SIIAS can not be detailed in here, as the persons they acted against, although cold blooded criminals, have the right to sue anyone who mentions their name.
But what can be done is remind some of their missions without naming the persons who got arrested.
A Romanian that had served for 3 years in the infamous French Legion, a collection of convicted criminals from around the world, ran away to Belgium, where he was the author of several robberies and other such acts. After a while, he left Belgium and came to Romania, where he laid low in an apartment in Brasov (central Romania).
But the SIIAS fighters are no French Legionairs, or Belgium Police. A team of SIIAS operators rapelled down from the apartment block and entered the apartment from all directions. Several have broked the windows and "landed" in his living room, while at the same time others have smashed the door and were going in thru the main hallway.
He never had a chance. Although he was heavely armed, he was imobilized and hand-cuffed before he even realized what was going on.
Another action where SIIAS operators were called upon was in one case where several masked men have done an armed robbery of a currency exchange office in central Timisoara (Western Romania).

The local DIAS fighters, renowned to be some of the best of all DIAS forces in the country, quickly came to the scene and had started to pursue the offenders. However the offenders were heavily armed with pistols, mini-guns and even heavy machineguns. Although this might seem as a standard scenario for foreign countries, such an event has never happened in Romania before. But the DIAS officers had their own weapons, and a terrible urban warfare took part on the streets of Timisoara. SIIAS operators, which arrived a little while later all the way from Bucharest, took over the pursue operation and several of the offenders were arrested, without any life losses or injuries.
It's easy to shoot people down, and all the so-called "special forces" from around the world, including from Banana Republics, can do that, and anybody who does 200 push-ups thinks he's "the best in the world".
However CT and hostage rescuing operations of the past two decades have proved that only the finest can actually rescue people and capture criminals without shooting innocent by-standards or actually killing the very hostages they were trying to rescue, such as is often the case in third world countries.

I can only attempt to describe some events in which fighters belonging to the SIIAS detachments were involved.
Incredibly, SIIAS also has a female fighter among its ranked. Married and with two hildren at home, the highly trained professional is nicknamed "Iron Maiden" amongst the group's members. Her speciality though, is unknown.