heh, well I might be mistaken the name, but its some kind of French special force unit

Originally Posted by tomtom22

What is GIGN?

It stands for Groupe d'intervention Gendarmarie Nationale,
Basically the equivelent of your S.W.A.T. teams or our S019 police firearms units.
Although GIGN are a highly competent force they are still police officers and NOT special forces soldiers.
As I said in my previous quote ,the best of the elite French Regiments is 2nd REP of the legion and it is comprised of ??????

of?? heh, do you know the answer?? because I dont

but stil... look into the French Special Forces.. something not to be underestimated..

Originally Posted by MightyMacbeth

of?? heh, do you know the answer?? because I dont

but stil... look into the French Special Forces.. something not to be underestimated..

Other Europeans,including Britons.

Some info:

France:

VariableAmount/descriptionMilitary > Air force personnel78,100Military > Armed forces growth-37Military > Armed forces personnel294,000Military > Army personnel203,200Military > Branches
Army (includes Marines, Foreign Legion, Army Light Aviation), Navy (including naval air), Air Force (including Air Defense), National Gendarmerie Military > Expenditures > Dollar figure$46,500,000,000.00Military > Expenditures > Dollar figure (per capita)$766.62 per personMilitary > Expenditures > Percent of GDP2.57Military > Navy personnel63,300Military > Weapon
holdings 6 million


----------------------

United Kingdom


VariableAmount/descriptionMilitary > Air force personnel52,540Military > Armed forces growth-36Military > Armed forces personnel212,000Military > Army personnel113,900Military > Conventional arms exports$985,000,000.00Military > Expenditures > Dollar figure$31,700,000,000.00Military > Expenditures > Dollar figure (per capita)$524.48 per personMilitary > Expenditures > Percent of GDP2.32Military > Navy personnel44,500Military > WMD > Nuclear
The United Kingdom is a nuclear weapon state party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The UK's current stockpile is thought to consist of less than 200 strategic and "sub-strategic" warheads on Vanguard-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBN). The Strategic Defense Review of July 1998 called for major changes in the United Kingdom's nuclear weapons program. Air-delivered weapons were removed from service, leaving the SSBNs as the United Kingdom's only nuclear deterrent. The Review mandated that only one submarine be on patrol at a time, with its missiles detargeted and with a reduced number of warheads (maximum of 4. On May 1, 2004, the Nuclear Safeguards Act went into effect in the United Kingdom, providing necessary legislation for the enforcement of the "additional protocol" designed to provide greater protection against nuclear non-proliferation. This protocol built on existing nuclear safeguards agreements with the IAEA. The United Kingdom ratified the NPT in November 1968 and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in June 1998.

Here a bit of info on French Military Special Forces, its a good read...

http://www.specwarnet.com/europe/fr_overview.htm

Somebody mentioned the GIGN (and CRS while we are at it).
These are elite Police units. The GIGN is part of the Gendarmerie which in turn is part of the military). The CRS, is part of the French National Police Force. The CRS is similar to American SWAT, they deal with any situation normal cops or regular gendarmes wont do. Example Riots, Drug Raids and other high risk operations except for terrorism and hostage rescue.

The GIGN is a specialized counterterrorism hostage rescue team. The main difference is unlike CRS, the GIGN is military and therefore can operate in other countries. GIGN is a state secret. It consists of 80 soldiers and 7 officiers. The Identites of these men is classified. One last thing, I have read that the GIGN is one of the only Foreign commandos groups that the British SAS will train regularily (Once a month) with.

There is also 1 final group called RAID (aka the Black Panthers). These are even more secretive than the GIGN, they are 60 hand picked members. There role is similar to that of the GIGN. The differences with the GIGN are, they are recruited from the Public and not from the police or military personnel (very unusual), they may pick whatever weapons and equipment they wish (French or Foreign) and that each member is trained in very specific areas HAHO, HALO, Marine patrol, etc. All members are experts in fast driving, markmanship (they shoot 300 cartridges a day) and close-combat (they use a derivative of the Isreali Mega Kreva technique).

The rest of their history is classified.

interesting..

so what u say, is that they are very few?

hmm.. any branches with more people?

The problem is that we have yet to see the true projection of power of French Military since WW I!

British military (might be smaller) is still more lethal and capable force in Europe.

I may be wrong though!

Originally Posted by msgtmedleyusmc

Well, it is almost possible to compare based on any public info, so I went with history. Britain is pretty much undefeated (straight up and against the spread) vs. France since 1066.

Hello everyone, i have created this account to answer msgtmedleyusmc.
Well well well so you should first know England is good at talking about her victories but so much better at forgeting her defeats.
The number of victories / defeats toward France is almost the same, exemple during the 100 years war everyone know about the battles of Crecy, Azincourt or Poitier, but no one know the battles of Patay, Formigny and Castillon. of course the last 3 are 3 French victories over England and of course no one know the French victories over england before the 100 years war. seconde reason, English speakers will only trust English battle reports even if they are false or inacurate this is how a defeat or draw can look like a victory or draw.
I am sure the battle of Albuera is a mighty English victory, actually you have 18000 French soldiers attacking 31000 English, Spanish, Portugues Soldiers the battle is technically a draw but at the end of the day 6500 French are lying dead for 10000 allies (8000 English) + 1000 English prisoneers.
Sometimes the French are even defeating both English and US together in of course totally unknow battles for the English speakers.
Battle of fort Carillon the one you know as Fort Ticonderoga.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Carillon
i see much more victories of French Vs England but i don't have time to find them, so have fun.

At sea this is different and dispites some pretty good succes the advantage is clearly for England and imho this is still true today.

Anyway i don't think a country other than France can claim so many succes against England. The same is true for England Vs France btw.

The similitude betwen the 2 countries are high and they must be the 2 Most aggressive country in the world, maybe less today.

So to be back on topic i will give a draw more because France copied the English Army.

About elite French troops follow this link if you want to know more, we have many very good units.

http://le.cos.free.fr/fr.htm

Like my favorite the 13 ème RDP.

Drakken

Welcome to the Forums, and well said.

Godofthunder

Sorry about the late reply. I'm not sure I agree with you, in fact I'd say its more the opposite, the French have seen considerable action after WWII (Vietnam, Algeria) and that things have been quiet for the past 10-15 years aside from a skirmishes in Africa, Afganistan and the Gulf War.