Action Division

The Action Division (French: Division Action), commonly known by its predecessor's title Action Service (French: Service Action) is a division of France's Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE) responsible for planning and performing clandestine and covert operations including black operations. The core specialisations of the Action Division are sabotage, destruction of materiel, assassination, detaining/kidnapping, and infiltration/exfiltration of persons into/from hostile territory.

The division also fulfils other security-related roles including testing the security of strategic sites, for example nuclear power plants and military facilities such as the submarine base of the Île Longue, Bretagne.

Within the Action Division there are three separate groups, CPES for clandestine agents, CPIS for clandestine commandos, and CPEOM for clandestine combat divers. The division's headquarters are located at the fort of Noisy-le-Sec. It replaced the Service Action of the SDECE in 1971.

The current action division originated from the SDECE's action service (Service Action or SA. Service Action is still commonly used). The action division has a "pool" of paramilitary operatives coming mainly from the French Army, often at least from the paras, and some from special forces. Since the early 1980s, the service action has been divided into three main parts: commandos, combat divers and air support.

The commandos were originally chunked in the "11e Choc" (11e Bataillon Parachutiste de Choc, 11th Shock Parachutist Battalion, later 11th Shock Parachutist Demi-Brigade), created in 1946. The 11e Choc was disbanded in 1963 because its officers were suspected to be French Algeria supporters. Consequently, its missions were partly given to military special forces units, especially the 1st Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment. After the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior in 1985, the "11e Choc" was re-raised in 1985 as the 11th Shock Parachutist Regiment. The unit was disbanded in 1993 among other various changes of French armed forces following the end of the cold war.

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