Post by SAS P&P Admin on Jun 21, 2005 21:25:27 GMT -5
The Al'fa commando force is Russia's oldest and most prestigious elite anti-terrorist group. It is now assessing what it can teach and what it can learn from similar forces. Dr Mark Galeotti reports
Russia today has a plethora of elite and not-so-elite response forces, from the Vityaz (Champion) unit within Moscow's Interior Troop division to the prison service's Fakel (Torch) hostage-rescue team. The first such unit dates back to 1974, when former KGB chief Yuri Andropov began to foresee the rise of a terrorist threat within the USSR. Initially a 30-strong team was assembled from serving KGB officers.
Al'fa's role, however, was unclear. Its first major action was storming the Presidential Palace in Kabul during the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan. In the 1980s, Al'fa continued to play a dual role, being used both in conventional law enforcement missions (such as freeing hostaged schoolchildren in Sarapul in 1981) and also for explicitly political purposes.
This culminated in its use in January 1991 to seize a television station in Vilnius, Lithuania, which had been taken over by nationalist demonstrators. When protesters were killed, the government disavowed any knowledge of the mission, leaving Al'fa increasingly demoralised.
During the 1991 'August coup', it refused orders to seize Boris Yeltsin. When the coup failed and the Soviet Union collapsed soon after, Yeltsin quickly assumed personal control of Al'fa.
The unit proved increasingly unprepared to act as a political hit squad. When called on to take part in the dissolution of parliament in 1993, it almost refused.
In 1995, it was deployed against Chechen guerrillas who had seized a hospital in the town of Budennovsk and then was forced to disengage under fire when the government changed its mind about negotiating. The commanders of Al'fa then began quietly but firmly insisting that its role had to be an apolitical one, and it was transferred to the Federal Security Service (FSB) later that year.
Al'fa today has around 700 staff, including support personnel. The main combat element of 250 commandos is based in Moscow, but there are also small local Al'fa units in Yekaterinburg in the Urals, Krasnodar in the south and Khabarovsk on the Chinese border.
The force is now used for three main roles: VIP protection in 'hot' situations (such as during negotiations with the Chechen rebels), anti-terrorist raids and in support of police operations against the mafiya.
The unit has access to the best and most modern of Russian weapons and equipment, although it still has not chosen or been allowed to buy from abroad. The standard weapons are AKS-74 5.45mm assault rifles and the AKS-74U shortened assault carbine version, PSM and APS pistols and SVD sniper rifles.
However, it is also increasingly using new generation weapons designed with close-in combat and anti-terrorist missions in mind, such as the Klin and Kashtan 9mm machine pistols, Vintorez 9mm silenced rifles and stun grenades. Heavier weapons, including RPG grenade launchers, are also used in extreme circumstances.
Members of Al'fa wear body armour as well as distinctive helmets with armoured face-shields now adopted by some other Russian units.
Training is extremely intensive and compared with Western forces concentrates especially on fitness, sharp-shooting and hand-to-hand combat.
On its formation, Al'fa was modelled after three foreign counter-terrorist forces: the British SAS, US Delta Force and West German GSG-9. However, while ideas about the appropriate use of such forces in police and anti-terrorist operations have developed across the world, even one senior Al'fa officer admits that his unit 'has stuck with the combat side of the job rather than becoming an all-round force'.
Al'fa is therefore looking to develop liaison with counterparts across the world. It feels it has something to offer, in terms of its experience developing specialised weapons and advanced physical training regimes. In return, though, it hopes to acquire a better idea of how and, perhaps most importantly, when it should use measures other than force, from negotiation to psychological pressure.
And, to quote the same officer, it hopes 'to educate the bosses when they should not simply send us in, guns blazing'.
Dr Mark Galeotti is Director of the Organised Russian and Eurasian Crime Research Unit (ORECRU) at Keele University, UK
Freed hostages: Al'fa commandos were deployed against Chechen guerillas who seized a hospital in Budennovsk
Yuri Andropov: Assembled the first Al'fa group as head of the KGB
Russia today has a plethora of elite and not-so-elite response forces, from the Vityaz (Champion) unit within Moscow's Interior Troop division to the prison service's Fakel (Torch) hostage-rescue team. The first such unit dates back to 1974, when former KGB chief Yuri Andropov began to foresee the rise of a terrorist threat within the USSR. Initially a 30-strong team was assembled from serving KGB officers.
Al'fa's role, however, was unclear. Its first major action was storming the Presidential Palace in Kabul during the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan. In the 1980s, Al'fa continued to play a dual role, being used both in conventional law enforcement missions (such as freeing hostaged schoolchildren in Sarapul in 1981) and also for explicitly political purposes.
This culminated in its use in January 1991 to seize a television station in Vilnius, Lithuania, which had been taken over by nationalist demonstrators. When protesters were killed, the government disavowed any knowledge of the mission, leaving Al'fa increasingly demoralised.
During the 1991 'August coup', it refused orders to seize Boris Yeltsin. When the coup failed and the Soviet Union collapsed soon after, Yeltsin quickly assumed personal control of Al'fa.
The unit proved increasingly unprepared to act as a political hit squad. When called on to take part in the dissolution of parliament in 1993, it almost refused.
In 1995, it was deployed against Chechen guerrillas who had seized a hospital in the town of Budennovsk and then was forced to disengage under fire when the government changed its mind about negotiating. The commanders of Al'fa then began quietly but firmly insisting that its role had to be an apolitical one, and it was transferred to the Federal Security Service (FSB) later that year.
Al'fa today has around 700 staff, including support personnel. The main combat element of 250 commandos is based in Moscow, but there are also small local Al'fa units in Yekaterinburg in the Urals, Krasnodar in the south and Khabarovsk on the Chinese border.
The force is now used for three main roles: VIP protection in 'hot' situations (such as during negotiations with the Chechen rebels), anti-terrorist raids and in support of police operations against the mafiya.
The unit has access to the best and most modern of Russian weapons and equipment, although it still has not chosen or been allowed to buy from abroad. The standard weapons are AKS-74 5.45mm assault rifles and the AKS-74U shortened assault carbine version, PSM and APS pistols and SVD sniper rifles.
However, it is also increasingly using new generation weapons designed with close-in combat and anti-terrorist missions in mind, such as the Klin and Kashtan 9mm machine pistols, Vintorez 9mm silenced rifles and stun grenades. Heavier weapons, including RPG grenade launchers, are also used in extreme circumstances.
Members of Al'fa wear body armour as well as distinctive helmets with armoured face-shields now adopted by some other Russian units.
Training is extremely intensive and compared with Western forces concentrates especially on fitness, sharp-shooting and hand-to-hand combat.
On its formation, Al'fa was modelled after three foreign counter-terrorist forces: the British SAS, US Delta Force and West German GSG-9. However, while ideas about the appropriate use of such forces in police and anti-terrorist operations have developed across the world, even one senior Al'fa officer admits that his unit 'has stuck with the combat side of the job rather than becoming an all-round force'.
Al'fa is therefore looking to develop liaison with counterparts across the world. It feels it has something to offer, in terms of its experience developing specialised weapons and advanced physical training regimes. In return, though, it hopes to acquire a better idea of how and, perhaps most importantly, when it should use measures other than force, from negotiation to psychological pressure.
And, to quote the same officer, it hopes 'to educate the bosses when they should not simply send us in, guns blazing'.
Dr Mark Galeotti is Director of the Organised Russian and Eurasian Crime Research Unit (ORECRU) at Keele University, UK
Freed hostages: Al'fa commandos were deployed against Chechen guerillas who seized a hospital in Budennovsk
Yuri Andropov: Assembled the first Al'fa group as head of the KGB