Themes - Military Special Forces for the European Union - Military Special Forces are available in most of the EU member states: All countries, except for Finland, Austria, and Luxembourg, are having such crack units at their disposal for six years. But how large is the respective national contingent? Are there common interests in the field of activity, in training, and in joint operations with the USA? Which countries have assisted others in the buildup of Special Forces? Have joint exercises within NATO scope already taken place? Great Britain, France, and Germany have the biggest contingents with up to 2,000 men each, followed by Spain and Portugal which include a fairly large portion of support troops in their counting, however. Compared to the size of the countries, both The Netherlands and Belgium also provide a relatively considerable number of 500 men. The weight of the Special Forces is assessed by different criteria than those applied to conventional units, because the state of training and the technical equipment allow smallest groups of up to 20 men already to operate most effectively. In the EU member states there are a total of just under 10,000 Special Forces of which the operational forces number approximately 3,000 men. Of the twelve EU candidate countries, more than half of them have Special Forces. The strength is estimated at 1,000 men including organic support forces. For that reason it must assumed that there are no more than 300 operational troops available altogether

In: Europäische Sicherheit: Politik, Streitkräfte, Wirtschaft, Technik, Volume 51, Issue 7, p. 18-25