Slowenien — Sondereinsatzkräfte — Special Operations Unit

Son­dere­in­sätzkräfte / Spe­cial Oper­a­tions Unit

The Spe­cial Oper­a­tions Unit coat ot arms is rep­re­sent­ed by a shield, denot­ing mil­i­tary defence, and depict­ing a flut­ter­ing red rib­bon, which is sym­bol­ic of ardour. The gold sword in the mid­dle of the shield with its tip point­ing upwards sym­bol­is­es fight­ing spir­it and mil­i­tary hon­or. The head of a lynx and the lime leaf are dis­tinc­tive sym­bols of the MORiS Spe­cial Brigade and reflect the con­tin­u­a­tion of the tra­di­tion and the char­ac­ter­is­tic of the lynx, for which mem­bers of the detach­ment are respect­ed. The lynx is char­ac­ter­ized for agili­ty, inaudi­bil­i­ty, abrupt­ness, effi­cien­cy and strong desire for vic­to­ry. The lynx is one of the most beau­ti­ful and strongest Euro­pean ani­mals with an excep­tion­al abil­i­ty of adapt­ing. It is a lon­er and does not tol­er­ate any rivals on his ter­ri­to­ry. In Slove­nia, this ani­mal is found most­ly in the Kocev­je forests. 

The unit was estab­lished in August 1998 from the rapid reac­tion detach­ment, which oper­at­ed as part of the MORiS Brigade and was, along with the head­quar­ters, also the core of the brigade. It is a com­bat unit of par­tic­u­lar­ly select­ed, trained and equipped ser­vice mem­bers for spe­cial oper­a­tions. The unit can oper­ate inde­pen­dent­ly or in co-oper­a­tion with oth­er SAF or allied units. The pur­pose of the unit is to extend its com­bat oper­a­tions into the depth of the enemy´s deploy­ment with the aim to reduce his com­bat pow­er, mate­r­i­al resources, com­bat sup­port ser­vice capa­bil­i­ties and com­bat morale. The spe­cial oper­a­tions of the unit dif­fer from con­ven­tion­al oper­a­tions in the degree of risk, oper­a­tional meth­ods, way of force employ­ment, inde­pen­dence of sup­port and depen­dence on intel­li­gence oper­a­tions and sources in the enemy‘s rear area.

With regard to the task to which it was assigned, the unit estab­lish­es com­bat groups and car­ries out spe­cial oper­a­tions in the depth or rear area of the ene­my and fight­ing against com­man­do-ter­ror­ist groups which oper­ate in mil­i­tary areas. The unit is trained for direct actions, anti-com­man­do oper­a­tions, in-depth recon­nais­sance and intel­li­gence oper­a­tions and com­bat search and res­cue. Ser­vice mem­bers are reg­u­lar­ly trained in tac­tics of small units, para­chut­ing, div­ing, moun­taineer­ing and in break­ing water obstacles. 

Many sol­diers would like to become ser­vice mem­bers of SAF spe­cial forces; how­ev­er, only few suc­ceed. The road to the green beret, the sym­bol of the spe­cial forces, is dif­fi­cult and long. Those who are up for the chal­lenge have to take part in a 12-day selec­tion process and, lat­er, a 6‑month basic train­ing, which is usu­al­ly suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed by only 15 to 20 per­cent of the candidates. 

Along with train­ing their ser­vice mem­bers in the area of gen­er­al and spe­cif­ic top­ics, the unit car­ries out train­ing of oth­er SAF ser­vice mem­bers, such as scouts and marks­men and those who have to mas­ter skills of sur­vival in nature. They take part in var­i­ous train­ing ses­sions abroad, and in co-oper­a­tion with the heli­copter bat­tal­ion, they pro­vide a com­bat search and res­cue team. The unit reg­u­lar­ly par­tic­i­pates in joint train­ing in Slove­nia and abroad with com­pa­ra­ble allied units. 

CODE of spe­cial oper­a­tion unit mem­bers Slove­nia is my home­land. It is the grave of our fore­fa­thers, who died for it, when It was nec­es­sary. It will be the home of our sons and daugh­ters. I am pre­pared to risk my life, when duty calls. I am a pro­fes­sion­al sol­dier and I have all the char­ac­ter­is­tics of a human being, Above all I am a high­ly trained ser­vice mem­ber of the Sloven­ian Armed Forces. As I was cho­sen I deny easy-going life and swear To ful­fil my mis­sion in the unit. I am aware that in the chaos of the bat­tle­field We can sur­vive only as a whole, a part of which I am myself. I am aware that each mis­take I make blem­ish­es my unit And in war, bring tears to the eyes of our moth­ers and girl­friends. I will fight devot­ed­ly, with all my heart and Will nev­er leave my injured or killed com­rades behind. This I am imposed by my duty towards my home­land My oath to the Sloven­ian Armed Forces and the unit to which I belong.

Text/Bild Quelle — text/image source:
Slowenis­ches Vertei­di­gungsmin­is­teri­um / Sloven­ian Min­istry of Defence (MOD):
Klad­nik, Tomaz: Sloven­ian Armed Forces in the ser­vice of Slove­nia; 2nd sup­ple­ment­ed edi­tion. Ljubl­jana, 2007, ISBN 978–961-6177–14‑6