The Historical Development of the Special Operations Forces
Siegfried Bognar/Josef Wanetschek
In the course of the establishing of the Armed Forces after 1955 already "combat platoons” with special training on reconnaissance, combat patrol, and guerrilla warfare operations were set up in the infantry battalions. In 1962 the foundations for the establishment of special training in the Armed Forces were laid; courses were held at the Army Sports and Close Combat School (HSNS), and before that its training personnel had been able to gather experience for missions and training of Special Forces in the course of missions abroad.
These Special Forces courses first were held at the HSNS in the Fasangarten-Barracks, and from autumn 1967 onwards in Hainburg. At that time the training manual "Guerrilla Warfare” was introduced as well, representing a realistic work in the style of British and American field manuals concerning guerrilla warfare. 1978/79 the Special Forces were transferred into the Flugfeld-Barracks in Wiener Neustadt.
With the establishment of the Skirmishing Patrol Training Centre on 1st January 1986 the Special Forces Command became a unit of its own. The Centre consisted of a command with both a command and control staff and an expert staff, and a teaching staff with three teaching groups, each being responsible for skirmishing patrol training, parachuting and airdrop operations, and diving and underwater training.
In the course of the army reform of 1992 the Skirmishing Patrol Centre was established. To the tasks of a training centre for special training personal protection and international missions were added as new tasks. Skirmishing Patrol Centre cadre supplied the main contingents of Austrian participation in international missions, from Albania to Afghanistan.
In 2002, in the course of the Army Reform, a Special Operations Forces Command was established, a higher command directly subordinated to MoD, tasked with mission preparation and command and control of special operations forces. To this Command the Skirmishing Patrol Centre, again renamed to Special Forces, which recently has developed to a professional combat unit and has proved its efficiency in international missions, has been subordinated.
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