These Are The Badasses Who Make Up The OMEGA Teams
OMEGA
OMEGA is a Joint CIA-JSOC unit of “Hunter/Killer Teams.” It’s essentially a combination of the best of the best in military operations and intelligence, with the CIA providing targeting intelligence, and JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) providing Special Ops soldiers to do the heavy lifting. It’s the elite teams and individuals involved in these operations that have inspired NBC’s new badass series, The Brave, Premiering September 25th.The primary purposes of OMEGA is capturing and killing High Value Targets, conducting vehicle interdiction, and gathering intelligence. The CIA and JSOC can gather information independently of one another, but rather than having these two bureaucracies competing for the same missions, they work together to access a broader, deeper range of information under the joint umbrella of OMEGA.
OriginsThe origins of the program go back to the 1980’s proxy wars in Central America between the Soviet Union and the United States. The CIA had lost some of their capabilities due to the Church Committee hearings amongst other disclosures and America was reluctant to deploy military forces in mass after the Vietnam War, so creative solutions had to be found in order to prevent communist regimes from sprouting up in America’s back yard. The answer was to take active duty Special Forces soldiers and place them in the financial roles of the Central Intelligence Agency, deploying them as national para-military contractors.While the White House had limited the number of actual soldiers who were allowed to deploy to Honduras, this did not apply to “CIA personnel.” This also provided the White House with plausible deniability, allowing the President to go on television and say that we did not have troops in non-permissive environments.
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Joint Special Operations CommandJSOC is comprised of soldiers/operators from the most badass and elite military units:1. Delta Force – Army’s 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D). 2. SEAL Team Six – Navy’s DEVGRU 3. Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment: Reconnaissance Company 4. Army’s 160th SOAR 5. Air Force’s 24th Special Tactics Squadron
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Delta Force – Army’s 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D)Delta Force is an elite special mission unit of the U.S. Army, under operational control of the JSOC. The unit is tasked with specialized missions primarily involving hostage rescue and counter-terrorism, as well as direct action and special reconnaissance against high-value targets. This is the clinical definition of Delta Force. For those in the know, classifying Delta Force as ‘elite’ sets the bar far too low, given our limited vocabulary as humans.Delta Force and its maritime counterpart, the Navy’s SEAL Team Six (DEVGRU), are the U.S. military’s primary counter-terrorism units. Delta Force and DEVGRU perform the most highly complex, classified, and dangerous missions in the U.S. military, as directed by the U.S. National Command Authority.Most Delta Force operators come from the Army Special Operations Command’s elite 75th Ranger Regiment and Special Forces Groups, as well as from other special operations units of the military. These guys are at the top of the Army food chain – no one out there is more capable.
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(Creative Commons/PH2 JEFFREY LOSHAW)SEAL Team Six – Navy’s DEVGRUSEAL Team Six (DEVGRU) is the U.S. Navy component of JSOC. This is the squad most Americans are familiar with due to their reputation as the toughest soldiers and involvement in high profile operations. Referred to within JSOC as Task Force Blue, SEAL Team Six is administratively supported by Naval Special Warfare Command and operationally commanded by the JSOC. Most information concerning the team is classified, and details of its activities are not usually commented on by either the White House or the Department of Defense.DEVGRU and Delta Force make up the tip of the U.S. military spear – they are our primary counterterrorism units. Although DEVGRU was created as a maritime counterterrorism unit targeting high-value targets, it has become a multi functional special operations unit with several roles that include: hostage rescue, special reconnaissance, personal security, and other specialized missions.
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Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment: Reconnaissance CompanyThe 75th Ranger Regiment is an elite special operations force that is the newest operational member of the JSOC. The unit is believed to have become part of JSOC in 2007 due to its extensive training and unique capabilities to conduct special reconnaissance and close target reconnaissance (CTR) operations, and advanced force operations (AFO). It is often referred to as a Special Mission Unit (SMU). Reconnaissance Company is a feeder for Delta Force members.
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(Creative Commons/Sgt. Eric Rutherford)Army’s 160th SOARThese are the best helicopter pilots in the land, who bring SEALs and Delta to engage High Value Targets. The 160th SOAR, also known as Night Stalkers, or Task Force Brown, is a special operations force of the Army that provides helicopter aviation support for general purpose forces and special operations forces. Its missions have included attack, assault, and reconnaissance, and are usually conducted at night, at high speeds, low altitudes, and on short notice. The Regiment is headquartered at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
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(Creative Commons/U.S. Air Force)Air Force’s 24th Special Tactics SquadronThe 24th Special Tactics Squadron is the Special Tactics unit of the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), and the Air Force component to JSOC. These are the combat controllers who put laser dots on targets for Air Force pilots. In recent years, the squadron has been heavily involved in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan where the unit was part of the JSOC groupings Task Force 121, Task Force 6-26 and Task Force 145.
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(Creative Commons/Fish Cop.)Fort BraggThe headquarters of Special Operations Command (including SEAL Team Six real name DEVGRU) is located at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
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Directorate of Operations – CIAFormerly known as the Clandestine Services, the DO serves as the clandestine arm of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the national authority for the coordination, deconfliction, and evaluation of clandestine operations across the intelligence community of the U.S.
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Special Activities Division – CIAThe CIA’s Special Activities Division (SAD) is one of America’s most clandestine and lowest profile Special Ops organizations. The Special Operations Group is made up of Paramilitary Operations Officers. CIA Paramilitaries are typically ex-military personnel and veterans of military special operations units such as the Green Berets or Marine Force Recon. SAD also recruits from within the Agency. Regardless of background, SAD operators undergo extensive specialized training. (Pictured above is Hamid Karzai with Special Forces and CIA Paramilitary in late 2001).
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(Creative Commons/U.S. Air Force)Why a Joint Unit?The military holds Title 10 authorities related to war time deployments, and the CIA holds Title 50 authorities which allow for covert operations. Combining the two authorities by “sheep dipping” active duty military personnel allows for the best of both worlds. The U.S. is able to disguise operatives with different identities, placing them within legitimate organizations so they can infiltrate, extract, eliminate, and get out when necessary.Conducting many of these operations is something that the CIA and JSOC can do independently of one another, but rather than having two bureaucracies competing for the same missions, it is much more sensible and successful to work in a joint environment.This article originally appeared on The Chive