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Comando
Raggruppamento Subacquei e Incursori "Teseo
Tesei"
The COMSUBIN is the primal component
for non-conventional warfare of the "Marina
Militare Italiana" (Italian Navy). The HQ is based
at Varignano, in the gulf of La Spezia. The operators
of the COMSUBIN have  inherited
the long tradition and capabilities of the Royal Navy
assault unit of the Second World War: Xa Flottiglia
MAS, "Motoscafi Anti-Sommergibili"(10th
Anti-Submarine Motor-boats Squadron). The COMSUBIN,
in fact, is also called "Teseo Tesei", in
memory of the famous war hero.
Forged by an extremely hard training,
the "subacquei" (divers) and "incursori" (raiders)
forming the COMSUBIN are a formidable corp of offence
and defence. To obtain the maximum damage for the
enemy wasting the least amount of equipment and material:
this has always been the guiding principle for the
raiders of the Italian Navy. Beginning from the First
World War, the standard-bearers of the naval assault
units gained fame by performing some spectacular actions,
such as the sinking of the Austrian battleships Viribus
Unitis and Tegethoff, whose anchors
today lay at the entrance of the Ministry for Marine
defense in Rome.
 Formed
in 1935, the assault units start from the very beginning
to develop the equipment they need by themselves,
although an interruption of the researchs from 1937
to 1939 compromises some of the efforts made
and wastes part of the temporal advantage which has
been gained. The armistice in 1943 causes the division
of the assault units of the Royal Navy. In southern
Italy, the organisation is re-established under the
name of MARIASSALTO (based at Taranto) and collaborates
with the Allied Forces, whereas in the North the missions
were addressed to be carried out by "uomini gamma"
(gamma men), who availed themselves with a number
technological innovations. During the Second World
War the raiders, thanks to the hard work of research
Tesei undertook, avail themselves of particular
vehicles like the piloted SLC, "Siluri a Lenta
Corsa" (Slow Run Torpedoes), known as "maiali"
(hogs), a two-seated delivery vehicle the prow of
which is formed by a 300 kg detachable explosive charge,
secured to the target's keel. The surface vehicles
are mainly explosive speedboats: slender and swift
crafts which are launched against the enemy ship while
the pilot jumps in the water just a moment before
the impact. Special explosive charges, called
"mignatte" (leechs), are towed by combat
divers and secured to the hull, whereas the "bauletti"
(beauty-cases, or trunklets) are fastened to the bilge
keels. The raiders are deployed using submarines,
in particular the glorious Scirč, torpedo-boat
destroyers, and vessels of various sorts. Some
of the most renown operations are carried out
in 1941. The 25th March six explosives speedboats
launch an attack against the Suda bay  causing
the sinking of the British cruiser York and
a tanker; the 10th September Gibraltar is breached
by "hogs" transported by the Scirč,
which manage to mine two ships lying in a roadstead
and to destroy a cistern riding at anchor in the port;
finally, the 19th December the raiders blow up the
battleships Valiant and Queen Elisabeth
and sink a tanker, in the port of Alexandria.
Unfortunatly not all missions are this successful
and many raiders pay their bravery and boldness
with their lives. After the end of the war, the opposed
northern and southern groups are organised together
under the name of MARICENTROSUB, which is mainly addressed
to the training of divers. The Peace Treaty forbids
the Royal Navy to own seated torpedoes and assault
speedboats, and thus the specialty is maintained in
a state of almost clandestinely, using and repairing
the old equipment, and secretly training new operators
in Venice. Available crafts are re-adapted and
disguised by adopting new denominations. The abolition
of the restrictive clauses of the Peace Treaty
are almost contemporary to the relocation of the "Scuola
Sommozatori" (Divers School) from Venive to Varignano.
The new centre also includes a "Scuola Gamma"
(Gamma School) and a "Scuola Palombari"
(Deep-sea divers School), who operate together
untill, in 1952, the GRUPPARDIN, "Gruppo Arditi
Incursori" (Daring Raiders Group), is formed
and subsequently renamed MARICENTARDIN. The training
of the operators is widened to include parachuting
and land warfare. The new raiders course takes
place for the first time in 1952. The name of the
unit is then changed, in the middle of the 50s, to
MARISUBARDIN, then MARICENSUBIN, and finally COMSUBIN.
The Organisation
The Comando Subacquei e Incursori
is arranged in three operating groups: the GOI "Gruppo
Operativo Incursori" (Raiders Operating Group),
the GOS "Gruppo Operativo Subacquei" (Divers
Operating Group) and the GNS "Gruppo Navale Speciale"
(Special Naval Group), also know as GRUPNAVIN. Along
with these operate the "Centro Ricerche e Studi"
(Research and Studies Centre) and the "Gruppo
Scuole" (Schools Group), responsible for the
training of the personnel. The unit is under the command
of an admiral. The Schools Group 
supplies with operators both the detachments
of COMSUBIN, GOI and GOS, and other units of
the Navy and the Armed Forces. This group is organised
in three specialties: "Scuola Subacquei"
(Divers School), "Scuola Incursori" (Raiders
School) and "Scuola Marinai Difesa Base"
(Base Defense Sailors School). The Divers School is
the only italian military agency abilitated to issue
military divers patent, in the same way the SMIPAR,
"Scuola Militare Paracadutismo" (Military
Parachuting School) of Pisa, today CEAPAR, "Centro
Addestramento Paracadutismo" (Parachuting Training
Centre), is the only agency which can issue the military
paratrooper patent. This duality is furtherly encountered
in the fact that the CEAPAR patents the raiders
of the COMSUBIN, and the Divers School patents the
paratroopers of the 9th Assault Paratroopers Regiment
Col Moschin after a course lasting two and a half
month. The school also pepares, after a course
lasting one month, the OSSALC, "Operatori Servizi
di Sicurezza Abilitati al Lavoro in Carena" (Security
Service Operators Qualified to Work in Hull), which
are found on board of the principal Navy ships.
The two most demanding courses are those for divers
and deep-sea divers.
The Raiders School is responsible
for the forging of the applicants to a seat in
the GOI. The brutality of the training causes a very
high rate of defections among the recruits, even though
all the operators are volunteers; those of them
who don't make it may transit in other units of the
Navy. The GOI counts more or less 150 men; though
they may seem few we must remember that they are highly
qualified operators who can carry out practially any
kind of special operation. This fact is futher
understood in the COMSUBIN's main phylosophy:
"Better few and excellent than many but only
good." The team prepares operators who will attack,
unseen, silently and even without forewarning naval
targets of any kind (either moving vessels and
other units at sea, such as platforms, or land buildings
near the coast, such  as merchant
or military ports). These kind of missions require
a constant training, covering all from physical to
phsycological aspects. The forging of a
raider is articulated in a very demanding and selective
activity, which makes it possible, after three years,
to reach the "combat ready" qualification
to only 10% of the initial recruits. The course lasts
more or less ten months and the recruits review all
possible specialties. The military paratrooper patent
is mandatory requirement to obtain the raider patent
and is issued, as said above, by the CEAPAR of
Pisa. The preliminary phase covers a diving course,
a mountaneering course and the qualification
to the use of parachute. Daily mile long runs and
backpacking with loads of 40 kg are other delights
you get for free. The general training continues with
a number of specialisation courses even though operators
are usually grouped based on which missions they
can perform better than others (open sea,
costal, support etc.). Finished the course and
obtained the patent, the operator moves to the operating
units where, supported by senior collegues, he is
introduced to actual operations, taking part
to a large number of simulated incursions on the national
territory. After three years from his arrive
to Varignano the raider is finally qualified "combat
ready". Due to the relatively long times it takes
to complete the training compared to other units,
the average age of the raiders is about thirty years.
The Raiders School also prepares, after a course which
lasts two and a half months, the men destined to the
DOA, "Demolizione Ostacoli  Antisbarco"
(Demolition of Anti-landing Obstacles) of the San
Marco Regiment. Finally, the Schools Group has the
task of training the sailors destined to the service
of defense of the land facilities of the italian
Navy; the course lasts one month (two months for those
who will become graduates). More or less 1.600 cadets,
subdivided between the twenty courses which
take place every year, pass through the COMSUBIN Schools
Group.
The GOS is formed, more or less,
by twenty men who have to accomplish different tasks.
First of all, to train to the best and to consolidate
GOI's members preparation. Whereas the GOI is the
COMSUBIN's main offensive role, the GOS is it's defensive
one. In fact, one of the unit's tasks is preaparing defenses
for ships and installations of the Navy from the attacks
of enemy divers and saboteurs. Apart from this, divers
and deep-sea divers of the GOS are engaged in mine
countermeasures & blasting, in search &
rescue missions, in underwater activities of
various sort, and soccour & salvage missions
for the crews of endangered submarines. The operators
of the GOS represent an important part of the
Navy's underwater capability and their operations
are divided between conventional and advanced.  The
first group are carried out with use of
breathing sets and diving-suits (Newsuit model), whereas
the advanced operations require auxiliary equipment,
like immersion capsules or mini-submarines, and
particular techniques, like immersion in "saturation".
This is where the Special Naval Group, made up of
three support ships (Anteo, Proteo
and Cavezzale) and two support submarine motor-boats
(Mario Marino and Alcide Pedretti), makes
its entry. The Anteo is the most advanced
ship in this sector: at its disposal it has, among
other things, a McCann soccour diving bell, a MSM-1/S
mini-submarine able to operate up to 600 m of depth
and a number of decompression chambers (SDC). The
divers of the COMSUBIN often carry out cross-training
with other specialists within the NATO members, with
which they have a continous and profitable exchange
of experiences. The particular missions the COMSUBIN
is called to accomplish, with incursions and underwater
operations, requires that, even today, the equipment
it uses is developed and optimised by the very persons
who use it, supported by technical officers, just
as, in the 30s, from the hands of young officers of
the time the first breathing sets and the "hogs"
saw the light, along with other material used during
the Second World War. This last task is assigned to
the Studies Centre, articulated in four sections:
weapons and explosives; equipment and incursions
vehicles; development and experimentation of new
materials; subaquatic physiopathology. This latter
section, one of the few existent in Italy, maintains
contacts with the most important research centres
in Europe and United States.
Operative Engagement
To approach the target by night,
in total silence, by swimming, climbing walls or descending
with a parachute, cross all surveillance systems,
place demolition charges in the point where they may
cause greatest damage, sabotage the enemy's heavy
weapons rendering them useless and thus facilitate
evacuation, and finally disengage without being wounded,
captured or, possibly, spotted: this is one of the
most usual raiders' missions profile. The difficulties
are many and they become even more when operators need
to quit the hostile area and make return to friend
territory. In exchange for that, a low compesation,
a part of which vanishes whenever one abandons for
any reason operative life, but most of all the
confidence of being the greatest world specialist
for this kind of actions.  The GOI,
whose men wear the distinctive green beret marked
by a bagde with crossed anchor and dagger, and the
wording "Arditi Incursori" (Daring Raiders), comprises
a logistic aliquot, whose task is the maintenance
and setting-up of the equipment, and the Gruppo
Incursori, formed by the actual raiders. This group
is entirely formed by raider patented personnel; those
who find occupation in the logistic sector are soldiers
who, for reasons of age or physical integrity, can
no longer carry out special operations, at least
on the paper. The technical evolution of materials
permitted the widening of the operating methodologies,
which at present day include missions whose targets
are no more merely naval facilities; the introduction
of aeroplanes and helicopters permitted to develop
a totally new dimension of assault techniques.
Attacks against naval targets still remain
the principal GOI mission typology, aimed to satisfy
the needs either of a coupe de main in
case of war or in a CT operations (which is becoming
the most common scenario). For this kind of training
the COMSUBIN uses the fregade Castore, lying
at anchor in a loop at Varignano and entirely dedicated
to the unit's work. The simulations include concealed
approach (mostly at night) and immmediate action
by storming the vessel and occupying
all vital points. The Castore is also used to train
the GOS and OSSALC, while the Navy is also considering
the acquisition of a new "killing ship."
 Operations
against land installations are carried out usually
starting from a rubber dinghy (which is then
deflated, concealed and recovered for evacuation);
other means include swimming and diving with oxigen
sets, GPS systems and NVGs (Night Vision
Goggles). After the landing, the mission continues
with target approaching which, depending from
the type of terrain may require particular mobility.
During this phase exceptional physical endowments
are of fundamental importance, since the operators
(the pair is the smallest team) must be logistically
and operatively autonomous to warrant the pursuance of
the mission even in case of loss of equipment
and material. The airborne deployment (usually by
a helicopter) may constitue an alternative in
missions against costal batteries, communication
or radar stations, fuel depots or command and
control centres; in this cases, a light helicopter
is used to provide support fire, while a larger
vehicle (usually a SH-3D) is used for transportation. This
technique is more or less similar to that used
for vertical assault by the San Marco marines, and
an adeguate upgrade of training resources may
derive, in the next future, from a more intense and
continual use of the Sea King made available by the
introduction of the EH-101.
The staff of the "Teseo
Tesei" is usually allerted in concurrence
with critical situations who require the evacuation in
NEOs (Non-combatant Evacuation Operation) of diplomats or
technicians, from hostile or enemy territories.
The recent contributions of  the
GOI raiders must be remembered in the inspections
of suspect merchant ships during the operation "Desert
Shield/Desert Storm", and other peacekeeping
and soccour engagements like "Restore Hope"
(in Somalia) and "Ippocampo" (in Ruanda).
A notice must be made also for the CT employment
of the COMSUBIN, and in particular of a unit called
"Team Torre" formed in the years which
saw the birth of the Carabinieri GIS and the Col Moschin
UNIS. It is now reknown that during the "anni
di piombo" (lead years) the raiders were allerted
for a possible intervention for the liberation
of Aldo Moro, and for the assault plan against
the ship Achille Lauro, in 1985. Since
then the operators have perfected their specific techniques
and have contributed to the training of Carabinieri
and Police agents which gave birth to two of
Italy's SWAT forces: the already mentioned GIS, and
the NOCS.
Equipment and Weaponry
The reduced consistency and the
high qualification of the unit, allows the single
operators to chose, within the limits of the budget,
his personal equipment picking from the very best
of world's technology. This is true for both
GOI and GOS members. The available weapons are light
(either individual or team weapons) and heavy support
weapons. The
first category generally includes common weapons like
the omnipresent Beretta 92SB gun, Colt M16 and similar
automatic rifles, Beretta AR70 and SC-70/90 5,56 mm
assault rifles, MG 42/59 machine-gun, PM 12S 9 mm
submachine-gun, High Standard Military Bell Silenced
.22 pistol and the H&K P-11, an electrical weapon
fed by two 24 V batteries and loaded with a five-rounds
water-proof prepacked interchangable magazine. Part
of the equipment is, of course, the H&K MP5, mostly
in the A3 versions and also others. Among the precision
rifles the COMSUBIN arsenal counts the Mauser P66
7,62 mm and the heavy weight Barret M82A1 "Light
Fifty" in 12,7 mm (or 50) caliber.
In urban environment the group
also uses the Franchi SPAS 15 Mod B, known as "the
key of incursion." Within the support weapons,
the obsolete 83 mm Blindicide has been
substituted by the newer spanish "fire &
forget" Instalaza C90 and the H&K grenade-launcher
40 mm MZP1. This list is only indicative, since the
general rule is: "If you can carry it you
can have it."
GOS' equipment includes ARA, "Auto-Respiratore
Aria" (Air Breathing Set, usable to down
to 60 m), ARO, "Auto-Respiratore Ossigeno"
(Oxigen Breathing Set, with air circulation and oxigen
integration, also used by GOI) and ARM, "Auto-Respiratore
Miscela" (Mixed Breathing Set, using oxigen and
azote, usable to down to 50 m); for operation carried
out to down to 60 m at atmospheric pressure  divers
use ADS (Atmospheric Diving-Suit), a self-propelled
canadian suit. For high-depth interventions,
the Newsuit produced by Draeger is used instead.
This is a suit built using special alluminium alloy
and equiped with 20 independent articulation which
leave the operator complete freedom of movement. Deserving
mention are a few devices, auxiliary but nontheless
important: among these the GPS Magellan NAV 1000M;
the special hard-helmet Viking diving-suit; the
underwater ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicle) Pluto
Plus and Filippo, usually boarded on the Anteo.
In spite of the new operating requirements, the consistency
of the COMSUBIN is meant to remain very limited, both
because the efficiency of the unit cannot prescind
from the complete understanding between the operators,
and because the officer who is in charge of the command
needs to know perfectly the psycho-physical capabilities
of each raider. A "vocational crisis"
occured in the 70s, but successivamente un maggiore
afflusso caused by the continual presence of the Navy
in various war theatres (Lebanon, Red Sea, the Gulf)
permitted the unit to carry out a careful selection
among the volunteers.
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