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DARCOM
RECEIPT, ISSUE, STORAGE & SUPPORT ACTIVITY
When counter-terrorist
teams needed their weapons modified and special equipment
designed, they had to go to the Department of Army Materiel
Development and Readiness Command (DARCOM). The requests
would then need to go through normal channels and cycles.
A member of the Special Operations Division once said
the following. "We needed our equipment in seven
days, not seven years." Other units and organiztions
such as Delta, the Intelligence Support Activity (ISA)
and Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) also had
a need for a classified facility where weapon repairs,
upgrades, repairs and storage of aircraft, vehicles,
communications gear and ammunition could be handled.
Late in 1981, Colonel Robert Redmund, a Special Forces
officer, started a "black" weapons facility,
named DARISSA, for DARCOM Receipt, Issue, Storage and
Support Activity. For example, if Delta Force required
laser guide beacons or specialized ammunition, DARISSA
would design, develop and manufacture them. If the ISA
needed a micro-transmitter concealed in fabric, DARISSA
would dvelop it. Helicopter repairs for Seaspray would
also be handled by DARISSA, as well as the installation
of communications and surveillance gear. Overall, DARISSA
would support counter-terrorist units, and would either
obtain or design demolitions, laser targeting systems,
optical systems, chemical agents and ammunition.
Stationed at
Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Center in New Jersey,
DARISSA was set up in an old 200-foot high dirigible
hangar. The hangar's doors, when opened, would allow
a small airplane to fly straight through it. In 1983,
DARISSA was fully operational, and it traded technical
know-how with the SAS and GSG-9. It would develop
sensors which would monitor troop movement, that could
record conversations in hijacked airplanes or windowless
rooms and infra-red sensors. The starting grant for
DARISSA was $10 million.
Information
provided courtesy of Peter Tomich
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