Special Actions Detachment

The unit is led by a commander, and is subdivided into a command cell and four combat teams. The command cell contains the unit commander, his deputy (a lieutenant commander) and a small staff of eight. The combat teams are composed of ten men: petty officers and seamen and a commanding petty officer.

DAE operatives are drawn from the ranks of marines, all having high operational experience. Due to the nature of its actions, candidate acceptance is extremely restrictive and selective. Only 5–10% of the applicants manage to join the unit.

Upon completion of the basic selection phase prospective recruits then begin the first phase of their training. Phase 1 of their training is conducted at the Navy's combat diver school. Students receive instruction in: basic combat diving techniques, EOD and underwater demolitions. Candidates who successfully complete the first phase are assigned to the DAE on a probationary status, and begin their second phase of training. Phase 2 instruction includes courses on: escape and evasion techniques, advanced driving, mountaineering, offensive operations, parachuting training and basic English. Once a trainee is permanently assigned to the DAE he will continue to receive various courses of instruction throughout his career.

After this tough selection, COEMAR starts, which lasts 18 weeks and is divided into three phases:

• Technical (7 weeks)
• Combat (3 weeks)
• Tactics (8 weeks)

During and after COEMAR, DAE's military personnel receive training in areas as varied as:

• Abandonment of aircraft in immersion
• Air assault
• Air-sea rescue
• Amphibious reconnaissance
• Amphibious warfare
• Artillery observer
• Clandestine operation
• Close-quarters combat
• Cold-weather warfare
• Combat diving (closed circuit)
• Coastal patrolling
• Commando style raid tactics
• Counter ambush
• Counter maritime sabotage
• Counter sniper
• Counterterrorism
• Covert operation
• Defusing and disposal of bombs, land mines, and unexploded ordnance
• Demolitions, mines and traps
• Desert warfare
• Driving tactical vehicles
• Executive protection
• Exfil
• Fast combat shooting
• Forward air control
• Hand and Arm Signals
• Hand-to-hand combat
• Helocasting
• Hostage rescue
• HUMINT
• IED disarmament
• Inactivation of conventional explosive devices – land branch
• Infiltrate the area with a helicopter
• Intelligence collection
• Irregular warfare
• Jungle warfare
• Living off the desert, jungle, mountain, and sea
• Marksmanship
• Medical evacuation
• Military parachuting with automatic & manual opening (taken at the Parachute Regiment – Tancos)
• Military intelligence
• Mountain rescue
• Mountain warfare
• Naval boarding
• NBCR on operations in contaminated environments
• Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE)
• Small unit tactics
• Sniper (taught in Lamego at the Special Operations Troops Centre)
• Surveillance and counter-surveillance of the battlefield
• Special operations
• Special reconnaissance
• Tactical communications
• Tactical emergency medical
• Tactical use of motorbikes
• Tracking tactics
• Unconventional warfare
• Underwater demolition
• Urban warfare
• Using fast attack craft
• Using high military technology

DAE conducts regular training exercises with its NATO counterparts, including the United States Navy SEALs, Special Naval Warfare Force (FGNE), French Commandos Marine, JW GROM, Lithuanian Special Operations Force as well as the respective naval counter-terrorist units.

They were deployed to:

• Angola in 1992;
• Zaire in 1997;
• Guinea-Bissau in 1998;[1]
• East Timor in 2004;[1]
• Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006 (as part of the EUFOR);[1]
• Somalia in 2009;[2][3]
• Afghanistan in 2013;[1]
• Mali in 2019;[1]
• Lithuania from (2018–2022) (as part of the NATO Assurance Measures)[4][5]

• Official website