Einsatzkommando “Cobra”
Based on the American crime series “Mission Impossible” which was broadcast in the German-speaking countries under the title “Cobra, you are in control”, an Austrian journal gave the synonym “Cobra” to the GEK in the 1970s. More and more this name became accepted also within the unit. “Cobra” became the official unit’s name in 2002 and is symbolically also found on the unit’s badge.
Structure Since its foundation the unit has been under the command of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI). There it is directly subordinated to the General Director for Public Safety who is responsible for the whole of the Austrian Police. In 2013 in the process of a wide-ranging organisational reform the four independently organised special departments within the BMI • Task Force Cobra • Bomb Disposal Service • Operative Additional Measures (today Department for Investigative Techniques) and the • Special Observation Service … were brought together in the newly created Department “Task Force Cobra/Department Special Forces (EKO Cobra/DSE)”. Since October 1992 the headquarters of EKO Cobra are next to the Training and Control Centre in Wiener Neustadt, about 30 km south of the federal capital Vienna. The military special unit of the Federal Army, the “Jagdkommando”, also has its headquarters in this town. When the five Cobra bases in Wiener Neustadt, Vienna, Graz, Linz and Innsbruck were set up together with three operative external bases in the counties of Kärnten, Salzburg and Vorarlberg, it was taken into account that each location within the whole federal territory should be reached within a maximum of 70 minutes. For each base primary regional responsibilities have been defined. How-
ever, there is mutual support among the bases in case of incidents and executive services, which is happening almost every day. Due to this regional spread the response times of EKO Cobra are very short in international comparison. Within the centres of population in Austria EKO Cobra forces are often on scene within minutes because the bases of Cobra are in the major cities of Austria. At each base and in the external offices the task force is organised in the form of several incident modules. In general, a request for Cobra forces goes directly from the local police force to the responsible local Cobra office. The Directorate is structured into three Departments and the Department for Personnel Matters, with a director
Members of the then Gendarmerieeinsatzkommando (GEK) during an exercise in the late 1970s.
being in overall charge. Department 1 houses the Personnel Management, Budget Planning, Technology, and Infrastructure. Department 2 includes the special forces for “Bomb Disposal”, “Observation”, “Personal Protection”, “Air Marshal Force”, “Search Technology” or “Cobra Basic and Special Training”. The operative service of the special unit EKO Cobra is organised in Department 3, which also runs the bases and external offices. This department is responsible for 77
