page_title: Hostage Rescue Team
section_title: Capabilities
hierarchical_section_title: Hostage Rescue Team / Capabilities
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Zwei Agents des Hostage Rescue Team des FBI.
context_page_description: The Hostage Rescue Team is the elite tactical unit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The HRT was formed to provide a full-time federal law enforcement tactical capability to respond to major terrorist incidents throughout the United States. Today, the HRT performs a number of tactical law enforcement and national security functions in high-risk environments and conditions and has deployed overseas.
  The HRT, along with the Crisis Negotiation Unit, field SWAT teams, and the Tactical Helicopter Unit, comprises the Tactical Section of the FBI's Critical Incident Response Group. The Hostage Rescue Team was founded in 1982 by Danny Coulson, former Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI, and completed its final certification exercise in October 1983. It was originally composed of 50 operators, later increased to over 90.
context_section_description: The HRT's equipment and tactics are the most advanced of the FBI's 56 SWAT teams and the 14 enhanced SWAT teams. The HRT's capabilities are distinguished because the HRT operators (assault and sniper teams) serve full-time and train daily.  While never advertised as such, HRT operators are fully trained commandos on par with Department of Defense special operations units.
  The HRT has the ability "to deploy within four hours, with part or all of its personnel and resources, to any location within the United States or its territories". The unit is able to operate in a variety of environments (chemical, extreme cold, night and low-light, or rural environments). The HRT's tactical teams have the ability to fast-rope, a technique in which the team rapidly descends a rope from the side of a helicopter. This technique is useful for deploying troops into an area where a helicopter cannot touch down. Even more advanced capabilities are possessed by the HRT, including High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) parachute operations, to name just one.  The HRT's capabilities include advanced ground tactics, advanced maritime operations, and advanced tactical aviation operations.
caption: HRT operators in training
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