Poland’s

Grupa Specjalna Pletwonurkow
(GSP)
Naval Special Frogman Group
“FORMOZA”
What may come as a surprise to many observers of the world’s military elites is that Poland maintains a significant, highly trained, but relatively unknown special operations capability. One of the least known of these units is the Polish Navy’s Grupa Specjalna Pletwonurkow (GSP - naval special combat diver group), which is more commonly known in the Polish media as “Formoza”.

Formoza is an elite group of combat divers organized along the lines of the US Navy SEALs, and British SBS. Very little information on the unit’s activities has been released to the public. What is known is that the unit operates as part of the Navy’s reconnaissance vessels group (GOR) and is currently based at the Gdynia-Oksywie naval base.

The few media reports of the unit’s operations have stated that it has conducted missions in Persian Gulf in support of the war on terrorism. During the recent hostilities in Iraq, they reportedly operated alongside the GROM special operations unit, and conducted several joint operations alongside US special operations forces. The Iraqi operations were launched from the Polish naval vessel Xawery Czernicki, and were conducted near the port city of Umm Qasr during the opening days of the war.

Photos of the unit have shown them using a mixture of US and German equipment and weapons including “Fritz” style Kevlar ballistic helmets, black Nomex flame retardant suits, MP-5 9mm SMGs, and M-4 5.56mm assault rifles.

Special thanks to www.greendevils.pl

Dominique Back to Special Forces