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GIGN – the “Group d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale” (Intervention Group of the National Gendarmerie) is the tip of the spear for French counterterrorism and major crime response. They are a relatively small (a few hundred operators) unit that deploys anywhere in France any often around the world. They curate a wide range of individual specialties from parachuting to diving and everything in between, backed up by a strong supporting contingent of technical specialists supplying them with robotics, drones, surveillance technologies, and whatever else they need.
Not surprisingly, the men at the front of an organization like this have a wide variety of small arms at their disposal from their iconic Manurhin MR73 revolvers to .50 BMG precision rifles – but they need to have *something* as the general standard rifle. And that rifle is the CZ Bren 2 chambered for 7.62x39mm. This rifle was chosen in 2017 as a way to maximize stopping power, to ensure the most effect for every round fired while also minimizing over penetration to prevent collateral damages. GIGN’s goal is to resolve every callout without anyone losing their life – but if they need shoot, they need that shot to be effective. After experimenting with many options, they chose the Nosler V-Armageddon expanding projectile loaded into 7.62x39mm for this objective. The caliber choice also allows maximum ammunition availability when deploying to the far parts of the globe with partner forces and without their own logistics tail.
The clean choice for a modern rifle in 7.62x39mm was the CZ Bren 2, which had been developed initially as the Bren 807 for sale to countries with legacy use of that caliber. That development involved the rigorous multi-environment testing necessary for a proper military firearm, which has been rare in things like AR conversions to 7.62×39. When GIGN made their choice, CZ made a few changes to the rifle to better suit them including a titanium firing pin and a gas system adjustment for reliable fully automatic use with the requested 9″ barrel and using subsonic ammunition as well as supersonic by way of a multi-position gas port. That said, suppressed use has not been a major element for GIGN. They often use suppressors to militate blast to other members of their own teams, but do not typically use subsonic ammunition – terminal ballistics are more important than maximum noise reduction.
The accessories used on these rifles vary significantly, as each individual operator is free to configure his rifle as he sees fit. The original procurement included ACOGs with stacked Trijicon RMR dots and MAWL IR laser modules. These are still regularly seen, but many rifles also sport Holoson lasers, EOTech and Aimpoint optics along with a variety of weapon lights and tape switches. The guns were originally Cerakoted OD green, but some have been overpainted by their users – as you see in the video. These are absolutely not safe queens, they are guns that used used day in and day out for training and deployments.
Many thanks to GIGN for inviting me in to film, and to the two operators who let me use their personal rifles in this video!
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