Action Division

The Action Division (French: Division Action), commonly known by its predecessor's title Action Service (French: Service Action) is a division of France's Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE) responsible for planning and performing clandestine and covert operations including black operations. The core specialisations of the Action Division are sabotage, destruction of materiel, assassination, detaining/kidnapping, interrogation with and without using torture, infiltration/exfiltration of persons into/from hostile territory and hostage rescue.

The division also fulfils other security-related roles including testing the security of strategic sites, for example nuclear power plants and military facilities such as the submarine base of the Île Longue, Bretagne. Organization Within the Action Division there are three separate groups,

• CPES for clandestine agents,
• CPIS for clandestine commandos, and
• CPEOM for clandestine combat divers.

The service's headquarters are located at the fort of Noisy-le-Sec. It replaced the Service Action of the SDECE in 1971.