Minister of the Interior Pierre Joxe was the key decision maker who authorized the creation of the unit.

[6] In 1987 RAID arrested the leaders of the terrorist group Action Directe in their Vitry-aux-Loges hideout.

[7] The hostage taker was finally shot and the children were recovered safely, together with their teacher and a nurse.

[6] Christophe Caze, the head of the group, escaped the burning building, but was killed at a Belgian checkpoint during a gunfight with Customs agents.

Several days later, thanks to an electronic device found on Caze's body, Fateh Kamel, head of a terrorist cell in Montreal, was arrested in Jordan and tried in France.

On 21 and 22 March 2012, RAID was tasked to arrest Mohammed Merah, the main suspect for shooting sprees in Toulouse and Montauban.

On 18 November RAID undertook a follow-up operation in Saint-Denis seeking Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the 'mastermind' of the attacks, who was killed.

180 of which are in Bièvres, the rest in the regional branches located in Bordeaux, Guadeloupe, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nancy, New Caledonia, Nice, Rennes, Réunion, Strasbourg and Toulouse.

The Bièvres (Paris) unit is divided into three main sections with about 60 members each: The Negotiation group is on permanent alert.

Tactical deployment of large groups is handled by GIH (French: Groupe interarmées d'hélicoptères) a joint army/air force special operations flight equipped with SA330 PUMA helicopters based in nearby Villacoublay air base.