TAC team

A TAC team, believed to stand for "tactical team" or "tactical apprehension and containment team", is a paramilitary unit of CTU agents.

Introduction
TAC Teams fufill a SWAT-type role and provide backup for CTU field agents. CTU TAC Teams are called into action when intelligence suggests that many or heavily armed hostiles are present, and specialize in Close Quarters Battle (CQB) engagement. TAC Teams have assisted Jack Bauer on many occasions and are a valuable CTU asset.

TAC Teams perform roles normally associated with both Counter Terrorist teams such as the Army's Delta Force and the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team and local SWAT teams. TAC Teams perform hostage rescue operations, high-risk arrests, escort, and takedown missions. Tactical teams fall under the authority of the Director of Field Operations. Depending on the missions, anywhere from two-man teams to five-man teams can be used. Multiple teams can be dispatched. This usually occurs when an extremely important situation has occurred. TAC teams are deployed by the Special Agent in Charge of local offices. Previously a Special Agent in Charge had to request a TAC team from Division.

Armor
Tactical agents wear a load-bearing black tactical vest with pockets for ammunition and other specialist gear as a flightsuit. Underneath their assault velts, tactical agents wear Kevlar body armor. In addition, agents wear black Kevlar helmets and tactical goggles. Communication headsets are worn underneath the helmets. Black combat boots and gloves are also worn. During earlier days, CTU tactical agents wore black uniforms and had an older version of the CTU patch.

Tactical agents are believed to be outfitted with the Interceptor body armor system, although this is unsubstantiated.

Transportation
TAC teams use several types of vehicles for transport. CTU provides several different kinds of tactical vans, helicopters and SUVs. TAC teams also travel in black SUVs with tinted windows. Two SUVs are used per team. Most have field kits containing weapons, ammunition, and tactical gear in the trunk. When agents need to rapidly transit and be able to quickly get out, several agents can ride on the sides.

Weaponry
Unlike typical field agents, TAC teams field submachine guns or carbines instead of handguns - primarily either Colt M4A1 carbines or Heckler & Koch MP5A4 submachine guns.

Agents generally customize their weapon with a CQB-type (Close Quarters Battle) scope (typically a reflex scope with a red aiming reticule), a vertical handgrip, and a flashlight. Before Day 6, TAC agents used ironsights and large flashlights on their M4 carbines. The M4A1 can be suppressed, as seen in Day 6 7:00pm-8:00pm.

Tactical agents also carry Glock 17 or Glock 19 9 x 19mm handguns as secondary weapons. The Glock 17 (and its compact version the, Glock 19) is a semi-automatic pistol. It is the standard back-up weapon used by the CTU tactical teams. It is also the favored weapon of CTU field agents, with the notable exception of Jack Bauer, who prefers the Heckler und Koch USP Compact.

CTU teams also employ high-power sniper rifles and tranquilizer guns for nonlethal incapacitations.

Day 1
During the events of Day 1, a TAC Team was sent to pick up Jack Bauer and his family from Ira Gaines' compound during his rescue attempt. TAC agents arrived just after Bauer shot Gaines and took him and his family back to CTU in a helicopter.

Later, George Mason dispatched two teams to the MUDD prison where Victor Drazen was held after the Drazens' attacked the prison and captured Jack Bauer. The teams breached into the prison and cleared the facility but could not pursue the Drazens due to laser-activated C4 bombs left as pursuit deterrants.

Day 2
A TAC Team provided back up for Jack Bauer during a sting operation against one of Nina Myers' contacts. During the operation Nina killed her contact and tryed to escape. Jack and the TAC team stormed the building and recaptured Nina. After the plane carrying Jack Bauer and Nina Myers was shot down by the Coral Snake team, CTU sent a TAC team to pick up Jack and Nina. Upon arriving they found that Nina had taken Jack hostage, and a stand-off developed. Eventually a CTU sniper had an opening and disarmed Nina by shooting her gun out of her hands. The rest of the agents moved in and secured Nina.

After CTU located Syed Ali's hideout, Jack met up with a team of TAC agents led by Tom Baker. They covertly entered the building, but one of Syaed Ali's accomplices noticed an agent moving on the roof by a skylight. He fired at the agent with a machine pistol and used Kate Warner as a human shield. A team of agents moved forward with a ballistic shield to the room where the terrorist was holding Kate hostage. The terrorist fired into the shield as they entered. Jack followed behind them and incapacitated the terrorist with a shotgun-launched beanbag projectile. However, the terrorist took a suicide capsule hidden in his mouth before he could be interrogated.

Jack and Tom Baker led a TAC team that surrounded off a mosque that Ali was believed to be in. Jack sent Kate Warner inside in disguise to find Ali. She found him and then left. The team waited for Ali to exit the building. When he did not the order to move in was given. The agents entered the building and found a body believed to be Ali alight. However, the corpse was not Ali's and they agents found a trapdoor leading underground. Jack and a small team entered the tunnels. They found Ali and Bauer, using a telescoping club from one of the agents, capture Ali alive before he could commit suicide. The agents guarded the mosque whle Bauer was interrogating Ali.

When the location of the nuclear bomb was found by CTU, Jack Bauer and a large TAC team drove to the airport. The team assembled and secured the site. In the process they found the bodies of six Coral Snake soldiers who were supposed to be tracking the nuclear bomb. After the hangar in which the bomb was located was found, TAc agents, along with Jack, pursued the small plane into which the bomb had been loaded and captured the terrorist pilot. Nuclear Emergency Search Team members determined that a device found in the plane was not the bomb, but a decoy. The agents locked down the airport and them later assisted Jack Bauer in capturing and interrogating Marie Warner. After she told them where the bomb was, TAc agents along with local police shot and killed several terrorists and secured the bomb. The NEST specialists determined it could not be disarmed and the bomb was flown out to the Mojave Desert.

When Jack Bauer and Sherry Palmer set up a meeting with Peter Kingsley to gain evidence proving that the Cyprus recording was a fake, Ryan Chappelle was ordered by Mike Novick to give Jack backup. The meeting began while the TAC teams were still about ten minutes away and a large shootout developed. Jack shot and killed most of Kingsley's men but ran out of ammo. Kingsley came forward to kill Jack, who was having serious chest pains due to his torture, but was shot by a TAC agent in a helicopter. A large force of CTU agents swarmed the Coliseum and secured it.

Day 3
During the prison riot started by Jack Bauer to free Ramon Salazar, Chase Edmunds brought a TAC team to the prison to recapture Salazar. However, Jack threatened to shoot Salazar if he was not given a helicopter to take Salazar away in order to prevent the release of the Cordilla Virus. The TAC agents were ordered to stand down. Chase pleaded with Jack to wait, asanother TAC team was moving in at a warehouse complex to capure Kyle Singer, believed to be carrying the virus. Jack refused and left.

The TAC team at the warehouse complex found Singer and rescued him for terrorists. Protected by chemical suits, the TAC team secured the warehouse and brought in NHS. CTU attempted to tell Jack that they had the virus, but it was too late.

After it had been revealed that Singer did not have the virus and that it was a complex sting operation to secure it, TAC teams under Jack and Chase went to a nightclub in Chinatown to capture Michael Amador and Marcus Alvers. They sent in an undercover agent to locate them but he was discovered. Jack ordered the team in and they breached into the club. TAC agents shot the guards and secured Amador. They learned that Alvers had left earlier. While Jack interrogated Amador, the TAC agents searched the building and found equipment used to hold the virus. On Amador's laptop they found schematics for the Chandler Plaza Hotel, and they alerted CTU of a possible threat. When Amador is allowed to escape in the hope that he will lead them to the man behind the attacks, TAC agents follow as backup for Jack. However, Amador was killed by C4 in a briefcase in order to prevent him from compromising the terrorist operation.

At the Chandler Plaza Hotel TAC agents arrived after the advance CTU team lead by Michelle Dessler and secure the outside of the building. When the ccupants learn that the virus has been released the TAC agents, wearing protective gear, guarded both the inside and outside of the hotel to prevent people from leaving and spreading the virus, and to keep order. TAC agents remained at the hotel for the remainder of the day.

When CTU traced a all made by Jane Saunders to Steven Saunders, her father and terrorist mastermind, Jack Bauer, Chase Edmunds, and Tom Baker took mulitple TAC teams with sniper support and covertly surrounded the building he was in. When Jack realized that Saunders knew they were outside, they took an overt stance and called for him to surrender and exit the building. However, Saunders initiated a contingency plan and blackmailed Tony Almeida to order Baker's team, which covered the rear of the buidling, to move to the front, thus giving him an escape route, by taking Michelle hostage. The TAC teams launched tear gas into the building and stormed it. They found that Saunders had been there but that he escaped.

After Jack Bauer found Tony attempting to trade Jane Saunders in return for Michelle, they set up a deal and moved TAC teams covertly into position at the 6th Street Bridge to attack when Saunders had been positively identified. When Saunder's men arrived to make the trade, it went through without a problem until Jane decided that she didn't want to go with her father's men. She turned and ran back to Tony. Saunders got of of a car and called to her. With Saunders identified Jack order the teams in. A team hiding behind a pile of tires next to Tony's car moved in first, taking out several of Saunders' men. Saunders fled, narrowly missing a second TAC team that rappelled down from the bridge. Jack pursued Saunders and Chase Edmunds and the TAC teams mopped up the rest of the terrorists.

Jack Bauer order two TAC agents guarding the entrance of the Chandler Plaza Hotel to take Jane inside so she would be infected in order to get Saunders to tell him how to find the remianing virus couriers. Sanders broke just as Jane was about to be taken inside and the agents brought her out, and the agents returned to their guard duty.

Day 6
A TAC Team led by Curtis Manning tracked a suicide bomber handler from Abu Fayed's terror cell and moved in to arrest him. However, the terrorist spotted the agents and committed suicide with a grenade. The team found a damaged laptop and Chloe O'Brien was able to retrieve a schematic. Hamri Al-Assad recognized it as a nuclear detonator. CTU confirmed this and identified the weapon as a Sovtel-3 suitcase nuclear device.

Curtis' team rescued Scott Wallace, a teenager being held hostage by his neighbor, terrorist Ahmed Amar, after Scott's mother, Jillian Wallace, called 911. Amar was killed in the ensuing firefight, but Wallace had memorized the address where his father, Ray Wallace, was ordered to retrieve a component of a suitcase nuke by Amar. Jack Bauer relayed the information to Bill Buchanan, who deployed a second team to 351 Old Mill Road inValencia to assault the warehouse where the bomb was believed to be located. The team infiltrated the warehouse but was spotted by the terrorists, who detonated the nuclear bomb, resulting in the loss of the TAC team and about 12,000 residents.

A TAC Team was sent by Buchanan to assist Jack Bauer in capturing his brother Graem. The team took the house without firing a shot and provided security while Jack Bauer had Agent Rick Burke interrogate Graem using Hyocine-Pentothal.

After following Darren McCarthy, who had abducted Morris O'Brian, in a CTU helicopter, Jack Bauer was dropped off at a highway underpass. A TAC team arrived in two SUVs and picked up Jack. They responded to a call and found McCarthy's corpse in the middle of a road in a residential area. Later, Chloe traced one of McCarthy's calls to an apartment building. Jack and the TAC teams arrived at the building. Agent Hal Turner, the senior agent on the TAC team, set up an inconspicuous perimeter around the building. Jack believed that both Abu Fayed and Morris are in the complex, but they can't identify which apartment. Bauer called Buchanan and requested that CTU trigger a fire alarm. The residents evacuated and CTU used infared satellite feed to determine the apartment number. Jack ordered the TAC team in. The agents split into two groups. Jack Bauer and Hal Turner took one group to assault the apartment on its level, while another group secured the level above it and the rear fire escape. CTU agents explosively breached into the apartment and engaged the terrorists with small arms fire. During the assault a terrorist pinned down Jack Bauer from another room. He called in to the second group, and two agents rappeled down the side of the building and crashed through the windows. The terrorist was caught off guard and eliminated. The aparment was declared secure. Morris, who had been tortured, informed Jack Bauer that he configured a device that allows the terrorists to arm the remaining suitcase nukes. Hal Turner returned and informed Jack that Fayed had escaped through their perimeter. Turner also found a suitcase nuke in the next room. Bauer examined the device and determined that it was armed. He disarmed the device with little time to spare with help from CTU.

A tactical team was later dispatched to capture Dmitri Gredenko after Jack Bauer gets intel from his sister-in-law Marilyn Bauer. However, Jack's dad, Phillip Bauer called Marilyn as the team was en route to the house and threatened to kill her son Josh unless she redirected the team to an address he gave her. Marilyn pointed out the house Phillip told her to. Jack and the TAC team moved in on the house and breached inside. The house was empty. Jack Bauer then spotted a charge of C4 hidden behind some boxes. He yelled a warning and the team ran out of the house. The C4 exploded and killed at least half of the team.

After Jack Bauer was captured at the Russian consulate, Bill Buchanan sent a team under the new Director of Field Operations,Mike Doyle, to assault the consulate if necessary. An international incident was in the making. Inside the consulate Jack Bauer escaped from captivity as FSB Agent Vasili was about to execute him. He managed to contact CTU, but the phone lines were cut off. Consul Anatoly Markov shut down the consulate and had his guards sweep the building. Charles Logan persuaded his wife Martha to talk to Anya Suvarov to have Russian President Yuri Suvarov order Markov to surrender. Suvarov called Markov and ordered him to surrender. Markov refused, and Suvarov gave CTU the green light to raid the consulate. Back at the consulate guards were swarming all over the grounds. Doyle and a CTU agent popped up over a low wall and started shooting the guards as another team moved in to flank them. Soon all of the outdoor guards were dead. Inside the consulate the guards found Jack Bauer in a small room. He killed several but ruan out of ammo. Two more guards came into the room, but two CTU agents shot them through the window. Another team moved in on Markov's office. Markov called Gredenko and told him to launch his drones. He grabbed a pistol from his desk and aimed at CTU agents entering the office. They shot Markov in self-defense.

Gredenko launches a drone. CTU managed to locate the pilot's location, and a TAC team was sent to the building, which was three blocks away from CTU. Jack Bauer and Mike Doyle went with the team. All the agents hade suppressed weapons. Jack Bauer took point and moved forward. He quietly shot two terrorists. The team moved into the building and found the pilot. The pilot readied a grenade but was shot by Bauer. The TAC agents secured the room while Bauer piloted and crash landed the drone. CTU tactical medics worked on the injured pilot.

Before Day One

 * Chet Blackburn

Day 4

 * Lee Castle

Day 5

 * Agent Davis
 * Agent Jones
 * Agent Smith
 * Steve Thompson

Day 6

 * Alpha Team
 * Delta Team
 * Hal Turner
 * Agent Ryan
 * Stevenson

Background information and notes

 * Tactical Apprehension and Containment Teams in real-life serve to bring a successful conclusion to high-risk situations, through the use of specially equipped and highly trained personnel, in such a fashion as to minimize the risk of harm to citizens, law enforcement personnel, TAC Team members, and suspects. The unit is prepared to assume full control of specific tactical situations which, by nature, would be considered excessively dangerous and complex, or which would require the use of a specialized team effort, rather than independent action by individual agents.

Analogous Organizations

 * "Delta Force" on Wikipedia
 * "Hostage Rescue Team" on Wikipedia
 * "SWAT" on Wikipedia

Weaponry

 * "M4 Carbine" on Wikipedia
 * "MP5 Submachine Gun" on Wikipedia
 * "Glock 17" on Wikipedia
 * "Glock 19" on Wikipedia