The Extra-Special Weapons and Advanced Tactics (ESWAT

ESWAT

ESWAT may refer to:*ESWAT Cyber Police , a 1989 scrolling shooter arcade game developed and published by Sega*ESWAT: City Under Siege, a 1990 side scrolling platform video game for the Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis video game console...

, or ES.W.A.T.) is a paramilitary

Paramilitary

A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....

 group in Masamune Shirow

Masamune Shirow

is an internationally renowned manga artist, born on November 23, 1961.Masamune Shirow is a pen name, based on a famous swordsmith, Masamune. He is best known for the manga Ghost in the Shell, which has since been turned into two theatrical anime movies, two anime TV series, an anime TV movie, and...

's Appleseed. It serves as a counter-terrorism

Counter-terrorism

Counter-terrorism is the practices, tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, militaries, police departments and corporations adopt to prevent or in response to terrorist threats and/or acts, both real and imputed.The tactic of terrorism is available to insurgents and governments...

 unit, crime response, and special forces

Special forces

Special forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...

 branch of the Central Management Bureau, enforcing international law

International law

Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...

 and keeping the peace in Olympus.

Recruitment

ESWAT operatives are handpicked from SWAT

SWAT

A SWAT team is an elite tactical unit in various national law enforcement departments. They are trained to perform high-risk operations that fall outside of the abilities of regular officers...

, SIU

Special Investigations Unit

The Special Investigations Unit of Ontario, Canada, is a civilian agency responsible for investigating circumstances involving police and civilians that have resulted in a death, serious injury, or allegations of sexual assault. However all full-time SIU investigators are former law enforcement...

, badside "immigration candidates", and, if they get lucky, FBI. Mercenaries and foreign combat personal are often headhunted from the badsides and other nations to work on ESWAT. These individuals soon find themselves working in law enforcement, or in manual labor.

Training

The life of the ESWAT agent becomes his training. Prospective and veteran operatives alike are put through brutal, strenuous training at ESWAT's huge arcology

Arcology

Arcology, a portmanteau of the words "architecture" and "ecology", is a set of architectural design principles aimed toward the design of enormous habitats of extremely high human population density. These largely hypothetical structures would contain a variety of residential, commercial, and...

 in the Central Olympic Block. They train 8 to 10 hours a day, with little let up. Every possible scenario is simulated, and after they are all simulated, they do it all over again. No one overspecializes; this breeds weakness. When someone joins ESWAT, he can expect to spend most of his time in training, when not on an operation.

Training consists of 10 day exercises in various fields. Common exercises include defense of government property and officials, cyborg crime, hostage situations, landmate operations, room clearing, and assassination.

Operations and procedures

The majority of ESWAT missions involve Special Forces actions and anti-terrorist operations. Both are compromised primarily of tactical assault, and at this activity, ESWAT is the best in the world. Their training and teamwork really pay off, and the mission fatality and injury rate is lower than those incurred in training. A lesser function exercised of ESWAT is the use of standard police and SIU investigative procedure and assault tactics in bringing in dangerous cyborg criminals too tough to apprehend with normal police units.

ESWAT will often operate in other countries, often loaned to these nations by Olympus to put down terrorists, criminals, and insurrections. However, often they will operate in other countries to protect their own interests. ESWAT will only do so if authorized to do so by the sovereign

Sovereign

A sovereign is the supreme lawmaking authority within its jurisdiction.Sovereign may also refer to:*Monarch, the sovereign of a monarchy*Sovereign Bank, banking institution in the United States*Sovereign...

 government

Government

Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...

 (authorization is often acquired just moments ahead of time) or under the cover of plausible deniability

Plausible deniability

Plausible deniability is, at root, credible ability to deny a fact or allegation, or to deny previous knowledge of a fact. The term most often refers to the denial of blame in chains of command, where upper rungs quarantine the blame to the lower rungs, and the lower rungs are often inaccessible,...

. In such circumstances, operatives have a lot more freedom in their actions (though reckless behavior will lead to pay cuts or suspensions). Still, agents have to be careful what they do. The Ministry of External Affairs has ESWAT investigated routinely. At any given time there will be half a dozen FBI moles in ESWAT.

Landmates

Large exo-suits that allow increased maneuverability and firepower, almost all ESWAT operatives are trained to use a Landmate. They come in different varieties to fit the mission type. The pilot controls the Landmate by sitting in an exo-suit like cab that folds over the pilot's head and torso. Their arms are fitted inside a glove like apparatus enabling them full range of access to hold a weapon or grip. Movement of these arms controls the movement of the large robotic arms. Their main function is to grasp weapons. The arms can be controlled individually from inside the suit and the pilot's eyes. Since the cockpit covers the entire head and torso, vision is controlled from viewscreens in front of the pilot's face. The cameras are mounted on a robotic head mounted like a human head, between the shoulders. In order to fly the Landmate, there are two anti gravity apparatuses mounted on the back. They come together in the center of the back and propel the Landmate forward. For VTOL

VTOL

A vertical take-off and landing aircraft is one that can hover, take off and land vertically. This classification includes fixed-wing aircraft as well as helicopters and other aircraft with powered rotors, such as cyclogyros/cyclocopters and tiltrotors...

 there are 4 jets mounted in the thighs.

VTOL insertion plane

Similar to the real-world V-22 Osprey

V-22 Osprey

The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is an American multi-mission, military, tiltrotor aircraft with both a vertical takeoff and landing , and short takeoff and landing capability...

, it only appears in the first movie. The fuselage and cockpit of the VTOL are those of a Lockheed C-130 Hercules. The front section of the plane includes 2 pairs of vertical insertion hatches. The rear section of the plane has an opening hatch for large vehicles. The rotors tilt up and down for VTOL. Similar to the Tilt-rotor in Ghost in the Shell

Ghost in the Shell

is a Japanese multimedia franchise composed of manga, animated films, anime series, video games and novels. It focuses on the activities of the counter-terrorist organization Public Security Section 9 in a futuristic, cyberpunk Japan ....

(Also by Shirow Masamune) the VTOL rotors are a contra-rotating pair on each nacelle.

Bumblebee insertion ship

The outer frame looks very similar to a bumblebee. Its propulsion system is similar to the landmates but with dual anti-gravity rails. The front 3/4ths of the ship has 2 pairs of 3 vertical insertion hatches. The back, which is slightly slanted down, contains seats for operatives. A mission commander can conduct operations from the front of the ship. By the timeline of Appleseed Ex Machina, this ship appears to have completely replaced the VTOL plane. It also comes with flares and other counter-measures in case of an attack.

Landmate transport truck

In the first movie, it has an open storage rack for 4 landmates on each side, they sit facing to the left and right until they deploy. In the second movie it takes on more of an apc form with a completely closed storage bed.

Single pilot attack helicopter

Appears in both movies, the copter fits one pilot that fires a rotating minigun under the nose. It has 4 landing gear and police lights on each side of the rotor.