Zu erwähnen seien in diesem Zusammenhang noch die
Special Missions-Truppen der regulären Army, wohl die Gegenstücke des realen
75th Ranger Regiment. Die Kerle reichen vermutlich nicht an die Standards des Stormtrooper Corps heran (und dürften für Spieler somit wesentlich leichter erreichbar sein), führen aber nichtsdestotrotz verdeckte Operationen, hier "PGOs" genannt, durch:
Special missions platoons have the standard 38 men, but that is the only thing standard about them. They have four squads: two sharpshooter squads, a heavy weapons squad, and a squad of engineers. These squads cross-attach, often breaking up into about three more equal groups each containing engineers and / or a heavy weapons detail.
The platoon is the basic unit of operation for special missions. When the Imperial military thinks of special missions, it thinks in terms of the number of platoons needed to accomplish the mission. As this indicates, special missions are those operations which a few elite men can accomplish, rather than standard military maneuvers.
Special missions forces have been pressed into "political gain operations" (PGOs) with increasing frequency. Special mission troopers call them "straw man" operations. PGOs are terrorist missions held on worlds where native sympathies vacillate between the Empire and the Rebellion. In a typical PGO, the special missions troops stage several terrorist attacks, executed in a manner which would suggest that political factions native to the world could have produced the attacks.
Eventually some political faction will appeal to the planetary governor for help. The governor will declare martial law, asking for help from the fleet. The help arrives in the form of hundreds or thousands of additional troops. These troops operate on "new intelligence," rounding up scores of suspected or known Rebel sympathizers for imprisonment or execution. Once the Rebels are out of the way the attacks cease, reinforcing the impression that the Rebellion indeed sponsored the attacks. The special missions force then moves on to another world.