Did you know there is an elite special-ops team inside the US Secret Service? Many of our readers got a peek at the President’s security detail while the POTUS traveled around, and a particular reader noticed something that caught their eye. It wasn’t the sharply dressed regular Secret Service agents, it was a squad of men in all black, in heavy tactical gear, sporting Knights Armament SR-16 rifles that were sticking out of the armored Suburbans that accompany the Presidential Limousines.

What he unknowingly spotted was the Secret Service’s Counter Assault Team (CAT) for short, and they’re always one step away from POTUS, whether it’s in the air or on the ground. There is a undisclosed amount of teams but normally two teams, five agents in each, will be with in the President’s motorcade in two separate Suburbans.

A tactical unit of the U.S. Secret Service holds in the Capitol basement while President Donald Trump meets with Republican lawmakers on the health care overhaul, in Washington, Tuesday, March 21, 2017. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has said possible reforms are needed at the Secret Service after an intruder on the White House grounds last week was able to evade security for 16 minutes before finally being apprehended. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

While regular agents in the service will jump on POTUS and make sure his body is shielded, its CAT operator’s sole purpose to attack and defeat the threat with overwhelming firepower. They have similar training in comparison with Tier 2 special operation forces like U.S. Army Rangers.







Here’s a little parting fact for your brain to munch on, it’s estimated there are 12 Presidential limousines aka the “Beasts.”