The Austrian "Cobra" special forces were established after the terrorist incident at the Munich Stadium, and Austria decided to form the GMBV anti-terrorist brigade by May 1, 1973, and all the work was completed on schedule, and the first commander was Pecht.

In 1973, the Austrian special forces were expanded to 100 personnel, and the station was moved from Badvoslavu to Shaunau Castle. In 1974, the Austrian Special Forces Brigade was reorganized, reduced to 32 personnel, and its main task was to escort Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union from the Austrian border to Vienna safely.

In the late 70s, several terrorist attacks occurred on the territory of Austria, which completely changed the perception of the military and political leadership about the special forces. A group of terrorists led by Sanchez took a number of hostages at a meeting of OPEC prime ministers, and finally left Austria safely with one hostage. Another terrorist group took entrepreneur Palme hostage and released the hostages only after receiving a ransom of 30 million shillings. In the autumn of 1977, the Austrian government accepted the proposal of the Minister of the Interior, Blank, and decided to form a new anti-terrorist special brigade of GEK "Cobra" on the basis of the previous special brigade by January 1, 1978. Despite the fact that the unit was established before 1 April 1978, 1 January 1978 was designated as the date of establishment of the Austrian Anti-Terrorist Special Brigade. This force is under the direct command of the head of the General Directorate of Social Order of the Ministry of the Interior.

Since 1981, the GEK Special Brigade has been responsible for ensuring the safety of the Austrian Chancellor, as well as escorting passenger aircraft leaving Austria. In 1992, the Cobra moved to Vienna Neustadt, 25 kilometres from Vienna, and set up camp in a barracks built specifically for it.

On 1 July 2002, the new EKC "Cobra" anti-terrorist brigade was established on the basis of the GEK anti-terrorist brigade, 14 police MEK units and 8 SEK gendarmerie units, increasing the number of personnel from 186 to 336. Now "Cobra" is under the direct command of the Austrian Minister of the Interior. The reorganization succeeded in overcoming the previous problems of poor coordination between the police and the gendarmerie. The special brigade has high requirements for the education and training of its members, so as to ensure that the troops can respond more quickly and effectively and participate in various operations. In addition to high-risk special operations, "Cobra" is engaged in medium-risk operations. In 2005, the Austrian Government plans to combine the Cobra Special Brigade and the EGA Special Police Brigade, which is currently responsible for medium-risk operations in the Vienna area.

The motto of the Austrian special anti-terrorist brigade "Cobra" is "the sword of impartial adjudication", and its main tasks are to combat terrorism and organized crime, rescue hostages, capture very dangerous criminals, but also to protect the safety of VIPs, security guards, escort aircraft, protection of witnesses, and are responsible for the security of Austrian representative offices abroad. In addition, "Cobra" is obliged to prevent explosions in public buildings, prevent political murders, and is responsible for the security of the Federal Chancellery and other government agencies. The members of the special forces also have to ensure the personal safety of the prime minister and members of the government during their visits to the country, as well as the safety of foreign state activists invited by the government to visit, and the capital, Vienna International Airport, is also under the control of the special forces members.

Until 2002, only gendarmes who met the appropriate selection criteria and successfully passed the test were eligible to become members of the Anti-Terrorist Special Brigade. Since 2002, the selection of members has been expanded, and any police officer and gendarmerie can become a member of the special forces. The basic selection conditions are that you have received a complete education, are not less than 20 years old, have no criminal record, have not been disciplined, have good physical fitness, and have strong psychological quality. The initial selection is completed in 3 days and consists of a physical examination, which tests the candidate's shooting training skills, fitness for flying, sports tests, psychological tests, and personal interviews. The psychological test is a very important item in the selection process, which determines the candidate's personality characteristics, social outlook, reaction ability, overall intelligence level, logic, abstract thinking ability, speech civilization, light agility and reliability, attitude towards work, initiative and appropriateness in work conditions, response to light and sound stimuli, etc. If the candidate shows characteristics such as lack of confidence, inner excitement, nervousness, excessive suspicion, not good at attracting the other party, negative worldview, etc., he will be considered unqualified, and in the entire history of the Austrian special forces, only one woman passed the selection and is still in service today.

Those who pass the initial selection are required to sign a two-and-a-half-year special forces service contract, six months for special training, two years for operational missions, and then the service period can be extended every two years according to personal wishes. During the half-year training conducted at the training center of the special anti-terrorist brigade, all members of the team must participate in an assessment once a month, including carrying full combat equipment to break through the obstacle zone in various weather conditions, and those who fail to pass the assessment twice in a row will be eliminated at the end of the special training, and new personnel will be added at the same time, with the exception of command and technical personnel. The training course includes shooting, physical fitness, combat skills, riot skills, mountain training. The team members must be proficient in the combat use of various weapons and equipment, and all personnel must be able to drive, know English, and master the basic skills of helicopter combat training. At the same time, special forces members also need to learn the laws and regulations on the use of weapons and familiarize themselves with foreign police laws. The team members also have to undergo many professional special training, mastering the skills that frogmen, landing team members, snipers, demolition specialists, dog trainers, air rescuers, drivers, technical experts, etc.

The Austrian special forces often exchange experience with the Swiss GSG-9 special forces, and the "Cobra" members have participated every year since 1983, when the German GSG-9 special forces proposed to hold the International Special Forces Competition, the first held in Germany, the first two years in 1995, and the last four years after 1995. There are a total of 10 special sports in the competition, and each team sends 6 team members to participate. In the 2003 International Special Forces Competition, a total of 45 teams participated, and the "Cobra" won the championship by beating the Italian and Irish teams. The "Cobra" anti-terrorist special brigade consists of four detachments, namely the cadre and support detachment, the combat detachment, the new member training detachment, and the technical detachment. The latter is mainly responsible for operational technical support, observation and communications, and the combat detachment is divided into four combat detachments: "Eastern", "Central", "Western" and "Southern". At present, there are 366 members of the "Cobra" special brigade, and the principle of deployment is that the distance between the station of each combat detachment and any residential point in the corresponding direction should not exceed 1,000 kilometers, and it is guaranteed to reach any residential point within 70 minutes to participate in the operation.

The new station of the Special Forces on the outskirts of Vienna, built specifically for the Cobra project, was officially moved in on 26 October 1992, with two protective grids around the compound to prevent infiltration and eavesdropping. There are office buildings, living quarters, training centers, stadiums, training towers, swimming pools, ground shooting ranges for training within 600 meters, helicopter hangars, helicopter landings, garages, 500-meter-long obstacle strips and other facilities.

The Special Brigade is equipped with a wide range of specialized vehicles, including Mercedes special-purpose vehicles, surveillance vehicles, special armored vehicles, personnel transporters, ambulances, off-road vehicles, trucks, as well as motorcycles, speedboats, AS335N and Augusta-Bell 212 helicopters. At any time, according to the first need, the special brigade can call on the active helicopters and aircraft of the Air Force at any time, such as the Paisk PC-7, S-70A-42 "Black Hawk", C-130 "Hercules", etc. In addition, the anti-terrorist brigade can also call in local civil aviation aircraft for special training once a week. Combatants typically wear ceramic bulletproof vests, black masks, gas masks, and special helmets when they move.

The standard equipment is a 5.56 mm assault rifle and a 9 mm Glock-17 pistol produced by the Austrian company Steyr, and the snipers use the SSG-69 sniper rifle produced by the Steyr company. In addition, it is also equipped with various types of firearms such as Glock-18 (automatic firing version of Glock-17), Glock-19 (truncated version of Glock-17), TMP, CISM300, SPAS12, Remington 870 produced by Steyr, MP5, M512, MZP1, MP88 produced by H&K in Germany, M36 produced by S&, AK-47 made in Russia, M16 in the United States, Glock-26, Glock-17T and so on.

Beginning in 2004, the "Cobra" special anti-terrorist brigade was commanded by 38-year-old Major Trebenref. Major Trebenreif, a graduate of the 187th class of the Austrian Federal Security Service Academy, has 9 years of special forces combat experience, having previously served in the Alpine gendarmerie and the Demolition Specialist Brigade, where he was involved in special missions to escort S$ euros for Austrian banks. The circumstances of the operations of the "Cobra" anti-terrorist special brigade are very secret, little is known to the public, and not a single member of the team has died in the entire history. After the reform in 2002, the transparency of operations increased, and during the six-month period from July 1 to December 31 of that year, the brigade carried out a total of 157 arrests, 60 searches, and 461 escort missions.

After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the number of escort missions of the Cobra Group, codenamed "Tiger", was greatly increased, and this mission was carried out since 1981, accumulating a wealth of experience and training many foreign team members. At present, the team escorts six flights a day, the specific route selection is determined on the principle of risk level based on operational intelligence, and there have been two successful terrorist hijacking attempts, including the 1996 smashing of a plot to hijack a Russian airliner, and all members of the team involved in this operation have been rewarded by the Russian side.