1. What is RAINBOW?
WE ARE
FREEDOM'S ANSWER TO FEAR.
OUR DUTY BEGINS WHEN NEGOTIATIONS END
FOR WE DO NOT BARGAIN WITH TERROR.
WE STALK IT, CORNER IT, TAKE AIM,
AND KILL IT.
WE ARE TEAM RAINBOW.
(Ubi Soft ad for Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield - Sept 2002)

According to the background intel section in the R6 game, RAINBOW is a multinational special-operations taskforce operating under NATO supervision. RAINBOW was formed in 1999 to combat the rise of terrorist "free agents" following the collapse of the former Soviet Union. Operatives are drawn from the world's leading counter-terrorism organizations and are trained in the latest techniques in hostage rescue and covert operations. John Clark, a veteran officer of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), commands them. RAINBOW operates out of the headquarters of the British Army's 22nd Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment at Hereford.

2. What does the "Six" refer to in "Rainbow Six?"
In military jargon, "six" can refer to the leader of a group. The term "Rainbow Six" actually refers to the individual that leads Team RAINBOW, which is currently John Clark. In Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six novel, there is also a "Rainbow Five" which refers to the executive officer, Alistair Stanley.

3. Was the Rainbow Six game based on Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six novel?
Most people mistakenly assume that the game was based on the events in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six novel. However, the fact is that the game and novel were developed concurrently . For detailed information on the creation of Rainbow Six, read this excellent article by Rainbow Six's designer, Brian Upton .

Here is a quick summary about the events that led to the creation of the Rainbow Six concept:

When Red Storm was formed in the fall of 1996, the first game idea that was agreed upon was a game based on the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team. Clancy was part of the original brainstorming session and h hadn't yet decided to make it the subject of his next novel. Brian Upton writes:

"We eventually converged on the Rainbow Six back story in early 1997, but we didn't find out that we would be paralleling Clancy's novel until almost April. Fortunately, we'd been sharing information back and forth the whole time, so bringing the game in line with the book didn't involve too much extra work. (If you compare the game to the novel, however, you'll notice that they have different endings. Due to scheduling constraints, we had to lock down the final missions several months before Clancy finished writing. One of the pitfalls of parallel development.)"

4. How did John Clark come to lead RAINBOW?
Rainbow Six takes place in a world created by Tom Clancy that centers around Jack Ryan, the protagonist in the majority of his novels. For more information on this so-called "Ryanverse," check out the Tom Clancy FAQ .

Although the creation of Team RAINBOW is not detailed in the game, the novel explains that John Clark wrote a memo to top figures in the U.S. administration that identified the need for an ultra-elite multinational counter-terrorist unit to combat international terrorism in the post-Cold War world. He got the go-ahead to set up this "blackest of black-ops" project that very few top officials in the world know about.

5. What are the differences between RAINBOW in the Rainbow Six novel and the R6 series of games?
Novel:
a) Nationality: The vast majority of RAINBOW troopers are American and British. There is only one representative from Germany, France and Isreal respectively.
b) Gender: All RAINBOW troopers are male. The only females in the RAINBOW organization are administrative staff.
c) Size: RAINBOW is divided into Team 1 and Team 2, with ten operatives on each team.

Game:
a) Nationality: Although the intel in the game states that RAINBOW operates under NATO supervision, operatives come from many non-NATO countries such as Brazil, Egypt, and Russia.
b) Gender: Six of the thirty RAINBOW field operatives are female, which comprises 20% of the team.
c) Size: RAINBOW in the game has a larger pool of operatives to draw from (30 operatives in the latest Covert Ops game), but only work in teams of eight.

Also, besides John Clark and Domingo "Ding" Chavez, many of the characters that appear in the game do not appear in the novel. However, due to the popularity of the novel, four of the novel's characters crossed over to the game in Eagle Watch: Homer Johnston, Louis Loiselle, Eddie Price, and Dieter Weber.

6. Who are the Team RAINBOW characters that appear in the novel?
Commanding Officer: Brigadier General John Clark (USA, ex-SEAL, CIA)
Executive Officer: Colonel Alistair Stanley (UK, ex-SAS)
Executive Secretaries: Mrs. Alice Foorgate (UK), Mrs. Helen Montgomery (UK)
Intel: Bill Tawney (UK, ex-MI-6), Dr. Paul Bellow (USA, FBI)
Technical Staff: David Peled (Isreal, Mossad), Tim Noonan (USA, FBI)

Team Two, Rainbow
Major Domingo "Ding" Chavez - Assault
Sergeant Major Eddie Price - Assault
First Sergeant Julio "Oso" Vega (USA, Delta) - Assault (Heavy Machine Gunner)
Feldwebel Dieter Weber (Germany, GSG-9) - Sniper
SFC Homer Johnston (USA, Delta) - Sniper
Sergeant Louis Loiselle (France, DGSE) - Assault
Steve Lincoln (UK, SAS) - Assault
Scotty McTyler (UK, SAS) - Assault
Paddy Connelly (UK, SAS) - Demolitions
Mike Pierce (USA, Delta) - Assault
Hank Patterson (USA, Delta) - Assault
George Tomlinson (USA, Delta) - Assault

Team Two Secretary: Miss Katherine Moony

Primary weapon: H&K; MP10
Sidearm: .45 Beretta
Heavy Machine Gun: Laser-sighted 7.62mm M-60

Team One, Rainbow
Major Peter Covington (UK, SAS) - Assault
Master Chief Mike Chin (USA, SEAL) - Assault
Sergeant Mortimer "Sam" Houston (USA) - Sniper
Sergeat First Class Fred Franklin (USA, Army) - Sniper

MH-60K "Night Hawk" Helicopter Pilot: Lieutenant Colonel Dan "Bear" Malloy (USA, Marines)

7. Who created the different characters that appear in the Rainbow Six and Rogue Spear games?
We asked this question in an interview with RSE Lead Artist, Travis Getz . He responded that the producer and the designer creates character profiles of both the RAINBOW operatives and terrorists in each of the respective games.

8. Which Tom Clancy novels has Team RAINBOW appeared in?
Team RAINBOW has appeared in Tom Clancy's two latest novels:

Rainbow Six (1998): John Clark creates the RAINBOW organization. This novel chronicles the team's first few operations which lead them to the mastermind behind a plan of global destruction.

The Bear and the Dragon (2000): An Italian operative, Ettore Falcone, is added to the team roster. RAINBOW is called upon to train Russian Spetsnaz troops in CT techniques as well as disable Chinese nuclear missile silos.

9. Will Tom Clancy do a novelization of Rogue Spear?
Although Tom Clancy has done novelizations (often with a co-writer) of many of the Red Storm games (e.g. Shadow Watch, Politika, and Ruthless.com), the Rogue Spear story was the creation of the development team, and Tom Clancy will not be writing a novel based on this game.

10. Will there be a Rainbow Six III?
The R6 series is the most successful game franchise by Red Storm to date, selling more than 6.7 million copies worldwide as of early 2002. Red Storm's parent company, Ubi Soft, bought Red Storm in 2000 mainly on the strength of the success of the R6 series, and it was just a matter of time before the next-generation R6 title was announced. On March 4, 2002, Ubi Soft announced that a full sequel to Rogue Spear would be released in the fall of 2002. The name of the title is "Rainbow Six: Raven Shield". Check out the official site for more details.

11. How many games are there in the Rainbow Six series?
There are seven "official" titles so far in the R6 series: