Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six

Lore & Background

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six follows a secret international counterterrorist organization called 'Rainbow' (or 'Team Rainbow'; capitalization varies between 'Rainbow' and 'RAINBOW'). The series is set in the canon Tom Clancy's universe, which is mostly shared with Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon. The setting is in 1999 by the world's military, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies to combat the post-Cold War global rise in terrorism. Rainbow is a rapid reaction force consisting of 'operators' from nations and organizations worldwide, ranging from special operations personnel and police tactical unit members to intelligence officers and field experts, trained and equipped to be capable of counterterrorist professionals in the world, able to resolve any terrorist attack, hostage-taking, bombing, or raid that local authorities cannot handle in an effective, reliable, or timely manner. Rainbow is headquartered at Stirling Lines in Hereford, England, but has global jurisdiction and can base themselves at any intelligence agency's headquarters (such as the Pentagon) should their continued presence in a region be necessary.

Reader's Guide

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six is one of the most popular and most influential tactical shooter series, and early installments in the series helped propel the tactical shooter genre into the mainstream. Since the mid-2010s, a significant esports scene has formed around newer Rainbow Six games. As of 2016, over 32 million units have been sold. The first game was developed by Red Storm Entertainment while the novel was being written. Red Storm was acquired in 2000 by Ubisoft, which has continued to manage the series ever since. The series' setting, a secret international counterterrorist organization operating with plausible deniability, has been a consistent narrative framework. Newer installments have partially departed from the established setting, including a publicly visible tactical competition, recruitment of non-government operators, and deployment against extraterrestrials. The leader of Rainbow is designated 'Rainbow Six' (or just 'Six'), a designation created between the unit name and callsign (Rainbow) and Six, a radio call sign system used by the American military. The first Six was former U.S. Navy SEAL and CIA operations officer John Clark, who led the organization from its founding until his retirement. Since then, numerous individuals have taken the role of Six, the most recent being Harry Pandey.

Did You Know?

• The series is based on the novel Rainbow Six by American author Tom Clancy.
• The leader of Rainbow is designated 'Rainbow Six', a call sign derived from American military radio protocol.
• Rainbow's first leader was former U.S. Navy SEAL and CIA operations officer John Clark.
• As of 2016, over 32 million units of the series had been sold.