After the earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, the Spanish government ordered the deployment of 37 UME troops to assist in search and rescue in Port-au-Prince, the capital of the country. Their work allowed the rescue of over 30 bodies from the rubble. However, the experience in Haiti brought to light the need to equip these teams with the necessary materials and procedures to allow their quick integration with other international teams.

In November 2011, after an intense period of specialized preparation, in accordance with the guidelines of the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG), UME obtained the United Nations Classification as an international Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team. UME became the first military unit in the world in obtaining this classification, and one of the two Spanish speaking members, together with the emergency and response unit of the community of Madrid (ERICAM).

In 2015, the USAR team from the 4th emergency response battalion (BIEM IV) was deployed in Lantag after the earthquake in Nepal in April. The 47 troops worked as a United Nations classified team, not only in Search and Rescue missions, but also in the underpinning of 14 houses in Chapagaun and the protection of the cultural heritage in a nearby temple.

In April 2016, Spain deployed a USAR team in response to the earthquake in Ecuador. 45 UME troops and 12 ERICAM specialists worked together as one team in search and rescue, restoration of crucial infrastructures and protection of heritage in the west of the country.

In 2017, the Fight Against Wildfires capability played the leading role in five out of six international interventions. In late January, 56 troops from UME were deployed to the Biobío region in Chile to collaborate in the extinction of the wildfires that devastated the Latin American country. During the summer, several teams moved to Portugal four times to assist in the efforts to extinguish the wildfires in the neighboring country. The last international intervention of 2017 took place in Mexico, where a team of 54 USAR-capable troops traveled to its capital, Mexico City, on September 20, to collaborate in the search and rescue efforts following the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that severely affected different areas of the country on September 19.

In 2023, UME simultaneously collaborated in two foreign interventions:

On February 5, a contingent of 50 troops departed from Torrejón Air Base to Chile to cooperate, once again, to fight the wave of wildfires that were devastating the country. This time, the main objective of the deployment was to offer Chile's Government support with technical capabilities, such as analysis and advice on fighting wildfires and reinforcement of the Command-and-Control structure with drones as well as satellite links.

The day after, and just a few hours after the devastating earthquake in Türkiye and Syria, another aircraft from the Spanish Air Force landed in Turkey with a team of 55 troops (46 from the USAR team from the 2nd battalion, based in Morón de la Frontera, and 9 troops specialized in disaster assessment from Madrid). During the mission, the unit was able to find survivors and recover the bodies of those who had died in İslahiye and Nurdağı, both cities located in the province of Gaziantep. However, the most remarkable moment of this mission was the rescue of Leyla, Elif, and Muslim, a mother and her children, who were trapped for four days and endured a rescue operation that lasted more than 24 hours. They were found one day earlier through technical search using geophones and cutting and drilling work.

Later, on September 10, after Morocco accepted Spain’s offer, a contingent with 56 troops (46 from the USAR team from the 4th batallion, based in Zaragoza, and 10 troops specialized in disaster assessment from Madrid) departed from Torrejón Air Base in a A-400M belonging to the Spanish Air Force to Marrakech after the magnitude 6.8 on the Richter scale earthquake on September 8 in Iberdatene, near Amizmiz. UME’s USAR team performed 15 Search missions according to the daily assignments by Morocco’s Civil Protection.