The ATLAS Network, a European Union consortium of 38 police tactical units throughout Europe, held a counter terrorism exercise in Komarno, Slovakia which consisted of over 200 participants who were put to the test in a series of complex tactical scenarios. The Slovakian authorities prepared 6 different training scenarios for the police intervention units from Austria, Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, Slovenia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The scenarios which ranged from hostage situations to terror raids featured some select specialized equipment belonging to some of the regional tactical units, to include the MARS RDD and ARC Elevated Tactics Systems. The MARS (belonging to Austria EKO Cobra) and ARC (belonging to Brandenburg SEK) were used by operators from multiple units to access 2nd & 3rd floor entry points during the hostage rescue scenarios, which allowed them to bypass the 1st floor, which was heavily barricaded and booby trapped.
This exercise presented the opportunity for all the participating units to work together to improve the effective operational readiness of agencies across Europe when faced with a terrorist threat or mass hostage situation.
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