I’ve recieved some questions about the two SWAT courses that we offer here at US Training Center. We previously offered the High Risk Warrant/ Hostage Rescue course which was a combo course involving both topics. The initial idea was to provide some core skills to the diverse group of Officers so we could operate live fire in the shoot house, then touch on some basic hostage rescue techniques.
Depending on the level of students, some courses were more of a basic CQB course and only occassionally were we able to attain all objectives.
We have broken the courses into two stages. SWAT 1 is designed to a Patrol Officer who has never worked in a large entry environment and inpart all of the rules of CQB to the point he/she is conducting entry into a live fire house with confidence and safety. It is a crawl /walk/ run approach to simple CQB environments all the way to complex tactical problems. The last day includes scenarios requiring assault planning and force on force scenarios where all skills are tested.
SWAT 2 reviews basic CQB, but moves on to more complex techniques of multiple entries and hostage rescue, day and low light with the introduction of gas masks as well. The use of incorperating presicion rifleman is also used. Additionally,vehicle takedowns (hostage rescue) and tubular assaults are rehersed and executed. It takes all of the core skills and builds on them while addressing team management for prolonged incidents.
Hope this clears things up and please feel free to conatct me with any questions.
A few pics from the last class.