Lab team excels at U.S. SWAT championship

Performing under fire — live fire — is the essence of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team competitions and the Laboratory's Special Response Team can count itself among the nation's elite.

LLNL's Special Response Team (SRT) finished third at the U.S. National SWAT Championships, an international competition, narrowly ceding to the first place team from Canada and second place counter-terrorism team from Germany. DOE teams performed well with Hanford finishing fourth and NNSA's Office of Secure Transport (OST) team sixth.

The annual championship, which includes some of the world's best SWAT teams, was held at the U.S. Shooting Academy in Tulsa, Okla. June 18-20. This year, 18 teams competed in the championship. The competition consists of eight "live-fire" events with teams competing head-to-head. Officers compete in full tactical gear and are provided limited rounds for each event.

"We've performed well in these competitions in recent years," said Kevin Morris, coach and trainer for the Lab team. "We can now say we have one of the best teams in the country."

Morris attributes the SRT's strong performance to pride, intensified training and upgraded equipment. "We've approached preparation differently and picked up the pace of training," he said.

"Finishing in the top tier of this competition is a major accomplishment," said Chuck Johnson, head of the Protective Force Division. "Of course, they were disappointed. They compete to win. Many of the other organizations we compete against have a lot of people to draw from. We're one of the smaller agencies, but we use our training skills to be competitive."

Among the eight events in the competition were: officer rescue; barricaded gunman; bus assault; Glock pistol relay; and Taser team takedown. The Lab SRT placed first in the barricaded gunman event and second in three others. Scoring is based on time elapsed and accuracy in hitting targets; the lowest score wins.

"The competition is a matter of seconds and hitting the target," Johnson said. "It's one bullet for one target. Officers only get one shot for each target."

LLNL finished just one point behind the German GSG-9 team, a counter terrorism team mobilized after the massacre at the 1972 summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. The top team with 16 points was Bruce Power from the Canadian equivalent of DOE. GSG-9 scored 21 and LLNL 22 points (the last place team finished with 132 points).

The GSG-9, which stands for Grenzschutzgruppe 9 or Border Guard Group 9, is widely regarded in the world law enforcement community as the model for counter terrorism police work.

Johnson said that in addition to the contest, these championship events usually include specialized training by experts and an opportunity to see and test new law enforcement equipment.

"I'm very proud of our special response team, which is proving itself among the nation's elite squads," said Dave Leary, head of the Security Organization. "Their performance is a credit to the Laboratory, NNSA and DOE."

For more information, check the U.S. National SWAT Championships Website.