An Cosantóir February 2018 www.dfmagazine.ie
12 |
By Sgt WAynE FItzgERAlD
PhotoS Sgt KARl ByRnE AnD ARMn JAMIE MARtIn
Preparing to support An Garda Síochána
in the event of a major terrorist incident
O
n Wednesday 6th December 2017, Dublin was the
main focus as the Defence Forces conducted its larg-
est exercise in recent years, involving a number of
key locations around the city, including the airport and port.
Speaking of the exercise, Maj Gen Kieran Brennan (DCOS
Ops) said, "This was the Defence Forces' biggest deployment
so far in an exercise to ensure that we were fit for purpose."
He also referred to the back-up that the Defence
Forces provides on a daily basis to An Garda Síochána
(AGS) through activities such as the deployment of
bomb-disposal teams and providing armed escorts for
prisoners in transit.
Exercise Ullamh ('prepare'), conducted in conjunction
with AGS, involved over 500 military personnel and assets
from all three services, and was spearheaded by the Army
Ranger Wing (ARW). The genesis of the exercise stemmed
from the new cabinet sub-committee on security, 'Commit-
tee F', which directed that multi-agency exercises should
be carried out in response to the recent wave of terrorist
attacks across Europe and the UK.
The main aim of the exercise was to practice how the
Defence Forces would mobilise, deploy and conduct opera-
tions in conformity with standard operating procedures
(SOPs) if requested by AGS to assist in dealing with a major
terrorist incident.
The exercise provided an opportunity to practice various
operational and tactical training procedures (TTPs), includ-
ing deployment of the ARW, explosive ordnance disposal
(EOD) teams and engineer specialist search and clearance
(ESSC) teams, and included a DF joint task force (JTF) com-
manded by GOC 2 Bde, as the 'incident' had occurred within
his operational area of responsibility.
Exercise Ullamh also allowed the DF to evaluate its in-
teroperability with AGS, whose input included the on-scene
commander and tactical elements from the Emergency
Response Unit (ERU) and Armed Support Unit (ASU).
