Page 502 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
to Frank: “The observations were absolutely mind blowing; the visit and the useful contacts forged resulted in a momentous shift in detection training methods employed by the RAVC to this day.”
The RAVC renowned trainers returned to Cyprus and Afghanistan, armed with hundreds of new ideas to implement.
Breakthrough
The conventional training program was rapidly discarded, new equipment or training aids were purchased including specific DVDs demon- strating how Malinois searched. The team hurriedly developed a similar system to the process so successfully used by the NPA, although there were no ‘Spanish bricks’ in Afghanistan, the team ‘fashioned’ white plastic tubing or piping into a focus wall. In theatre, ‘Central Engineering’ designed and manufactured carousels and scent stands, all this had a massive improvement on the training concept. No longer was the team digging small plastic pots into the earth, but instead were using fishing line to hold either pieces of Kong or TNT on the ground creating zero disturbances for the dogs to home in on. In outline, the training consisted of training the dogs to find very small pieces of odour that would increase their drive. The dogs were taught search patterns separately, and once all the points were learned they were brought together; this included special to arm and environmental training that exposed the dogs to likely scenarios.
New vocabulary – ‘Go Seeks’ (forwards) and ‘Back Seeks’ to return – was adopted. The dog on indication remained in situ, while the handler used the VALLON to make their way to the dog and confirm the indication before withdrawing.
WO2 Holmes was very much aware of the pressure this put on the dog team: “Of course we didn’t identify what the dog was actually indicating on; it could have been wires, main charge or a pressure plate or battery pack. All this time we were trying to convince JFEOD that the concept could work, although by April the project had been running for six months and so far we had not deployed one dog on an operational search.” Frank spent much time on and off ‘planes providing capability briefs to try and prove the concept while still not really knowing if they would work. Having said that, he clearly believed the dogs would prove a success.
First HASD Concept Trial...
During a phone call to Lt Col Mark Morrison RAVC at MoD in London, it was agreed that the first
significant concept trial was to be two ‘BARMA’ dogs – now renamed High Assurance Search Dog (HASD) – against eight of the current AES dogs that had been operating in theatre for three-months.
All the assessments were ‘double blind’ with explosive and pressure plates laid just under the surface in the purposely constructed compounds of the BARMA lane. Frank Holmes had, quietly to himself, already predicted the impending result; not one of the air-scenting AES dogs found any of the six concealed devices. The BARMA/HASD found all six.
The trainers ‘marketed’ the concept to the handlers from 101 MWD Sqn and reiterated that they were there to look for weapons and explosives and not in a high assurance role looking for buried IEDs. It is essential to note there were some outstanding AES dogs that would naturally ground scent, but the capability as a whole was not designed for the threat of Pressure Plate Improvised Explosive Devices (PPIED) in Afghanistan. This should not be seen as an imperfection of the dog, the handler or the training it was a completely different method of Tactics, Techniques and Procedures being applied to a very different circumstance when deploying the HASD concept.
This pioneering team continued to develop and refine the training. Although very pleased with the progress, the trainers were down to two (Turbo and Bixie) of the original seven and there were significant concerns surrounding how the dogs would perform once the temperatures began to soar in the arid environment.
Not only were there the natural obstacles to overcome, such as the heat; there were institu- tional difficulties to face too. There were some, within the Corps, who remained unconvinced that the Malinois breed was rightfully employed in a Search capacity. This level of scepticism was based on the direct comparison that it might have on AES dog teams in theatre – at that time they represented 50 per cent of deployed personnel.
On top of that, many of the AES dogs had failed licensing twice because they failed to locate a device and the other difficulty was that some RE were at variance regarding how the concept should be used on operational tasks.
Not an easy time from all sides.
Happily, the day arrived and not even a low-flying C-17 could stop the dogs proving the concept in front of representatives from JFEOD, DSTL and TMWDSU.
HASD Teams Licensed for Theatre
By June 2009, Lt Col Bob Snowdon, having viewed
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