A SPECIALIST Army bodyguard unit showed off its skills during a conference for colleagues in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
The British Army’s Royal Military Police (RMP) Close Protection Unit hosted the conference at its Longmoor base, near Liphook.
The conference provided an insight into this specialist unit of the British Army and provided the opportunity to observe how it works collaboratively alongside its NATO partners.
The duties of the RMP Close Protection Unit are akin to that of a bodyguard responsible for the close security and protection of senior military figures, civil servants and diplomats both within the UK and overseas.
Demonstrations of the unit’s capabilities included individual bodyguard ‘reaction to attack’ including the use of unarmed and armed tactics in a series of evolving scenarios.
There were first-hand demonstrations on how a team would clear a building, in one case a purpose designed training house replicating the residence of an ambassador.
In another sequence, the close protection teams illustrated vehicle drills when coming under sustained attack from a would-be assassin which included tactical driving and extraction from the ambush.
The purpose of this forum was to enhance the capabilities of NATO Military Police (MP), foster inter-operability, and provide expertise on MP activities for the development of MP standards and capabilities to support cooperation in accordance with the alliance’s strategic concept.
In addition to the replicated real life scenarios, blank and simunition rounds were used throughout the demonstration to make the situations more realistic.