EROK team at Swiss Raid Commando 2009 The 18th edition of the SWISS RAID COMMANDO (www.src.ch) was held from 24-27SEP 2009 on French and Swiss territory: the Chablais Valaisan, Vaudois and Savoyard. This competition is a "commando" type exercise with nonstop action during 48 hours. The raiders were competing in patrols of 4. There were both active and reserve military personnel and also teams from police and border guards. There were several female competitors but only one fully female team that was from Norway with respectable result of 21 st ranking. All together 150 teams from 19 countries participated the SRC. The SRC unfolded in three distinct phases: the "Physical" phase, which was followed by the Technical phase and the "Action" phase with a tactical mission. The Swiss Armed Forces mobilized approximately 3000 men to organize the event and setup the infrastructure for the competition. The EROK team was competing at the SRC for the 4 th time, the previous results were: 2003 47 th ranking;
2005 16 th ranking with a special prize from the Commander of the competition for the best time at an obstacle course; 2007 5 th ranking with the 1 st prize for the Action phase. Members of the EROK team on the picture: ltn Kaido Ruul, cpt Raul Hindov, 2 nd ltn Alar Nigul, 2 nd ltn Tiit Riisalo. Wednesday, 23SEP On Wednesday September 23, 2009, we registered to the competition in the barracks at Sion and received the Swiss rifles and other material from the organizers. Then we were accommodated in a bomb shelter under a theatre in Savièse with very tight circumstances as 26 men were sleeping in a 20 sq m room. Thursday, 24SEP Saturday, 26SEP Thursday September 24 was the training day for the foreign teams. We had a chance to zero our rifles, train with Panzerfaust III and explosive materials and they also briefed us about the topographic maps of Switzerland. We were in competition clothing and carried all our equipment as there was no return to the shelter before the end of the competition. After the training day we returned to Sion for the opening ceremony in the city s main square. From there we were taken to the Barbara barracks of Sion for the last supper before the competition. Then they gave us a short and precise briefing about the first phases and around midnight all the teams were put on trucks to move deep into French territory.
The teams were divided into pairs with a task to run back to Switzerland along two different routes. The routes were supposed to be equal but the northern route proved to be more difficult so they were given bicycles to cover the final 7 km and the teams gathered in Aigle approximately at the same time. The first Physical phase was night orienteering with mass start and 3 checkpoints, the distance was about 22 km and during the first 5 km we climbed from 1000 m to 1900 m and then descended to the Rhone valley at 400 m. We were mostly running except the steepest climbs at the summit and reached Aigle in 4 hours being the first team united. There was no break at this phase, we fixed our Swiss Army bikes and started the Technical phase. We were given a map and the description of 50 check point stations. In each station there was an exercise with the possibility to earn points (from 200 to 1500). The themes of the exercises were as follows (the stations we visited are in bold): Dive into a pool and retrieve as many objects as possible within a given time Change the wheels of a vehicle as fast as possible 700 points from maximum of 800 Identify armored vehicles and aircraft with silhouette type image 200/300 Destruction of objects with exercise explosives 800/800 Engage many targets of reduced size and combat them with assault rifle with limited ammunition in a given time Unassemble and reassemble weapons as quickly as possible 125/500 Engage fixed targets with a shotgun within a given time and distance Neutralize guards, then liberate a pilot while using a HK MP5 to neutralize two groups of adversaries 800/800 After having done a fitness run, shoot an adversary with a 9mm pistol while minimizing collateral damage Guard shoot 25m duel style shooting with pistol Hit an mobile animal target with hunting weapon within a given time Do a rope course and rappel as fast as possible 900/1000 Report on a plan the observations from and exploration vehicle in movement Destroy targets with TOW II simulator Perform CPR on a dummy 350/500 Crossing a mine field, identifying, avoiding and defusing the traps Save and help a wounded person 250/800 Complete the BMX obstacle course on a bike 320/800 Climbing and rappelling 1125/1125
Engage fixed targets at various distances with a 5,6mm machine gun 600/600 Hit multiple targets with an assault rifle and 40mm grenade launcher 350/400 Take a position and combat fixed and mobile targets with anti tank weapon Panzerfaust (7,5mm) 450/600 Complete the NATO obstacle course as a team within a given time 250/300 Precision shooting from 25m on A-type target 145/200 Precision shooting in a range from 300m on A-type target with '57 assault rifle and mousquetons 115/400 Transmit information within the patrol by sign and radio 500/500 Compete a course by building a path with wooden planks 450/500 Combat various targets with a 12,7mm machine gun simulator from a armored vehicle with fixed wheels 560/800 Climb down from a tower by rappelling and climb back 800/800 Complete a course balanced on suspended elements 1100/1200 Find objects in a dark room to solve an enigma Precision shooting in a range from 300m with '90 assault rifle with optics 1140/1500 Precision shooting in range of 25m Speed shooting in range from 50m Precision shooting in a range with an air gun Crossing a course in rough terrain in shortest time 1000/1000 Arrow shooting in a target 0/400 Precision shooting in a range from 300m on A-type target with '57 assault rifle and mousquetons 287/400 Complete a determined aquatic and land course with pneumatic boat in the shortest time Create a floating pack and complete a course Climb a wall, move along a passage to join a rappel 900/1000 During the given 11 hours the EROK team managed to visit 25 stations and collect 13,317 points from the maximum of 17,025. The best team at the Technical phase Gren Mont/Char (CH) collected from 24 stations 13,441 points from the maximum of 15,625. According to the results in the Technical phase the teams were given a chance to choose a mission for the Action phase. So the best teams could choose to most difficult, therefore dearer missions such as liberations of hostages. The other missions were raids, ambushes and sabotages. The difficulty of mission depended also on the distance of in- and exfiltration. The EROK team was among the top 10 teams at that stage and so we chose the most challenging mission of liberation of hostages.
We were supposed to be taken to the starting point by a helicopter but due to the weather we were transported by a truck. The operation took place in the mountainous region of the Chablais Vaudois around the lake Hongrin. The territory was hostile as the opposing forces were patrolling the main roads and guarding certain sectors of the terrain. In our disposal there was very little time in order to approach the objective, accomplish our mission and fall back to the point of extraction. The approach took us about 4 hours it was ca 15 km with 400 m climb mostly on rough terrain. Then we reached a friendly partisan who advised us about the terrorists. We got also the equipment bullet vests, masks and guns (3 pistols and 1 MP5) with color bullets. With this equipment we had to run 800 m to the target house. We got into the house through a window. The house was a single flour building with 12 rooms. Some rooms were dark some had dim lights. We used the Lupine Betty lights in the darkness. To our astonishment there was deafening boisterous music blasting in the house (Rammstein Feuer frei! ). From 4 terrorists 1 put down his pistol and surrendered swiftly with the other two it took us some exchange of bullets to finish with them. The one who gave up after the first shot we fired raised his hands and it would have been mistake to shoot him then. The hostage was heavily tied with tape and it was toil to untie him. Luckily we noticed that he s mined with a grenade under him and we defused the trap. The short brief after the mission revealed no wounds on our side and a successful release of the hostage. If we or the hostage had got wounds and we would have treated them with bandages then the penalty points would have been smaller. From the house we had to run another 800m in the time limit to return the equipment of the mission. But that wasn t the end of the competition, from there we continued with the exfiltration of 15 km with a steep descent of 600m. Along the way we saw the opposing forces but managed to avoid the confrontation. We saw also a very professional team (CH) moving along a road ready to engage any threat. The last part of the exfiltration was a short trip with a helicopter Super- Puma. Right after the finish line there was waiting us a delicious meal prepared at the site from entire lambs grilling on fire. Sunday, 27SEP
At the closing ceremony in Montreux with Switzerland's highest ranking officers in attendance we got the 1 st prize of the overall ranking making history as first ever non Swiss team winning the competition. We shared a brunch and the experience of the Raid with other participants while cruising Lake Geneva on a boat.