New naval unit,
VICTORIA, B.C. — The highspeed boat filled with heavily armed sailors skims through the waves, then jams up alongside an unidentified ship that has entered Canadian waters.
The sailors scramble to board the vessel and quickly fan out. One group searches cabins and passageways; another is confronted by a man with a pistol. The gunman ignores orders to drop his weapon as Canadian sailors train their C8 assault rifles on him.
There is a crackle of gunfire and the man slumps to the deck, hit several times by bullets from three C8s. The sailors move past his crumpled body to continue searching the ship.
Minutes later, the gunman stands up: his heavily padded uniform has protected him from the strikes of the lowpowered simulated bullets fired by the sailors.
This is a practice exercise for a new Royal Canadian Navy unit designed to deal with drug dealers, pirates and terrorists on the high seas.
The Citizen was given an exclusive look at the unit — the Maritime Tactical Operations Group (MTOG) — which is in its infancy but is expected to expand to between 85 and 100 personnel over the next several years.
“By creating a small unit, we’re able to be flexible and adjust to evolving threats,” says Lt.-Cmdr. Wil Lund, the officer in charge of MTOG.
Royal Canadian Navy commander Vice-Admiral Mark Norman gave the green light to the development of the unit last year.
While the navy already has boarding parties, they are made up of regular members of a ship’s crew. Such duties, however, are secondary for those sailors.
The navy uses the teams to conduct boardings on what it calls “vessels of interest.” Identities of those on such ships are checked and the cargo examined.
But officers taking part in recent naval deployments such as Operation ARTEMIS — Canada’s participation in counterterrorism and maritime security operations in the waters around the Middle East — recommended establishing a full-time dedicated unit that would be capable of conducting boardings in cases where the threat could be higher.
It was one thing for naval boarding teams to check out a fishing boat in the Arabian Sea, another to come face-toface with Somali pirates brandishing AK- 47s and rocket- propelled grenades, or a drug boat whose armed crew wasn’t keen on surrendering its illegal cargo. The navy’s existing boarding teams will continue their duties, but MTOG will be used on riskier missions.
Norman also has plans to use the unit to train boarding parties from other navies around the world.
Training and selection for MTOG began last year, with the unit recruiting both fulltime and reserve force sailors.
In early June 2015, its first 10-man team went to sea with HMCS Winnipeg, which will take part in counter-drug operations in the Caribbean. After that, Winnipeg will head to the Mediterranean Sea to be assigned to a NATO naval task group.
Selection and training for a second MTOG team will begin later in the summer.
Lund says applicants are screened over five days, with an emphasis on physical fitness and maturity. “They have to have a personality that is very calm but also able to work in a team environment,” he says. “They also need to be able to make rapid decisions in a high-stress environment.”
The three-month intensive training regime is focused on precision shooting, hand-tohand combat, interrogation techniques, advanced medical skills, the planning of missions and identification of im- provised explosive devices.
The job itself is physically demanding: trying to board from a moving boat to another moving ship in choppy seas, either by scaling ropes or climbing ladders, is exhausting.
Add to that the fact it is not uncommon for team members to be loaded down with 30 kilograms of gear, including their assault rifles, pistols, radios and bulletproof vests.
“The real challenge is once you get up on board you can’t be completely exhausted,” says Lund. “You’ve got to be able to calm yourself and carry on with your duties.”
Later, the unit will add “insertion” from helicopters — sliding down ropes from the aircraft to the deck of a ship — to their training.
Lund says the unit isn’t covert but it is being designed to be capable of working with Canadian special forces. The Ottawa-based Joint Task Force 2 is responsible for handling maritime counter-terrorism missions, although it can draw expertise from other organizations within the special forces command.
“We would be able to act in a supporting role to the special operations task force when they came out,” says Lund, who himself served 15 years with Canadian special forces.
MTOG has been equipped with highly modified rigidhulled inflatable boats known as special operations RIBs. Unlike the regular inflatable boats operated by the navy, these are a lot faster, outfitted with advanced electronics and radar, and are considered more manoeuvrable.
Those operating the boats need special skills not only to chase down and intercept a moving vessel, but to keep the RIB alongside and stable as team members climb aboard their target.
Service in MTOG is attractive to those in the navy looking for an unusual job, say sailors who qualified for the unit. Team members don’t get any extra pay. Training is tough and the days can be long.
Leading Seaman Morris, 26, said he was attracted by the uniqueness of the maritime tactical operations group (navy officers asked that his first name not to be printed, for security reasons).
“It’s pretty one of a kind,” he says. “I’ve done martial arts, and competed for a couple of years. So the close-quarter battle, the hand-to-hand contact definitely appealed to me.”. There are no complaints. It’s the type of action team members say they joined up for. “We always try to suit up and go work on our skill sets as often as we can,” says Morris.