Secret Army unit completes exercise in North Otago

Press, 25 September 1987, Page 2

Secret Army unit completes exercise in North Otago

By

DAVE WILSON

The most secret unit in the New Zealand Army has just completed a fourday exercise near Oamaru, practising coun-ter-terrorist tactics.

The Army counter-ter-rorist group, comprising the Special Air Service, and communications and intelligence experts, was joined by a six-man police negotiating team for the exercise at the former Campbell Park school at Otekaike, in the Waitaki Valley. Major Bruce Morrison,

the Armed Forces public relations officer for the South Island, said few details of the exercise were publicly available.

Details of the tactics used by the S.A.S. coun-ter-terrorist unit were a closely guarded secret as were the identities of the men and the specialist equipment they used. Major Morrison said an aspect of the exercise was to test the deployment of the S.A.S. unit from its Papakura base, and the logistics of working some distance from the base while maintaining effec-

tive communication links with Wellington and Papakura.

Medical and communications personnel from Bumham formed part of the Army group while R.N.Z.A.F. Hercules and Iroquois aircraft were used in transport and support roles. Major Morrison said the exercise had a scenario where terrorists took several hostages and came under siege in a building.

“In such a situation the police negotiating team would be called in first

and it would remain a police operation unless the Government felt a more drastic course of action was needed, in which case the S.A.S. would become involved.”.

Although he assumed the S.A.S. would have stormed the old school building, this was an assumption because such details or even who won the confrontation had not been divulged. The police and Army units returned to their home bases yesterday afternoon.