RAP4 At Best in the West SWAT Challenge
RAP4 is proud to have been a part of the Best in the West SWAT Challenge held recently by the Santa Clara County (California) Sheriff's Department. This invitational competition brought together SWAT-certified tactical law enforcement officers from across the West, to compete in live-fire matches that tested their marksmanship and teamwork, overall physical fitness and mental acuity under stress. The only thing missing was force-on-force work...
...so we brought along a booth full of 468s, RAP4 handguns, and the accessories that make our equipment truly as real as it gets. Between matches the officers had a chance to check out our state of the art 468, and marvel at how well it mirrored the weight, balance, and controls of the duty-issue weapons they spent the competition with. We had plenty of professionals first mistake our paintball gear for duty-issue firearms, their eyes widening when they learned the awesome fact that our equipment is all compressed air powered, less lethal...and perfectly suited to force-on-force training.
The competitions at Best in the West included the Jungle Trail, which required teams of two to follow the trail of a fugitive through thick brush as they encountered hostage targets and neutralized bad guy targets, detected booby traps and were timed for speed (as well as scored for accuracy). Tactical teams had to clear a SWAT live-fire house after forcing their way into it, using coordinated movements to safely navigate the structure while taking out all the hostile targets. Snipers even had to defeat a series of obstacles and running challenges interspersed with precision long range shooting. The competitions were made as realistic as possible, to determine who is the Best in the West.
They also served as a grand meeting of the minds of the best tactical operators in the west, as they observed each other utilizing slightly different tactics and learning refined techniques...and seeing what actually works, works even better, or doesn't work at all. Between the matches they talked about gear and training, about calls they've been on and how real-world tactical situations are solved.
Then they came past the RAP4 booth, where we joined the discussion and steered it towards force-on-force training. It's only relevant, we all agreed, when that training is as real as it gets - with real people shooting real projectiles at you in real environments, with equipment that really duplicates the point of aim and controls of your gear. We're proud to offer equipment that fits that training role perfectly, and to network with professionals to set up exactly that sort of dynamic training.
Then we discussed the role of the 468 and related RAP4 gear as less lethal munitions platforms, and things got really exciting. Cops love gear...and our gear is the state of the art for their training and crowd control. It was a great time to be in Santa Clara County, and a great event we're proud to support.
RAP4 - As Real as it Gets!
2013-10-2 17:11:36
