In VIP Protection instruction, we study techniques for carrying out an explosive recce on a vehicle, to convince trainees to never leave the VIP vehicle unsecured. In fact, to truly carry out a thorough explosives recce it’s necessary to take the vehicle to a maintenance facility and raise it for a careful check of its undercarriage. But this is time-consuming and expensive, and normally only justified when the vehicle has been out of the team’s control. The best way to prevent a vehicle explosives recce is to have the vehicle under constant observation by the driver or another member of the team, and/or have it in a locked garage with video surveillance and alarm systems in place.
Nevertheless, members of a protective team need to know the basics of carrying out an explosives recce since we do not live in a perfect world and they might be assigned a vehicle on relatively short notice. It’s understood that members of protective teams are not EOD specialists, although a team member might have that training. The job of team members is to look for any indications that the vehicle has been booby-trapped or that a device has been installed, then to get everyone away from it and call for EOD personnel.
